I noticed at least two of you guys, Curtis and Jimsiff, work in IT so I'm hoping you might be able to answer a fairly basic home networking question. I currently have four computers networked at home: my wife's laptop, my office pc, and my iMac are all wired through the lan ports on a 802.11g d-link wireless router. My HTPC is networked wirelessly from the living room through the same router. Now, I'm thinking about using an old P3 500 box collecting dust in the basement as extra stora for the HTPC.
I could put the new box in my office (I have one LAN port left) but then every time I wanted to play a song or movie that lived on it through the HTPC I'd be relying on the wireless connection. Probably be fine, but prone to occasional hiccups (all my media currently lives on the HTPC). What I'm wondering is whether the new box would show up on the network at all if I just connected it directly to the HTPC with a crossover cable run through the floor to my basement, which is by far the simplest wired option.
(Believe it or not, each of these computers have specific duties, less anyone think I'm just a total computer whore).