It depends on how many users, what expansion plans you have in the future. If its just for a few home pc's etc.
First thing I would personally do is scrap the idea of using firewire for a network. Ethernet is the standard for a good reason, it works and is relatively painless to use.
If you’re looking at something fairly cheep, I would look at a netgear gigabit switch. You can run this at 10/100/1000. A 5port one i.e. GS605 can be had at about 25quid.
You can then look for network cards on your laptops, depending on your price range you can get either 100mb or gigabit cards. Both can be had fairly cheaply, just a quick look on dabs shows cardbus gigabit cards for between 25 - 30quid. Again the same for desktops, ethernet cards are dirt cheep.
Buy a bit of cat5(e), stick it all together, and you have a simple network.
Of course, you can then go down the route of installing sockets by your desk and running it all back to a central location and then using patch leads. It does make things neater, but if you’re doing things on the cheep its unneeded.
Dan
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