Linksys HPN100 manual Multiple Network PC Cards, Connecting to an Existing Network

Multiple Network PC Cards

The following information is supplied to you for reference only.

Linksys does not provide technical support on the setup or troubleshooing of multiple Network PC Cards or enabling or setup of routing in an operating sys- tem. Please refer to the documentation of your operating system in order to find out more on how to setup two Network PC Cards in a PC to communicate with each other. The phoneline card can use either its RJ-45 Fast Ethernet con- nection or RJ-11 phone wire connection at any given time. Both connections can not be used at the same time.

Connecting to an Existing Network

If you already have a Fast Ethernet network and would like to add the Phoneline card to this network, you need to use the card’s RJ-45 connector and connect the card to the existing Fast Ethernet network. It is not possible to con- nect the card via RJ-11 directly to an existing Ethernet or Fast Ethernet net- work. This can be done, but it requires the operating system to be able to route the packets from an Ethernet card to the HomeLink card. Two cards have to coexist in a PC (one Ethernet card and one HomeLink card). The operating sys- tem has to be able to route packets between Network PC Cards, otherwise the two different segments will not communicate with each other. Cable modems are often an exception. See the next section for details about cable modem sharing.

If you have an Ethernet or Fast Ethernet network running along side of a HomeLink phoneline network in your home, you may have noticed that the two networks of different speeds cannot communicate with one another. If you would like to share files, printers and Internet access between your HomeLink network and your 10/100 network, you can do so with a piece of hardware called a Bridge.

A bridge is a device that trasmits data packets from one type of network to another. The Linksys HomeLink Broadband Network Bridge connects your 10/100 network to your 1Mbps HomeLink network.

For more information about the HomeLink Broadband Network Bridge, visit the Linksys Web site at http://www.linksys.com.

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