Newbie needing some advice please.

[Ray in Kingwood]

Hi folks. First post , just found this forum.

My home network consists of 4 laptops 4 desktops. I have an n router, (linksys) and wired and wireless in my home.
I have a son at college with a desktop and a laptop.
Our operating systems primarily are xp and vista.
most of my laptops dual boot into kubuntu as we play with linux from time to time.

My son is now off to Texas A&M college, and he will need to access the server.

I am considering the Netgear readynas Pro, with the 6 tb hard drives to replace an aging yet still working 5 year old unit that a neighbors kid built for me using 4 hd's, debian and an old duron processor.....(I am amazed it workx as good as it does, and it was dirt cheap)

At any rate, I am looking to upgrade my system, to something substantial and that will last for some time.

Cost is secondary to what I want to accomplish. I tend to want overkill as to just what is necessary. I'm the type of 'feller that likes having more than I need, in case I ever need it...I drive a 3/4 truck and never tow anything .......

My needs for this are

Primarily:

*Massive storage capability

*REMOTE accessibility for my kids from college and whomever I may choose to allow. This would include the transferring and depositing of files. Some may be large.
(video)

*Steaming video/music here at home

I will leave the unit on 24/7 and it will be hooked up to a UPS sized double what is needed.

Once I get (make that find a feller who will) get it setup, I just want to use the device, not fiddle with settings etc. I am not the type of feller that wants to build systems or tweak fiddle and experiment. I want to get it up and running, rock solid dependable, and just use the thing.

My intent is to buy it loaded, the full 4 gb memory and the 6 hd's, get it running, use it for my large printer as a server so everyone prints to one printer (since I read it can do this) I know at my office, I can print a file from my laptop off my m card remotely, I assume my son if he chose to or myself could also print to my home printer remotely?...

My home system also has the router that splits up the wired connects going 4 ways in my home and to each computer. It there is a better way to perform this function with a switch over the router or a better way I am also up to any suggestions. I intend to purchase/upgrade to whatever is necessary to accomplish my goal.

Thanks in advance for your responses. I am no computer geek when it comes to networks, I am just trying to create a really good one here at home, and one my kids can utilize to their advantage while away at college.

Performance, easy of use, and long term reliability are my primary concerns. Cost is secondary, I want to play, so I know I will need to pay.

Thank you again!

 

[claykin]

There's no single way and you'll likely get several opinions.

My opinion.

1) Sure,the Readynas Pro will work in this application with one exception based on your commenting. Remote printing will be a problem unless your son VPN's into your network. He'll need to have a local IP to share the printer. And, the Readyans is not terribly difficult to setup. If the kid who setup your previous box is around, he can surely do it for you in a couple hours.

2) Are you on a 10/100 network or 10/100/1000? Does your router have 10/100/1000 ports? If not, consider making your entire LAN 10/100/1000. You'll need to check your house cabling to make sure its Cat5e or higher. Older Cat5 does not support 10/100/1000 properly. All you'll need is a 10/100/1000 switch with enough ports for the locations in your house, your NAS and other networking devices (plus one more port for uplinking to your WAN router). Then connect the 10/100/1000 switch to a LAN port on your WAN router and off you go!

3) I would think twice about exposing services directly to the Internet. Look into a VPN router or SSL VPN solution for your son to connect remotely. This will ensure security for your home network and its data. Tim has reviewed a few SSL VPN solutions and can probably offer a recommendation. I use an IPSec VPN solution from Zyxel but this requires a client to be installed on a PC and won't allow your son to connect from a public machine (for example).

4) How fast is your broadband? You're going to want fast upload and download to do what you're looking to do. So, if you have consumer ADSL with relatively slow upload speed, you may want to consider SDSL or Cable modem.

Good luck and let us know what you end up with...

 

[Ray in Kingwood]

Thanks Clay

I appreciate your response.
I have Cat 5 cable, and i noticed you said it may not support what I want to do. If I need to change it out.......I will. (I have both DSL, and a cable connect)

I will also purchase a fast switch per your reccomdation. My existing netgear is on 10/100

I will get the




Netgear ProSafe 8-Port Gigabit Smart Switch, 10/100/1000Mbps, Model: GS108T-100NAS

and my existing router is...


My router specs are

Dlink......DIR-655 > Xtreme N Gigabit Router
Specifications
Standards
• IEEE 802.11n (draft 2.0)
• IEEE 802.11g
• IEEE 802.3
• IEEE 802.3u
Interface Type
• 4 Gigabit LAN Ports
• 1 Gigabit WAN Port
• USB Port (for Windows® Connect Now)
Antenna Type
• 3 External
Security
• WPA™ & WPA2™ (Wi-Fi Protected Access)
Advanced Firewall Features
• Network Address Translation (NAT)
• Stateful Packet Inspection (SPI)
• VPN Pass-through / Multi-sessions PPTP / L2TP / IPSec
Device Management
• Internet Explorer® v6 or Later; Mozilla® Firefox® v1.5 or Later; or other Java-enabled Browsers
LEDs
• Power
• Status
• WAN
• WLAN (Wireless Connection)
• LAN (10/100/1000)
• USB

 

[claykin]

Your router has 10/100/1000 support. However if you have four computers plus a NAS then you won't have enough ports. In this case then yes, the Netgear GS108 is a good Gigabit switch. You should be able to find it quite inexpensive online. Just connect the GS108 to one of the LAN ports on the DIR-655 router. Best to connect all computers/NAS to the GS108

You will also need CAT5e or CAT6 cabling. CAT5e is a bit easier to work with and to terminate yourself. Plus, its cheaper and the wall jacks and connectors are cheaper. Just make sure you buy a quality Cat5e cable that is rated to 350Mhz.

I'm sure there will be someone on this board that will tout CAT6 over CAT5e due to its path to upgrade to 10G networking. While this MAY be the case, unless you purchase CAT6A there is no clear path to insure that CAT6 cabling will work for 10G networking. The IEEE is still tinkering with this one...

 

[Ray in Kingwood]

thanks once again......

I will order me a coil of this cable.....

CAT5e is a bit easier to work with and to terminate yourself. Plus, its cheaper and the wall jacks and connectors are cheaper. Just make sure you buy a quality Cat5e cable that is rated to 350Mhz.


and redo what is here. My access is relatively easy as it comes up the wall and into a large attic, so its merely a matter of taping the new to the old and pulling thru. Wont need to fish anything. Its cool now here in houston so the time for me to do this would be NOW.....

I can do the wirepulls no problem. I am an ol fart in my 50's, but wiring is no problem. Its all the techie hookup and getting the thing working correctly where I stumble. Like I indicated, I just want to use it....

I will order the cable and all new connections per your recs...all I know about my existing cable is its cat 5 and about 5 years old with a grey outer covering.

I will buy a premium brand of cable.......have not looked at any yet.....As in any products over the years I have learned it is far cheaper to purchase the premium products that are tried and true, and you only do the job once and its DONE>

thank you again.

 

[claykin]

If your cable is only 5 years old, it very well may be Cat5e. Look at a piece of it and read the printing on the cable. See if it marked Cat5e. You may be in luck.

BTW, Home Depot and Lowe's usually has it for a competitive price (and you won't pay shipping costs). They even have the wall plates, jacks, connectors etc. If you buy in bulk their prices aren't terrible. I prefer the Leviton wall plates/jacks from Home Depot. But I prefer the Coleman cable at Lowe's but HD's cabling should be just fine!

Remember if you buy Cat5e, make sure you get solid conductor and there's no need for outdoor burial cable or plenum for your indoor use. (well, let me make sure you aren't running it through air ducts before I tell you not to buy plenum.). If you are not running the cable through air supply lines, then you don't need plenum. Just the plain general purpose 350Mhz Cat5e.

Don't go too crazy with this.

Word to the wise, don't run the cabling next to high voltage electrical pipes/romex and don't let it sit on top of Fluorescent light fixtures.

 

[Ray in Kingwood]

just checked

got a fat cable right off the back of my router to a Cat 6 500MHZ white type CM AWG 24.....

I then have a cat 5 E blueline goint upstairs in the attic to a Netgear FS108 fast ethernet switch (its only 10\100 8 port) and the same bluelines go down and feed each room.

Unless I am wrong......this cabling is sufficient and all I would need to replace is my switch in the attic. (which i noticed did NOT have a ups on it but the new one will )

It also says etl verified on the cabling, but it does NOT say 350 MHz......it says 500. I assume this is oK?

Manufacturor of all my existing cabling is by Belkin.

Also, I saw you were no fan of dlink........my router workx well, but i am not against changing it out either. I went from a netgear router g.......to the dlink and my coverage, access and just about everything worked sooooooooo much better......
I have no particular loyalty to any brand, but want dependability, reliability, and adequate support....and to me this is far more important than price. In short, I just want the doggone thing to work......and continue working for looooooooong time.

 

[claykin]

Excellent. Now, one thing to check before you're home free. Check to make sure that all 8 wires are terminated to the connector/plug. This is required for Gigabit but not 10/100. I've seen some installers take the lazy road and only terminate four of the eight wires when the equipment is 10/100.

If all 8 are terminated then you're ready to convert to Gigabit. if not, see the link below for details on how to make new connectors/plugs that conform to 586A or B. make sure you use the same 586 standard on both ends of each wire. Very important!!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat5e

 

[claykin]

The DIR-655 router is a very good router. No reason to change.

I like Dlink, just not the DNS series of NAS boxes. My data is too valuable to me to play around with that thing! Just like I don't buy computer motherboards with anything other than Intel chipsets. And, I stick with Intel branded boards or sometimes Asus, no one else! Also, No AMD, No Nvidia, etc motherboards. I like things to work without extra headaches.

Oh, back on the cabling for a moment. You also should check your wall jacks. See if they say Cat5e on them. If not, you may or may not have issues with Gigabit. its a hit and miss things with some older wall jacks. I'd test it before buying anything.

 

[Ray in Kingwood]

Jeeeeesch Clay

thanks again......I am off to wiki to do some readin.....I need to buy you a beer.

I will just replace the jacks as I dont know how to test or have a tester......same for the end terminations...I will just redo them all. Cant hurt, that way I am damn sure.

I'll buy me a crimp tool and go for it....

 

[claykin]

Just make sure you read how to terminate properly. Leviton includes a little guide when you buy your new wall jacks. Read it.

You'll need a Cat5 cable stripper (don't use regular strippers otherwise you'll likely damage the cable)

Crimper for plugs.

110 punch down tool (or you can use the little plastic 110 tool Leviton supplies in the package since you're only doing a few jacks.)

Have fun and I'll take a Stella Artois or Warsteiner if you've got one!

 

[Ray in Kingwood]

Aw heck Clay I went ahead and got me the tester

the hi quality end terminals etc....

http://www.lanshack.com/LANTEST-PRO-Cable-Tester--P32C0.aspx

and a nice crimper

http://www.lanshack.com/Quick-Cat-Crimper-for-RJ-45-and-RJ-1112-Ratchet-Type-P2641C0.aspx

and since you mentioned it, one of them special stripper do dads....

http://www.lanshack.com/Quick-Cat-E-Z-Coax-Cable-Stripper-P2635C68.aspx

and a similar crimper and end connects to redo my tv stuff as well......

Thanks again for your help and assistance. I learned more today about cable than I cared to.....but as far as I am concerned, I will do most of the work, so its money saved, and good tools purchased.

Thanks again.

 

[claykin]

The tester you linked to is simply a continuity tester and will tell you if all wires are terminated to their correct location on each end. It is NOT a signal quality integrity test tool. Something like this will test for signal quality/integrity:

http://www.jdsu.com/products/commun...ent/products/a-z-product-list/tri-porter.html

Don't bother since these types of tools are several hundred $. At least the ones that work are...

Also, this is the type of Cat5 stripping tool you want.

http://www.lanshack.com/Quick-Cat-E-Z-UTP-Cable-Stripper-P2640C67.aspx

For your COAX connections I recommend compression connectors. Check to see if you have dual/tri or quad shield cable and purchase the appropriate connectors and tool. Here's an example (tool is at the bottom of the page):

http://www.lanshack.com/Quick-Cat-U...-Connector---Bag-of-100-Pieces--P2637C68.aspx

The coax stripper you linked to is perfect for this connector and tool.

 

[Ray in Kingwood]

thanks again kind sir

thats the stripper I purchased along with the connectors. I do realize its a continuity checker. I have a high dollar fluke that could do the same thing but I dont feel like doing a wire at a time so I got this one. I figger if I do it right it should work...

thanks again......

now how do i email you those beers????

 

[claykin]

I've got a fridge full, so no worries. Just enjoy your new toys and have fun converting to Gigabit. Let us know how it goes when the project is complete. I think you'll be thrilled!

Send me a PM so I know you've given us an update.