Networking Thoughts And Planning
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Here over the course of the next few days to a week, I will be reworking my mom’s Internet/LAN setup to better meet her needs. Due to recent events, we are looking at reworking how my mom’s home office is setup and therefore, will be moving a number of computer related appliances to compensate the given changes.
Most of this move is expected to be more time consuming than difficult, as it simply means changing the location of her desk, PC, cable modem, router and so on. Yet despite this seeming rather obvious to tackle, there are some fairly heavy factors that I will be needing to consider as I take things on. First, the cable modem will be moved from a back room into what is currently her living room, behind the entertainment center. Where it will get interesting is how I end up getting the signal from the modem and router over to the PC once it is moved.
Sure, the likely two options would be either wifi or simply running cable. But for a variety of reasons, I am leaning with utilizing my own HomePlug devices as it eliminates the headaches of Wi-Fi, while not requiring me to run cables for Internet access either.
The second consideration I am faced with, is making the most of limited wall outlets. So this is likely going to translate into utilizing a new UPS in addition to another surge protector to make sure the equipment is provided with at least a basic level of power protection… not to mention providing me with some extra outlets to work with. Where it is going to get interest is making this happen while providing enough space for the typical HomePlug networking device. They tend to be rather large and also need direct wall outlet access — no cheating by connecting them to a surge protector is going to work here. And this becomes a problem when you are facing the grand total of one single outlet for EVERYTHING.
At the end of the day, we will make it work. And thankfully, we have enough resources to make this happen even if it means bowing to the reality of the situation and opting to purchase a wifi enabled router for her and also using one of my extra USB wifi dongles. While I have days where knowing how to do this stuff is more pain that pleasure, this month I think I am finding that being able to be a resource is really working out nicely.
4 Comments
Peter
March 18th, 2009
at 8:55pm
Have you thought of removing the powerpoints & replacing them with double or quad powerpoints?
Matt Hartley
March 18th, 2009
at 9:56pm
Peter: Great minds think alike. :)
This is something I was thinking about just today, it’s really a good idea and easy enough to do, actually.
Richard`
March 19th, 2009
at 7:00am
Just be sure you know BEFORE you start moving ANYTHING –
1) what else is on the same circuit as that one electrical outlet you have to work with & 2) you’ve added up the exititing load plus the projected future maximum load on that circuit - if a motor Furnace/garage door opener/microwave/ hair dryer/etc. is on that circuit, remember that the starting load will be higher than the running load.
For office equipment that needs to be always-available, it might be smartest to put in a separate dedicated circuit if possible ( tho the UPS should mitigate that greatly ).
Have fun !
Rich Snow
March 20th, 2009
at 5:55pm
I did a similar changeover in my home office using Netgear powerline adaptors to replace a wifi bridge setup. It is so much better than the old setup. Much easier to use, faster. But I confess that I never loaded the encryption software on my PC. That’s the only drawback - don’t want to load some weird junk into the network stack.