Home Networking - I need help

[Brian Kelsay]

I personally like running copper to the rooms with PCs in them and put in
access points for laptops only.  For a house you may only need one access
point that would cover your living room and either the front or back of your
house.   Keep in mind that #1 you only get 11Mbps from 802.11b (shared by
all devices connected to the access point) and 54Mbps from 802.11a (shared
bandwidth again) and 802.11g is still non-existent.  I believe that either
wireless standard can interfere with a type of wireless home phone or even
with cell phones.  802.11b is 2.4GHz, some home phones use this frequency.
The other problem with the wireless is the coverage range.  802.11b has a
range of up to 328 feet and 802.11a has a max effective range of 80 feet.
Check this out: http://www.80211-planet.com/tutorials/article.php/1569271
for a tutorial on which to pick.  My main point being that you lose your
100Mbps LAN at the outset because of the wireless solution.

When you build your firewall, choose one that has a built-in DMZ capability.
This is where your external webserver, ftp, etc. servers go.  On my firewall
(a floppy-based linux)  I just have to add another NIC in the firewall and
activate it as the DMZ.   In the Linksys firewall/router/switch products you
can set a port on the switch to be the DMZ.

All of the other things you mention are plans I have for my own home
network.  I am in progress with the TV computer (this definitely needs a
hard line to it for rich-media transfer) and the email server and web
server.

Brian Kelsay

----- Original Message -----
From: "James Colannino" <email2jamez at covad.net>

> Hey everyone.  Over the course of the next few months (or years,)
> provided that I can bring in enough money to fund this, I'm planning on
> developing a vast home network as sort of an experiment to increase my
> knowledge in a vast array of different topics.  I'm living with a family
> of 4, and I was wondering if anyone has any suggestions for this.  My
> plans (very roughly) are as follows:
>
> -firewalled central server hooked up to a wireless router, connected to
> broadband DSL via a static IP.
>
> -small cube computer (maybe something roughly like a PIII 1.0Ghz, 512MB
> RAM, 20GB HD) connected directly to the central server via a physical
> 100Mbps ethernet connection, hooked up to one of the inputs on our TV so
> that anyone could sit down and easily decide to browse the internet or
> check their mail while not having to get up from the couch. I would like
> to allow for access to other computers around the house as well as the
> internet.
>
> -a voice mail server for the phone to replace the answering machine,
> allowing for extensions to be dialed along with the phone number (or
> after the phone is reached) so that you don't require different phone
> lines to reach different areas around the house depending on who you're
> trying to reach.  This would also be physically connected via 100Mbps
> ethernet link to the central server where all the voice messages would
> be stored.  Or would it be better to store the messages locally on the
> voice mail server and leave it disconnected from the rest of the network?
>
> -A computer in every room wirelessly connected to the central server
> allowing for internet access.  I would like all of these computers to
> have access to voice mail, internet, etc.
>
> -I would like to create a small intranet for the household
>
> -A mail server (I could use the central server for that) for email sent
> within the local intranet.  Also, I would like the mail server to be
> used for the sending and receiving of emial to and from the internet,
> along with a registered domain, thus eliminating the dependence on our
ISP.
>
> -make the house a wireless access point for laptops.
>
> -I would like the intranet to contain various locally served HTML pages
> for various things.
>
> Any suggestions?  Comments?  Think I'm nuts? =P  Anything I'm missing?
> Any input whatsoever would be very appreciated.  Keep in mind that I
> know little about networking, so if anything I have said sounds
> extremely stupid, please be kind O=)
>
> James