Home network - need to set one up

[#1]

Personally I would put in a gateway pc, to handle the web cache and nas options, doesn't need to be expensive something like a low spec pc running <a href="http://www.amahi.org/how-it-works">Amani</a> a free OS that is web driven.

[#2]

Honestly all, the FTTP was only relevant because now I can finally stream video, something that was denied to me on ADSl. So, being able to stream, I was looking for a solution to tie all the PC's, TV's, gadgets together on a network.
The gateway PC sounds attractive as I also have a spare 1GHZ PC (XP) kicking around and was thinking whether to use that

[#3]

That would be fine as a server, web cache and printer serving for your network. Too slow for transcoding but that shouldn't be an issue.