Some general advice to a beginner please

[Perfection]

Atm, i basically use my PC for the internet and a few games, considerably more than the average person (The average person of course being one who can use IE, Word and very little else) but still probably no where near as much as some of the people on this forum no doubt.

I want to get into coding and doing more with my PC. Particularly creating a network for my house next year for games and such, and a private games server for friends etc.. All i want is a suggestion where to start on this. What books should i read? and what subjects should they be on? (im not too wise on terminology remember) Is there a better place for me to look other than textbooks?

Cheers

[Madina]

To create a network you can find many many resources on the internet. But if you just wanna network 2 computers you need 2 NIC's (Network Internet Cards) and an ethernet RJ45 cable (straight through if i am correct). You wont need an NIC if your computer(s) have ethernet connections already (maybe on the motherboard). But if you want to network your computers easily i suggest using wifi (wireless networks) as you dont have to mess around with cables etc. (a more expensive option though)

Someone will probably correct me on some of this but at least i tried

Madina

[pablissimo]

Madina's right, you can google for home networking tutorials or if you felt like it you could just buy a home networking kit which generally contain a couple of network cards and a hub to connect them to.

As for the setting up of servers the documentation for the games that you want to host will tell you all you need to know for that.

[Perfection]

Ok then, but what about coding. Start with a simple text based game (I dont expect, nor want, to create 3d stuff) like PA used to be, what kind of code is that written in? I understand there are different languages, which is the best to know, or can they all be used to do the same thing?

[SYMM]

You could do something very-like PA in PHP, a pretty simple language to get to grips with.
You basically need to install PHP, MySQL and Apache on your computer, and then write code, that on the whole, dictates what is output to the browser.
You can start simple, with an address-book type thing or something, then maybe create some sort of account-based "portal" (something that requires logins/registrations and so on), and thats the basics of a PA-clone done for you.

[edit]
There's plenty of PHP tutorial sites online if you search

[SyPh0n]

Originally Posted by Madina

To create a network you can find many many resources on the internet. But if you just wanna network 2 computers you need 2 NIC's (Network Internet Cards) and an ethernet RJ45 cable (straight through if i am correct). You wont need an NIC if your computer(s) have ethernet connections already (maybe on the motherboard). But if you want to network your computers easily i suggest using wifi (wireless networks) as you dont have to mess around with cables etc. (a more expensive option though)

Someone will probably correct me on some of this but at least i tried

Madina

http://web.belkin.com/config/network...d=1095&catid=6

Very good to get you some ideas of how to make a network. Does it all for you based on specifications. I used this as a starting block, then replaced part-for-part (of equal spec) in different manufacturers. Or you could stick with Belkin's products.

[Madina]

Im a huge fan of belkin products. Before we got our belkin wireless router and wifi cards at home, we used belkin NIC cards. Also have a belkin usb hub thingy (cant remember the proper name)

BELKIN ARE GREAT (IMO)

[SyPh0n]

Originally Posted by Madina

Im a huge fan of belkin products. Before we got our belkin wireless router and wifi cards at home, we used belkin NIC cards. Also have a belkin usb hub thingy (cant remember the proper name)

BELKIN ARE GREAT (IMO)

Yep, although all my bits for my (standard) network aren't Belkin. I 'used' them to design it though. Just bought some high quality no-name cables (hahah) and a Netgear BB router. Does the job for me - might try tweaking it's settings to get 90% of the 1mb line though

[slick]

for a text based game, i suggest looking on the net (i suggest dogpile.com) for text based games already of the shareware market.

but if you want you can always go to my webpage and take a look at what i've done. (no plug intended)

[meglamaniac]

Also, to connect 2 pc's directly without a hub/switch/router you want a crossover cable, NOT just a normal patch cable.