So, we've got a thread about people's computer hardware and such, I thought I'd start a new one on what people's home networks are like. I know there are members here ranging from just one computer with a dialup connection to an entire AD domain in their house, with many inbetween. So, share what you've got and how it works.

So, as far as I go:

• Qwest DSL (1.5 Mbps - they don't offer anything faster in my area) connected through a...
• actiontec M1000 DSL modem, which is attached to a...
• Linksys WRT54GL wireless router (I just got it a little while ago and it's awesome!)
• 3 PCs:
  • 1 desktop connected with ethernet
  • My laptop, using wireless
  • An old Optiplex GX110, with an ASUS wireless card

That's it right now. They're all in the same workgroup; when I get a server together, using an old computer of ours that we're not using, I might set it up with windows server '03 and get an AD domain going, but we'll see.

The actiontec modem is lame. It's a router-built-into-a-modem, which means it's a pain to configure it to play nice with the wireless router. I just set it to Transparent Bridging mode and the WRT54GL authenticates the DSL using PPPoE. The WRT54GL is running DD-WRT, which is totally awesome and infinitely superior to the default linksys firmware.

20MB cable Broadband through a linksys WRT54G with HyperWRT F/w. Connected to Gigabit switches in 2 locations.
connected to those are
2 desktop pcs
3 wireless laptops
1 Wired Laptop
a 250GB NAS box
1 800GB Raid 1 NAS PC/Box
2 Gigabit Zyxel switches

My electric man loves me


EDIT now using Tomato firmware and it kicks a**! its so configurable its brilliant.

My latest addition are a print server and mains power network, on a radio controlled mains socket.
Now if only I could train the cat to go get the printouts...

LOL!

20Mbps FiOS coming in to their branded Modem/Router ->
WRT54G v3 with DD-WRT firmware (I gave the WRT a static external IP, which their device has been set to DMZ)->
1 wireless laptop
1 24 port Gigabit switch

Netgear 24 port GB switch (located in my basement office)
2 Desktop PC
1 APC Smart-UPS Battery Backup
1 4x250GB RAID 0+1 DIY NAS
1 print server
1 8 port GB switch (located upstairs)

Netgear 8 port GB switch (stored behind my TV)
1 Media Center PC
1 Nintendo Wii
1 APC Smart-UPS Battery Backup

God **** i need to get an APC UPS, nice setup rendrag

Hah!! A GX110??? Good God man... I guess as long as it still boots and can run DOS or '95 go for it lol.

I have a 20MB FiOS connection coming in via fiber... running everything through a Cisco ASA 5505. 2 wired desktops, 2 wireless laptops over WPA2-PSK network (unbreakable, at the moment... thankfully). The ASA is the best firewall I've ever seen...

What more can you ask for? Much easier and less cost to bring down your home network testing then where you work!

Um it was built in June of 2000.... and it runs Windows 2000 very well. Detailed specs here. It's actually not that bad of a machine. It still works quite well, and I have no need to replace it since we only use it every once in a while, and not for anything intense like gaming or CAD, just for web browsing, word processing, etc.

In Toronto:

• Speedstream 5200 Modem on 5Mb Teksavvy DSL Line
  
  • Linksys WRT54GL w/ Tomato Firmware
    
    • Intel D201GLY2 Mobo w/ Celeron @ 1.2GHz, 1GB RAM, 40GB HD, and External 250GB HD - Windows XP Professional (wired)
    • MacBook Pro w/ C2D @ 2.4GHz, 4GB RAM, and 160GB HD - Mac OS X (Leopard) (wireless)
    • Dell Latitude D630 w/ C2D @ 2.4GHz, 2GB RAM, and 120GB HD - Windows XP Professional (wireless)

In Montreal:

• 2-Wire 2701G Modem on 6Mb Bell Sympatico DSL Line
  
  • Linksys WRT54GS w/o Third-Party Firmware
    
    • Dell Optiplex GX240 w/ P4 @ 1.6GHz, 384MB RAM, and 40GB HD - Windows XP Professional (wired)
    • HP Laptop (don't remember model) w/ C2D @ 2.?GHz, 2GB RAM, ??GB HD - Windows XP Professional (wireless)
    • iBook G4 @ 1.33GHz w/ 1.25GB RAM and 60GB HD - Mac OS X (Leopard) (wireless)
    • IBM Thinkpad (don't remember model) w/ Celeron @ 533MHz, 190MB RAM, and 5GB HD - Ubuntu (wireless)
    • Linksys WRT54G w/ Wifi-Box Firmware (never got a chance to update it to Tomato)
      
      • MSI ??? w/ Celeron (?) @ ~866MHz, 640MB RAM, and 10GB HD - Ubuntu (wired)
    • D-Link DI-604
      
      • Linksys NSLU2 @ 233MHz w/ Unslung Firmware and External 250GB HD (wired)
      • HP OfficeJet 7410 AIO Printer (wired)

Is that detailed enough for you?

Well, then we have poor Mexico:

• Motorola SBV5121 Cable Modem on 4Mb Megacable DSL Line
  

• Linksys WRT54GL w/ Tomato 1.18 Firmware
  

• 6 (six) Intel Celeron 420@2.0GHz/1.1volt/2GB RAM/80GB HDD/DVD-ROM/BENQ 19" LCD - Windows XP Professional OEM (wireless)
• 1 (one) Intel Pentium Dual Core E2180@3.3GHz/1.37volt/4GB RAM/500GB HDD/DVD-RW/ACER P223W 22" LCD - Windows Vista Ultimate 64bit Retail (wired)

I´m still fighting with outbound traffic shaping as lots of P2P traffic is generated from the 6 client PCs (No, not my PC ).

Is this on your home network or is that in the internet cafe? If it is your home network then that's fine, but if not, then at least say so. And if it is your home network, my apologies in advance for this post.

B.T.W. - lots of people with WRT54GL's seem to use Tomato - is it better than DD-WRT in any particular ways? I installed DD-WRT yesterday, and so far I'm loving it

My home network setup:

• Motorola Surfboard Cable Modem - 5Mbps Cable Internet
• WRT54GL v1.1 w/ Tomato 1.18 firmware
  
  • Dell Inspiron 6000 - wireless (mine)
  • Seanix... something - wireless (girlfriend's)
  • Desktop system (Athlon 1GHz, 256MB SDRAM) - wireless
  • D-Link DGS-1005D - wired
    
    • Desktop (see here) - wired
    • File Server (see here) - wired
    • XBMC - wired
    • Samsung ML-2851ND

Nothing too crazy, but it's what I need and it works.

Alright Heres mine..... Lets see how I do

• Motorola Surfboard Cable Modem With 30mbps line
• Linksys WRT54G Wireless Router with 4 port switch
  
  • Dell 4550 System Intel P4 2.0ghz, 1gb of ram, 80gb hard drive and Windows XP Pro - Wired
  
  
  • CPcam System (security Cameras) - Wired
  
  
  • Linksys Media Center Extender with DVD - Wired
  
  
  • AMD Athlon 64 2.6ghz 3gb of ram 500gb hard drive with Windows Vista Ultimate - Wired (for Media Center)
  
  
  • Dell In600m intel centrino 2.0ghz 512mb of ram Windows XP Pro - Wireless
  
  
  • HP Pav2700db AMD Athlon 64bit Dual Core 2.2ghz 4gb of ram Windows Vista Home - Wireless
• Linksys 4 port Switch (was a router)
  
  • Test system cable - not being used right now
• 5 port Netgear switch in my room
  
  • File Server AMD Athlon 2.2ghz 760mb of ram 200gig hard drive - Windows XP pro - Wired
  
  
  • My system Intel P4 3.2ghz HT 2gb of ram Nivida 7600gt ko 250gig hard drive and Windows XP Pro - Wired
  
  
  • Another System test cable
  
  
  • Port has a wire running down below my room which is for my brothers laptop when he needs some extra speed
  
  
  • Empty Port
• Netgear 16 port Switch Downstairs
• • All Wired for Feature Plans.

Alright yeah.. Its just a home network! I wish It was bigger though!

Yeah... My primary residence is in Montreal (i.e., home sweet home) and where I'm living now is in Toronto (i.e., "home").

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..."

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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).

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.

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.

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

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


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 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...

READ



READ



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**.

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.

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...)

It’s these words you use, that´s why people re-act in a non-friendly way; you are asking for it yourself.

Just keep your foulmouthed voice down a bit else we have to do something about it. Your expressions are not accepted nor welcome like that.

Come on you guys, I'd rather not have my thread closed Whatever works for your network is what you should use. If you've got questions or want to discuss something like routers vs. not routers, then start a different topic about it. Thank you.


So... here's a few pictures of my network. We now have an amazing home-made "server rack", which is basically one of those plastic paper organizer things, with the router and modem on the top "rack" and our USB HDD on the lower "rack". I call them the network rack and the data rack. See for yourself:

I dont have a home network, computers i buy get stolen.

I have 2 monitors, 2 keyboard, and a mouse.

I also have 5-6 network cables. I gave away my wireless AP because I had no use in it.

Ghetto ey?

Sounds like you need to invest in some kesington (or similar) locks

Its a rental, so i cant really put any good mounts somewhere to wrap it around.

My network setup:

• MI424WR Verizon FiOS broadband router
• MSHOME workgroup
• FLARNNB (my laptop)
• NORTON (family desktop)
• Additional assorted laptops belonging to other family members
• My iPod touch
• HP Color LaserJet 2600n Ethernet printer

Internet connection is 24Mbps down/8Mpbs up with 5 public IP addresses.
I use a (UPnP) NAT router anyway, so only 1 IP is typically used - but there is a switch connected to the cable modem so I can hook clients in there if another public IP is ever needed.

WLAN is WPA-encrypted, provided through the same GigE router, which simplified my network cabling a bit.

Client1 is my wife's primary machine, for gaming & graphics work.
Client2 is my machine, for gaming, debugging, etc.
Client3 is my wife's secondary machine for legacy apps that don't like 64-bit Windows (probably retiring soon as a gift to a friend).
Client4 is the machine in the guest bedroom for visitors, with a handful of games installed.

Server1 is my old client machine, acts as a file server primarily and is from where the Squeezebox streams its music, also runs Virtual Server as my sandbox for hotfix testing, debugging and "poking to see what it does" scenarios.
I have the website running in a VM for portability as I'm too lazy to try to figure out how to set up SQL Express every time I want to reinstall or upgrade the OS on the bare metal - once I upgrade my current rig it will become the new server, and is hypervisor-capable - that's the time at which I will have the website running on W2K8.

(Vista clients + W2K8 file server on GigE network using SMB 2.0 leads to very nice file transfer speeds - the XP client being wireless would not benefit much from an upgrade, it is rarely used and it's handy to have a legacy Windows client that isn't a VM for debugging.)

HTPC is a recent addition, replacing the DVD player and allowing playback of (all region) DVDs, HD-DVDs and BDs as well as streamed content.

XBox 360 Elite was the most recent addition, purchased for its HDMI output and in readiness for Fable II.
(Certain types of game just play so much better on a console & big screen TV, but I'll always use my PC for FPS & RTS games.)

Mr Snrub, whatever job you have that allows you to afford such computers, I want it.

Just leave the Vistrash out of it, and I'll be fulfilled in life.

edit: In fact, you know what, no, I just hate you (h'ehm... note the wink: ). A combination of envy and disgust...

@Mr Snrub: What did you use to make the flow chart?

That would be Visio (I have the 2003 version at home) - I pretty much use it solely for network diagrams, occasionally office floor plans.

OK - I was gonna post mine here, but apparently that would be bad. I would be hated...

Do it. I dare you.

LOL

Well, I recently installed Tomato on my WRT54GL. DD-WRT has some nice features that it likes, but I didn't use most of said features all that much anyhow. Tomato seems a bit cleaner, and ever so slightly faster. It also has bandwidth logs which are pretty and mesmerizing to watch.

+1 for Tomato, its is GENIUS!

Its easier if you look at a diagram really
Diagram of my network
http://i34.tinypic.com/1z2khaq.jpg

Basically mine is a 2Mb cable modem connection with a sonicwall TZ170 Firewall behind it
Attatched to that is the family members desktops with a AD windows 2000 server
and a Nas Drive for backup storage and software downloads

Behind the TZ170 I have a Firebox 2 which I converted to DD-WRT using this method
http://www.ls-net.com/m0n0wall-watchguard/
off of this I have a LAN hub that has my NAS Raid array drives
and a couple of test servers (when I am experimenting with setups etc and teaching myself new things)
one running SUSE Enterprise Linux and the other on Win 2008 - then I have an Optiplex desktop and
a few odd bits like KVM switches etc
I dont like wireless connections as I find them unreliable and insecure