Hooking up 5 Receptors??

[bobsstudio]

Could someone please advise me on the correct ethernet cables and router to hook-up 5 Receptors to my PC?
This is all a brand new buy including the PC and I was told that 10/100 would be OK but the Muse site says Gigabit.
Should I use Cat 6 cables and which router should I be looking at?

Cheers

bobstudio
PS
I'm already hooked up with 10/100 Linksys 8 Port Hub and Cat 5's that came with the purchase.

[Hybernation]

Could someone please advise me on the correct ethernet cables and router to hook-up 5 Receptors to my PC?
This is all a brand new buy including the PC and I was told that 10/100 would be OK but the Muse site says Gigabit.
Should I use Cat 6 cables and which router should I be looking at?

Cheers

bobstudio
PS
I'm already hooked up with 10/100 Linksys 8 Port Hub and Cat 5's that came with the purchase.

Bob,
I'm no networking expert but here is my advice, based on my own experience with one receptor and two PC's (one master and one FXTeleport slave):

1) your computer probably/definitely has a gigabit ethernet card, therefore I think you SHOULD get a gigabit SWITCH. Note, you do NOT have to get a gigabit ROUTER for this, a switch is all you need. (So use a cat6 cable to connect your computer to the switch). You can get a Netgear GS108 8 port for about $75.

2) since the Receptors only have 100mbit ethernet in them, I think it's fine to use cat5 to connect THEM to the gigabit switch

3) using this config, your computer can talk FASTER to MORE receptors simultaneously (I am assuming you are going to use Uniwire to stream audio back to the host PC, if you are not then disregard this post, your current config will work fine ). Also, if you decide to hook in multiple PC's (or soon Mac's too) using FXTeleport, you'll already be set with the gigabit switch (which FXTeleport requires)

4) Set the IP thing on the receptor to MANUAL (not DFCP) and manually set ALL of the IP Addresses on each computer including the Receptors. I use 192.168.010.001 for the master PC and then 002, 003, 004 etc. for the receptor/slaves. And set the netmask on each to the same value (like 255.255.255.0). This way DHCP doesn't need to be used, and you can setup multiple shortcuts on your desktop for the Receptor remote software, each one pointing to a specific Receptor at one IP address (they launch and connect INSTANTLY this way rather than taking a few minutes and then making you SELECT a specific receptor). Also, you can NAME the shortcuts something meaningful like "Strings", "Horns", whatever. The shortcut should have a value such as:

"C:\Program Files\Muse Research\Receptor\Receptor Remote Control.exe" -shared 192.168.10.2:1

(The IP address followed by colon and "1". don't ask me, it just works)

5) if you want to connect your computer to the internet, I would use a separate network card to do this, thereby not exposing your SWITCH and hence your music LAN to the internet. I use a separate wireless 801.11g card to connect my master PC to the net, keeping it disabled all the time unless I need to surf.

Hope this helps,
John

ps. In reality, I don't think cat5 vs. cat6 cables matters not a hill of beans, unless the cable lengths get long, or so my networking friends tell me.

pps. Bob, dang it, did you REALLY buy 5 receptors. WOW! I'm so jealous.

[bobsstudio]

Now that's what I call a reply!!!
Extreemly informative and I will follow your advise.
Cheers John and yes I'm afraid I did buy 5...all hooked up through Uniwire.
The interesting thing will be how much more Grunt I will actually get at the end of the day.
The various libraries are a real pain to authorise in Receptor are they going to simplify in the future?
Again thanks John...

[Hybernation]

The interesting thing will be how much more Grunt I will actually get at the end of the day.

indeed. I find the latency on Uniwire a bit much for real-time playing. I tend to compose/track parts locally, then farm them out later to the receptor if I'm using uniwire. Without "fast freeze" functionality though, I think uniwire with only one receptor is a bit overrated/overkill. I have an audio card with lightpipe and spdif, so I can "slow freeze" 5 stereo Receptor tracks in once pass, and the latency is lower using MIDI instead of Uniwire.

The various libraries are a real pain to authorise in Receptor are they going to simplify in the future?

Absolutely can be very painful. Not sure it's gonna get easier. lots more plugs seem to being going to syncrosoft dongles, which Receptor cannot do at all, so at least it's good that the large Kontakt-based libs haven't gone this route.

FYI: there is another forum of "power users" that you might want to join at http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/receptorized/

Lots of good information/help there, and the fellow that runs it (Kermitjagger) is a real decent fellow.

[bobsstudio]

Cheers Hybernation
I'll check the other sites and the good thing is that there is a telephone that WORKS!! at Muse.