Netgear Gigabit Switch

In part two of this article I am going to be talking about each piece of networking equipment and how it interacts with the network and its importance.

The basic goal for any network is to create a reliable, fast and easy to maintain infrastructure. Our network had the following criteria:

All Television, Telephone, and Internet is to be powered by Time Warner Cable (TW).

• Telephone via TW VOIP, Using the 66 block all house phone jacks work.
• Television via TW Digital Cable, our house has two High Definition, and two Standard Definition TV’s.
• Internet via TW High Speed Internet, by setting up a simple network we can share this with our 6 computers and have network enabled backups.

In the last article we talked about our goals for the network and outlined the network map. Below we talk about each device and what it does.

Cable Modem

• A cable modem is a type of modem that provides bi-directional data communication via radio frequency channels on a cable television (CATV) infrastructure. Cable modems are primarily used to deliver broadband Internet access in the form of cable Internet, taking advantage of the high bandwidthof a cable television network. They are commonly deployed in Australia,Europe, and North and South America. In the USA alone there were 22.5 million cable modem users during the first quarter of 2005, up from 17.4 million in the first quarter of 2004.

Voice Over IP / ATA

• An analog telephony adapter, or analog telephone adapter, (ATA) is a device used to connect one or more standard analog telephones to a digital and/or non-standard telephone system such as a Voice over IP based network.

Patch Panel

• Patch panels offer the convenience of allowing technicians to quickly change the path of select signals, without the expense of dedicatedswitching equipment.

Network Switch

• A network switch is a computer networking device that connectsnetwork segments.
• The term commonly refers to a Network bridge that processes and routes data at the Data link layer (layer 2) of the OSI model. Switches that additionally process data at the Network layer (layer 3 and above) are often referred to as Layer 3 switches orMultilayer switches.
• The term network switch does not generally encompass unintelligent or passive network devices such as hubs andrepeaters.
• The first Ethernet switch was introduced by Kalpana in 1990.

WiFi Router

• Wi-Fi (pronounced /?wa?fa?/) is a trademark of the Wi-Fi Alliance for certified products based on the IEEE 802.11 standards. This certification warrants interoperability between different wireless devices.
• Wi-Fi is supported by most personal computer operating systems, many game consoles, laptops, smartphones,printers, and other peripherals.

Apple Airport Express

• AirPort and AirPort Extreme are local area wireless networkingproducts from Apple Inc. based on the IEEE 802.11 standard (also known as Wi-Fi).
• AirPort and AirPort Extreme in common usage can refer to theprotocol (802.11b, and 802.11g and 802.11 Draft-N, respectively), the expansion card or the base station.

Now that we know what each device does I will explain how each one is connected to each-other.

Starting with the feed coming into the house, we have a single RG6 drop from the utility pole and from there it goes into the garage utility room where it is then split off into its appropriate places. It first goes into a 3 way -5.5db splitter where it goes to the Cable Modem, Telephone ATA, and Television Amplifier.

Television Splitters and Amplifier.

Television

The signal coming into the 3 way splitter is low to begin with and is causing some of our HD channels to come in pixelated at times, so the only way to combat that was to install a Multimedia Drop Amplifier that has a +20db output signal. After the amp I have a 8 way splitter with 5 rooms connected, leaving 3 ports free, on those 3 I put terminators on to prevent signal loss and interference. With the new amp and splitter installed, the televisions are all now working much better and very rarely do they go blocky.

Phone

66 Block

Since we are using VOIP for our phone service I wanted to have the phone signal going though to all the wall jacks just like a normal POTS (Plan Old Telephone Service) does I decided it was best to use a 66 block and by using the new wiring I installed previously I was able to connect every room that has a phone to the VOIP service. This also allows for us to easily upgrade and add additional lines of phone and or digital extensions if we decide to install a PBX phone system.

Ethernet

Patch Panel

I connected the Cable Modem to the Patch Panel where it then goes up into the office and is connected to our Belkin WiFi Router, I setup the WiFi with a secure WEP password and MAC address authentication. I then connected one of the LAN ports to the second ethernet wall jack returning to the Patch Panel, this is where I have my 5 port Gigabit Switch located, from the Patch Panel I have one port as the uplink and then the four remaining ports plugged into the three remaining rooms and the fourth connected to my Ubuntu File Server (Future Article).

You may be wondering why I decided to place the Belkin Router up in the house? Well I did that because as with most consumer networking equipment, it will randomly lockup and need the occasional reboot and by having it in the house it saves a trip down to the garage.

In one of the bedrooms I then have a AirPort Express connected to the ethernet wall jack, this is used for printing and wireless music playing. One advantage of having two WiFi routers is the possibility of setting up a Guest Network, with this we can have it open and not secured, but we can isolate the WiFi network from the Physical Wired Network and Computers.

When T-Mobile describes the myTouch 3G, it emphasizes its design focus on personalization, and how users can customize menus, wallpapers and icons and choose among more than 6,000 Android Market applications.

G1 delivers an extraordinary browsing experience. The G1’s browser comes with a clever multi-page window pane; it lets you surf multiple websites at the same time. Drag the page around with your finger to pan, or move from one link or textbox to another with the handy trackball positioned perfectly for your thumb. And don’t worry about waiting for pages to load. The G1 is equipped with 3.5G and Wi-Fi technology… seamlessly switching to always offer you the best connection.

Instant notification bar discretely alerts you of emails, text messages or IM sent your way. Whether you’re getting mail from Gmail™, another POP or IMAP account or receiving IMs from any of the most popular services, you’ll be alerted as soon as a new message comes in.

Make the G1 your G1 with instant access to Android Market™. The market is constantly updated with exciting new applications for your T-Mobile G1™. Download and install your favorite software, music or games and more. The fully customizable home screen lets you put all the tools and gadgets within your finger tips.

The MyTouch 3G will sell for $200 with a two-year service plan. It has a 3.2 inch touch-screen and a 3.2 megapixel camera that supports video for use with MMS.

In this article i will talk about setting up a home network and centralizing the entire home telecommunications into one central location out of the way of normal life.

This article is based on my house and a few years ago I had spent 2 weeks completely rewiring all the telecommunications of the house and relocating it from outside the house to the utility room in our garage, this required installing over 1000 ft of Cat5e ethernet cable used for both Ethernet and Telephones and 500 ft of RG6 television cable. Each room received three Cat5e cables and two RG6 cables, this provided for 2 Ethernet, 2 Telephone and two Cable Television ports.

The reason I choose the utility closet to use for the telecommunications room was done after careful research and planning, the garage is on the lower level of the house and stays cool year round allowing the equipment to stay cool and not worry about overheating. The second reason for this was the ease of running wires to the attic, In this setup I have a 2.5“ bundle of wires running into the attic where it then is split to each room. Another advantage of having the networking equipment located out of the normal day to day area is the network becomes seamless and you don’t see networking cables and tv cables running all over the house, It gives the house a much nicer feel.

I will not be going much into the actual installation of the network, but more the hardware and the reason it is hooked up this particular way.

To start here is a breakdown of the network setup and the requirements:

• 2 Ethernet, 2 Telephone, 2 Cable TV ports / per room.
• Central location for Patch Panels, Splitters, Amplifiers, Switches, Modems, and File Servers.
• Provide Battery backup for VOIP Telephone (Voice Over IP) Service.
• Gigabit Wired & 802.11 b,g,n Wireless Networks.

The list of equipment currently installed (in order from Time Warner Cable -> Computers / Telephones):

1. 3 Way Splitter -5.5db
2. Port 1 Cable Modem, Port 2 Telephone VOIP ATA, and Port 3 +20db Multimedia Drop Amplifier
3. Amplifier to -> 8 Way Splitter to televisions
4. Telephone VOIP ATA -> Telephone 66 Block
5. Cable Modem -> Patch Panel
6. Patch Panel -> Belkin WiFi router (located in office)
7. Belkin Router -> Patch Panel
8. Patch Panel -> Netgear Prosafe Gigabit Switch
9. Switch -> Patch Panel (one switch port for each additional room)

In Part 2 I will talk about each component and its relationship to other components on the network, and why each one is important.

NetShare, the iPhone application that allows you to tether your iPhone or iPhone 3G to your computer with a simple button-press, went live in the AppStore yesterday. Then it disappeared. Now it’s back again. Whatever the reason for the mysterious disappearance, NetShare seems to be back online and ready to do your iPhone internet connection share bidding.

NetShare allows you to use your iPhone or iPhone 3G as a wireless modem for your computer. The application sets up a SOCKS5 proxy, which essentially allows your computer to tunnel through your iPhone’s data connection to access the web. Unfortunately, email clients and instant messaging programs won’t work through the iPhone tether. The SOCKS5 proxy is only good for serving up data to your computer’s web browser (Safari, Firefox, etc.).

Find NetShare here.

Since those scripts only run on Windows XP and i use a MacBook Pro for my main computer, I had to come up with a creative solution using a single Sprint EVDO card with multiple computers.

I took a bunch of gear and my older Sony Vaio laptop and made a mobile wifi hotspot powered by EVDO.

So this is how I did it.

Gear list:
PCMCIA to ExpressCard (for Merlin EX720 EVDO Card)
Buffalo WiFi Router
USB GPS
Power Inverter

The first thing to do was to get the EVDO Card working in my Vaio, since the card is a ExpressCard and the laptop only has a PCMCIA slot. This required purchasing converter card. Most of the places that were in the US wanted over $59 for a converter card. Since it will mostly be used on this trip and not much in the future we thought it was crazy to pay that price (we actually needed a few of these for other reasons). WIth a little research, we found some on eBay for $20 shipped from Hong Kong. After waiting a week they arrived and worked flawlessly.

Now that we have the internet working on the Vaio it was time to get the internet shared with the WiFi router. To do this I followed the guide over at EVDOinfo. After that I setup and configured the WiFi router by taking the ethernet cable and plugging it into the LAN port on the laptop and then the WAN port on the router. This makes the internet from the laptop look like it is connected to a normal DSL, Cable modem.

Since the EVDO card looks like a regular dial up modem to the computer, I set it up to redial if the connection is dropped. This makes it extremely reliable in the middle of nowhere when you go out of cell tower range.

Now that the router is working, the next step was to enable WEP to make sure that only the computers we wanted were allowed to log in. This is to prevent unauthorized computers from slowing my connection down.

So now that we have our mobile Hot Spot I moved on to the GPS tracking. We are doing this with both a server side and client side script.

Here is a quick overview of script activities:

1. My Vaio runs a program that talks to the GPS to get our location and speed
2. The program sends that information to a database on the server. NOTE: When you view the map on the page it is getting the information from the database.
3. Every few seconds the website refreshes the map with new data from the database making it appear almost analog to the viewer.

We started with PUR tracker (mp3car.com) and had to make a few modifications as it came with a few bugs, the worst of which was placing the decimal point in the wrong place causing the GPS coordinates to go all over the place.

After we got that working it was time to embed it into the page. For this I used an object embed for most well engineered browsers but as always Internet Explorer decided it would not display properly, so for IE users we use an iframe. To detect what browser it is we used a simple script.

        <!--[if IE]>
	Put iframe here
	<![endif]-->
	<!--[if !IE]> <-->
        Put object embed here
	<!----> <!--[endif]--

So now that everything is setup and our Mobile Hot Spot is up and running it appears to be pretty low maintenance (knock on wood!).