The first DIY that’s been on my mind is putting in a home network. Of course, I already have the wireless setup which is adequate but I really want to have LAN ports in the walls of every room so I can set up cameras and servers and what not. Also, with wireless I’m limited to 54Mbps. I could get a 80Mbps Wireless Router but I’m skeptical about whether it would be any improvement. Anyone have any good advice before I start punching holes in the walls?
I believe this is a pre-N router since .11n has not been ratified yet. You will need a pre-N client card to work with the router. If the router can be upgraded to a real .11n rather easily, it should be ok. Or better yet, just wait for the real .11n next year.
Are you thinking about using something like a NAS for storing video files? Because otherwise there really isn’t a lot of benefit for such large transfer rates. What is your max download speed from your provider? Far below 54Mbps I would imagine. I think cameras are fairly low bitrate so you would be ok there. Plus you would probably want to go with a wireless camera anyway for placement flexibility. So really, I don’t see a ton of reasons to upgrade except for the perfectly reasonable excuse of just having cool stuff!
Tania, I see what you mean. My mac’s wireless won’t really work with it..
Robbie, my internet connection is 100Mbps down/upstream and I want to take use all of it!
FiberChannel baby! Cut a hole in each wall and put in a FiberChannel box then run the wires along the baseboard or inside the walls. You will neevr get the performance you want out of today’s wireless stuff.
100M up and down. Wow, I had no idea. Then a gigabit switch and all the trimming is in order.
We get excited when Comcast sustains a 6M connection. We are so behind the rest of the world.
Yeah, Japan is insane these days. Fiber is really fast. On a good day it might take me 15 minutes to DL an episode of LOST.
Great tip:
Try looking into using your electrical wiring as your LAN. I heard about this a while back and had completely forgotten about it untill I saw it at a friend’s house last week. My ISPs apparently installs these when it isn’t possible to use wireless or drill holes everywhere. Think about it, every electrical socket is a LAN connection :) I seem to recall that the speeds were good..
Don’t have the time right now to look into it myself and sadly can’t give you any numbers on it. Just something that might be worth checking out! Good luck.
Damn, I want fiber too. There are some conflicts in the Netherlands between local governments and cable-companies about the fiber infrastructure. They all want to make money off it, and take eachother to court, so we as costumers and bussinesses have to wait. So far there are only a few universities and towns that have fiber connections…