skip to main |
skip to sidebar
It has to start somewhere. For me, it started with this. My "Spring Cleaning" doesn't involve any cleaning per se, at least not yet anyway! It starts with cleaning up my network. As I've documented over time; I have a lot of devices. In today's world, it's not just the computers that need a network connection, it's the Blu-Ray player and the TV as well. A week or so ago while burning up 5 hours of time giving an English benchmarking test, I engaged myself in the mental exercise of how I could make my home network better and more streamlined. I found that I didn't like my "back-end" home setup.
Back when I got it, the D-Link DIR-615 was the most "N" wireless router I could afford. Although it's since been replaced, it's not really the slower N-150 that I didn't like. It was the built-in 10/100 Ethernet switch. After I picked up a dual-band N-300 router that feeds WiFi to my newer laptops, this box moved to the office to serve WiFi to the other corner of the house and to give me extra Ethernet connections to attach client computers that come in for work. Over time, I've grown dissatisfied with the slower speed of this switch as compared to the Gigabit Ethernet of my home network "backbone". I also found that I had to install another WiFi access point in the front of the house (right next to the N-300 AP) because none of our Apple devices (tablet or phones) could connect to the Dual-band running at the faster 5ghz wave length! This was an old D-Link DI-624 that I had sitting in a box; so now, there were 3 network devices in the living room! I had previously added a switch there to give me enough ports.
This left me with a bit of a conundrum. I wanted a faster switch in the back of the house, a faster AP in the front of the house that the i-devices could connect to, and do it while cutting down the number of network devices. This is where an idea that I learned some time ago came into play. I don't remember when, but at some point in the past; I was looking for a switch, but found that they were more expensive than the ubiquitous all-in-one router/access point/switch that everybody buys. I resolved that by purchasing one of the latter and just turning off the DHCP function so it was simply a switch with a built-in access point..... which brings us back to the first image. That...... is a D-Link DIR-655 the high-end N-300 router that I couldn't afford back when I bought the DIR-615. It had/has all the bells and whistles including a 4-port Gigabit Ethernet switch! Now, several years down the road, I was able to pick it up on eBay for $13.16 after shipping.
So, yeah...... Party Like A Vulcan/Do The Happy Dance!!! I have Gigabit and faster WiFi in the rear of the house, plus, now having moved the DIR-615 to the front where it's has replaced 2 boxes, and gives me faster (N-150) that the i-devices are happy to connect to. The ousted Gigabit switch from the front? It's moving to the network cabinet where it will give the backbone 4 more wired ports, thus allowing me to finally terminate my son and daughters rooms with Ethernet!
In the computing world, networking is called plumbing... for obvious reasons. And, there are very few things in computing that I find more tedious than networking. However, like any home; very little gets done as long as there are outstanding networking/plumbing issues to resolve. Or in my case.... long put-off chores. So today was network day!
One of my ongoing annoyances has been the fact that the HTPC in our Master Bedroom connected via WiFi due to it's location. Although connection was "N", it was still wireless and far less throughput than advertised or specified. Luckily, a number of rooms in our house had "structured" wiring which included 2 Cat 5e and 2 RG6 runs. One of the Cat 5e is set up nominally as "telephone" service, and one RG6 is cable television. Therefore, what I needed to do was to terminate the other Cat 5e, but of course nothing is as easy as it sounds, especially when you rarely do it and don't have the specialized tools! So, after an hour or so of the joy that is terminating a new Ethernet cable of the correct length and "punch-down" into a keystone, I had direct wired connection to our house's backbone.
However, that wasn't the end of it. When we rearranged the bedroom (which allowed me connect the HTPC), I of course also had to rearrange the rear speakers of the surround sound as well. So that had to be run, connected and calibrated too.
But actually, my day of networking goodness didn't start there. I spent the majority of this morning doing the little things of "plumbing" like digging around inside my main router (D-Dlink DGL-4100) to set some reserved IP addresses for the printers among other things that I haven't gotten around to previously. Also, I had another little chore. Recently while on one of my little scavenging forays at the monthly computer flea market, I picked up a D-Link DWL-G730ap for the enormous investment of $5. If you aren't familiar with this little gadget, don't feel bad. D-Link never sold very many of them (although enough to create an updated version). Basically, it's a portable WiFi access point. On occasion, hotels and other facilities will have wired Internet via Ethernet, but not wireless, or worse yet, charge for it. Most of the "mid-line" hotels that we tend to stay at generally offer free WiFi, but the coverage is often spotty, but each room will normally have a wired port. So, this little gizmo makes for a cheap insurance policy for that situation. It would be awesome to have the new "N" version (DAP-1350), but I'll live with "G" speed at my price. Anyway, I spent some time this morning configuring it for our trip out of town next week.
I've also had a growing desire to do something about improving our wireless situation at home. Currently we have a DIR-615 150-"N" router set to access point duties in the living room, and an older DIR-624 "G" router in the opposite corner of the house doing the same job. The idea is for the 615 to serve the wife's and my ThinkPads, and the kids on the 624 since their rooms are on the other side of the house. Unfortunately, I haven't been terribly happy with the performance of the "N' router in either range or speed. So I found a ready made deal this weekend on eBay in the form of a DGL-4500. This is more advanced dual band version of the well thought of DIR-655. It will allow me to move the 615 into office and replace the 624. That's the plan anyway! I'll definitely post when I have the network improvements finished.
