Splitting Broadband connection

[Doomsayer]

Hi everyone,  My Fraternity is thinking about getting our own cable internet service rather than use the schools.  My question is:  Can you split a 6 meg broadband connection 20 ways and still maintain decent service per person?  Just to be sure assume that there may be 18 of the 20 on at a given time.  some downloading or playing xbox live and so on.

also..  assuming this is possible.. what methods would you recommend to split the signal.

(please forgive an misuse of terminology, I'm not that familiar with networking etc...)

Thank you!!

[Deerpark]

I would say no, you will need more than a 6 mbit connection.
For decent speeds assuming some will want to play online and download I would say you need at least 20 mbit.
You will also need some pretty serious networking equipment to split the connection between 20 or more computers. Especially considering you probably will want to distribute the bandwidth fairly among those connected. You will most likely need to invest in an enterprise grade router/switch.

[viking]

Are those 6 Mbps guaranteed or it is an explanation in which they say "up to 6 Mbps"?
If you can afford more than 6 Mbps it would be better. Are you sure that sometime there will be 18 users connected to the internet?

I agree with Deerpark regarding the quality of the router - pay attention, the router has to deal with many connexions, it has to be a very good product (NOT a "for home" router, if more than 10 people will connect at the same time).

[Doomsayer]

Thanks for all your help guys.   we were deciding between getting a single service or a small business package for my fraternity.  It was really just to save a couple bucks if we were able to split the "up to 6mbps"    service enough ways..   I doubted it would work and my suspicions were correct.  so we actually got a decent deal for a small business package that will run 25 computers.   I thank both of you for your help..  And i believe the package comes with a business grade router...  or else we have a guy that updates networks in businesses like this and he can get us one cheap. 

Thanks again guys!!