Your network setup

[Idontwantspam]

Is this on your home network or is that in the internet cafe?

My Internet place is my "home" , working from 09.00 (Open at 11.00) till 22.00 (mostly closing at 01.00) and that 7 days a week. But if you call a "home" the place where you sleep, then I have to delete my post I think...

And when I talk about my second home (including female friends ), then I have to make a bigger list

Heck, why not. Add your "home with females"

I suppose if that is your "home" then fine, but I just didn't want this to turn into "I manage a network with 50,000 PC's. PC 00001 has... [...] [8 pages later] PC 50,000 has..."

[Tripredacus]

Unfortunately, I live in an old house that doesn't have a lot of power outlets, so we can only have 2 PCs set up... and a port for a third (notebook) if needed.

Verizon DSL

|

Linksys BEFSR41

| |

| XP Pro PC

XP Pro PC

So we don't have much going on there. I've got about 8 other computers I'd like to at least try using but like I said, the power situation is pretty lacking.

Edited April 21, 2008 by Tripredacus

[PC_LOAD_LETTER]

My setup looks a little hacked together but it goes like this:

Living room:

Patton CopperLink™ Model 2158

-Linksys BEFSR41 (not using Wan port -functions as a switch only)

--Port 1 is uplinked to the Patton Box

--Port 2 goes to my main PC

--Port 3 goes the the TV PC in the living room

--Port 4 goes to a Linksys WRT54G (DDWRT) at the other end of the house in my computer room

---WRT54G Serves wifi to the laptop and is also connected to my old AMD 64 3200+ running XP (mostly a file server these days) and the old XBox (XBMC)

The Patton box links into a nearby building on the campus which has a 45Mbps fiber connection. Kinda sucks that the Patton box maxes out at 12.5Mbps (never gotten over 11 that i can remember) but im not complaining cause in not paying for it.

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

Mine is like this:

3mbit connection from a local ISP (depends on server, can get over 10mbit on sites from Germany and Switzerland since our ISP gets their wire from there but in general it's 3mbit)

-> Going into FREESCO-based router box (old Fujitsu, P1 @ 133, 32 RAM, 2x 3Com 3C509 NICs)

--> from FREESCO box to TrendNet 8-port switch

--> Port 1 - input from the router

---> Port 2 - mom's computer

---> Port 3 - my main computer

---> Port 4 - my laptop

Rest of the ports are currently unused. Backup.

All wired up since when i first linked my computer and mom's 2 years ago i didn't think i would need wireless, and why bother to buy wireless NICs now since they're slower than wired and i do quite a bit of LAN transfers.

Edited May 26, 2008 by Th3_uN1Qu3

[Volatus]

Routers are for pussies.

Unfortunately, since I just moved (one apartment over), I'm still waiting for PacBell SBC AT&T to move my phone and internet. So half my network is still at the old apartment and my main desktop needs to connect with wireless. Expect this map to change dramatically (most notably, internet -> pfSense -> router, instead of internet -> router).

Meanwhile, here's my exact network layout at the moment, spread across several apartments... maybe later I'll update it to add divider boxes to show computers in other apartments

Clicking is good for your health!

Edited June 1, 2008 by Volatus

[puntoMX]

Routers are for pussies.

Right, I don´t see any real server in your setup either, and you use some yourself.

[Volatus]

Right, I don´t see any real server in your setup either, and you use some yourself.

Yeah, because evidently "pfsense" is there just for looks and all... and me talking about moving was just fancy letters on a page or something.

As promised (and just to show you...), I updated the map once again...

Clicky, clicky, clicky.

*edit* The router in the picture (the Netgear that comes off the gigabit switch) isn't double routing, it's disabled and only running as an access point.

Edited June 24, 2008 by Volatus

[CoffeeFiend]

Routers are for pussies.

Pussies who like adequate inexpensive all-in-one solutions to a problem, low power usage, no moving parts, no fan noise, no extra computers kicking around (especially not old ones), as well as set-and-forget solutions (like a WRT54GL running DD-WRT, Tomato or such).

It does NAT, DHCP, runs a bunch of other apps like radvd, lets me use iptables' PREROUTING for various things (like passing web traffic thru squid first), lets me do 6to4 tunneling, has SSH (even using PKI)/web/telnet access, has a bunch of advanced features (like VLANs), has plenty of CPU power for the task, can handle all the traffic of any kind we can throw at it, serves as a perfectly good access point and all. Just what else do you think your average home user needs?

If not wanting a crappy old computer kicking around, that wastes power, makes noise/heat, takes space, has moving parts (like fans, and often hard drives) that WILL fail eventually, and all that, and then needing a separate access point with it too (often using a router in the first place), then I'm glad to be a pussy!

I dunno why you keep so many crappy old boxes around really (5 boxes 1GHz and under). 10 computer total (half of which I'd get rid of same day). Looks like a waste of power to me (1 "modern" box could handle everything half of these do easily, on less power -- and no, no one needs 10 PCs around to surf the web). Besides, most of them old computers are worn out (crappy old PSUs with caps about to fail, worn out fans everywhere, old hard drives, etc) which is just not all that reliable, and more often than not, it costs more to fix them old boxes than newer ones (e.g. DDR2 is cheaper than SDRAM), that's when you can even find parts for it...

You can't exactly blame people for not wanting to have 10 unsightly old heat/noise-producing computers sucking power in their home, plus all the wiring mess and such. Instead, they buy a router that just does the job just fine (and is lots simpler too).

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

Well, the old Fujitsu i run as a router has no moving parts besides the PSU fan, which is whisper quiet anyway. But yeah, Volatus has too many old boxes.

[Volatus]

woh woh wooh woh woooh woh woh woooh woh woh.

Don't know if you noticed, but most of those computers are on wireless... that is to say, they aren't even in my apartment.

The server is primarily to be a Squid proxy, print server, and torrent box. If I wanted to keep a torrent box running, I'd just be wasting power then. Might as well have the added benefit of caching my internet usage.

And finally, not everyone wastes computer equipment on bloated Vista like you do. An old sub-1Ghz computer is plenty enough for what most people around here want to do - browse the internet, download music, etc. Even the router (server) is perfectly comfortable on 600MHz and 384mb RAM (coming up from 192mb RAM, even - it was like a night and day difference in responsiveness). All those computers are extremely quick (well, except "Slow", hence its name, but it was a computer system I built for $50!).

You just hate me because I'm XP.

Edited June 24, 2008 by Volatus

[PC_LOAD_LETTER]

Ok Volatus this is seriously not a flame but I just got to looking and something occurred to me - hypothetically, 1 or 2 machines (Intel Q6700 with 6GB Ram or Core2Duo@2.6 each with 3GB) would have more power and memory than everything in your house (not counting the 2 laptops that don't have clock speeds listed)

600Mhz

1Ghz

1.7Ghz

600Mhz

300Mhz

400Mhz

1Ghz

2.2Ghz X 2

----------

10 Ghz

2.66 x 4

----------

10.64Ghz

your combined ram is just short of 5Gb so thats why i said 6Gb (nice round number just for comparisons sake)

Your electric bill has to be HUGE. I think if you turned off all those PCs for a few months your electric bill savings (both on the PCs actual consumption and increased air conditioning) would pay for a new rig (or 2 if you don't want all your power in one case).

You could easily run XP 64 on it. Doesn't have to be Vista.

/just sayin

[CoffeeFiend]

And finally, not everyone wastes computer equipment on bloated Vista like you do.

How is it wasted? It runs everything just as good as XP does. In fact, it does many things BETTER. Imagine that!

An old sub-1Ghz computer is plenty enough for what most people around here want to do - browse the internet, download music, etc.

Them boxes are only good for very simple tasks indeed (and only run XP at decent speed if they have enough RAM). My point was, why do you keep 10 such slow machines? There's always 10 people that have to be surfing the web at the very same time? A plain old P4 could easily handle what a half dozen of those can.

You just hate me because I'm XP.

You just hate me because I don't have a $500 monthly electric bill

Talk about missing the point of my post altogether (see geek's post for a recap), and flaming someone for using Vista (on one PC out of a few), nevermind it runs just as good.

geek: it's not like you'd even need that much, it's not like all the boxes are at 100% resource usage 24/7. Most likely, they all sit mostly idle, most of the time. A plain old P4 3GHz could likely handle all the tasks of every single box on the network, excluding the core 2 duo. It's not like NAT, squid and a couple print servers and such uses much resources even combined...

[Volatus]

WOH WOH WOOH WOOH BLAH I AM NOT LISTENING AND I AM NOT PAYING ATTENTION, WOH WOH WOOOH WOOH

READ

Don't know if you noticed, but most of those computers are on wireless... that is to say, they aren't even in my apartment.

You just hate me because I don't have a $500 monthly electric bill

READ

Don't know if you noticed, but most of those computers are on wireless... that is to say, they aren't even in my apartment.

Jesus god, it's like people aren't even paying attention... PEOPLE HAVE THESE IN THEIR APARTMENTS. THEIR. APARTMENTS. I'm providing computers for the homeless youth program I live in. Okay? Yes, I said it, I live in a homeless youth program. I'm even looking for MORE computers, and in the process of assembling and configuring even MORE of these "worthless throwaway" computers for people to use. The power used is so little it doesn't even make a difference. The most I've ever paid was 50 bucks for a month's power bill (and that was mostly air conditioning, since it was 100+ degrees and I was running it like I thought I didn't have a bill). Average is more like 25.

I WANT more of these low end, "throwaway" computers! I've even got an "ongoing needs" posting on the local Freecycle list for people to bring me their junker computers. People around here need computers, internet, and music, more than drugs and TV. So I give them computers. 4 of those computers (merlin, april, athlol, and lolbox) are loaners, the rest are owned by other people. That's why I have a low power, impossibly silent server (pfSense) that manages the network instead of some cheap router. The server doubles (triples?) as an alarm clock with foobar2000 and a scheduler plugin, a torrent box, and a print server. The living room server (dass***) uses so little power (probably about 15 watts) that I don't even care that it's running.

My uses are different from yours, so please, GTFO my a**.

Edited June 25, 2008 by Volatus

[PC_LOAD_LETTER]

WOH WOH WOOH WOOH BLAH I AM NOT LISTENING AND I AM NOT PAYING ATTENTION, WOH WOH WOOOH WOOH

cmon! thats a terrible impression of me. it was really more of a 'blah blah wooh woh woh wooh'. I would never type in all caps. I'm much too calm for that.

you on the other hand, do seem to have some anger issues that you seem to take out on the capslock key from time to time. Im sorry if a offended you in some way I assumed you would not take offense to my observations but apparently I was wrong. If you go back and READ my post instead of skimming it, assuming im attacking you, engaging the capslock key and mashing the W, O and H keys you would see I was simply providing an alternative setup which as it happens doesnt fit your situation.

I would have preferred you just explain the setup because with the network taken out of context it looks very much like a network run by a few people I know I refer to as 'garbage collectors' who never retire hardware from their home networks and have tons of extra unused hardware lying around eating up electricity. Admittedly their hardware is much older than yours (Pentium 1 series and lower) and most run old cli linux distros. The guys network is like a living PC graveyard. Yours appears to serve a purpose though.

[Volatus]

Yay. Now you understand. =P

I have no purpose for anything THAT incredibly slow (even the Pentium II was a stretch, but even with Win2K, it seems that XP would run better on it... just shows the usefulness of ol' XP). I actually have "better" computers that I could be using for the server, but that old 600Mhz wouldn't make a good desktop, so it's quite happy routing you these capslock-infused messages. I actually haven't touched capslock in years except by accident, but hey...

And yeah, as my streak of forum bans would probably dictate, I do have, as you would say, an "anger problem". I get tired of explaining myself over and over - or even having to explain myself at all. In this case, I posted my network map. I didn't need to be at the receiving end of a bunch of "omg, your network is the SUX!". I was actually rather expecting "wow, that's pretty cool for a 21 year old".

Anyway...

(edit: Actually, HOLDING SHIFT DOWN is more of an anger reliever than anything... amazingly, my left shift key has the same smooth spot my spacebar has. Heh...)

Edited June 25, 2008 by Volatus