The Home Networking Megathread - Yes the OP is out of date

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Serious Hardware/Software Crap > The Home Networking Megathread - Yes the OP is out of date

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Star War Sex Parrot: Oct 2, 2003

Yep.

# ¿ Jul 2, 2014 06:10

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# ¿ May 21, 2024 06:56

Star War Sex Parrot: Oct 2, 2003

Of course it'll introduce latency. How much is dependent on the switches, but I doubt you're ever going to notice.

# ¿ Jul 2, 2014 06:12

Star War Sex Parrot: Oct 2, 2003

Presumably there are already plans to run coax to all of the living areas anyway (for TV), so they might as well use the same conduit and run Cat 6 to a punch-down block in the wiring cabinet (where coax, fiber, phone, whatever will come into the house). That's how every house/apartment/condo built in the last 5-10 years I've seen is done. 90% of the work is already done by having the conduit there, it just takes a little bit more work to run the extra cable and wire it to the wall jacks.

# ¿ Jul 7, 2014 00:37

Star War Sex Parrot: Oct 2, 2003

If we're still talking in the context of slidebite's in-laws: Cat 6 is more than good enough for the foreseeable future. If it's installed correctly in the first place, then snaking Cat 7 through existing conduit is trivial if that ever needs to be done.

# ¿ Jul 7, 2014 22:36

Star War Sex Parrot: Oct 2, 2003

Rakthar posted:

From what I understand, Cat7 is basically electromagnetically shielded Cat6... The cables seem very sturdy with the shielding and have excellent connectors as well (metal vs plastic).

Does this extra shielding limit its flexibility/put limits on where you can run it? I've only heard Cat 7 discussed when talking about runs between entire buildings, not actually threading it between walls for drops.

# ¿ Jul 8, 2014 06:16

Star War Sex Parrot: Oct 2, 2003

politicorific posted:

I need a new router. Just a simple wireless N with no bells and whistles.

Here you go!

# ¿ Jul 20, 2014 23:53

Star War Sex Parrot: Oct 2, 2003

SB6141. Next caller.

# ¿ Aug 10, 2014 06:04

Star War Sex Parrot: Oct 2, 2003

SB6121 or even a 6120 should do 50mbps without issue.

# ¿ Aug 10, 2014 23:38

Star War Sex Parrot: Oct 2, 2003

Binary Badger posted:

If there's a caveat with both models, its that they seemed to have sourced LEDs meant for flashlights.

All of the indicator LEDs combine to form what's pretty much a very distracting night light. Only way I was able to keep it from keeping them up at night was to paste an exactly cut length of Gorilla Tape over the indicators so that the front ventilation holes aren't covered.

Yep when I had cable I recall covering my 6120 lights with electrical tape. I'm not surprised they're still disco balls.

# ¿ Aug 11, 2014 22:11

Star War Sex Parrot: Oct 2, 2003

Han Nehi posted:

Is there a particular model of switch I should look for? I just need a gigabit unmanaged switch with 6 or 8 ports.

Been really happy with this TP-LINK model in the handful places I've installed them. 2000+ reviews on Amazon with 4.7/5 rating.

# ¿ Oct 8, 2014 05:53

Star War Sex Parrot: Oct 2, 2003

Loopbacks are awesome.

# ¿ Nov 11, 2014 05:22

Star War Sex Parrot: Oct 2, 2003

Amazon has the SB6183 in stock with 1-2 days of processing time needed before shipping, whatever that means. I just snagged one and will pass on the SB6141 that I just got to SA-Mart.

# ¿ Nov 25, 2014 04:38

Star War Sex Parrot: Oct 2, 2003

Looks like my project this rainy weekend will be figuring out what the hell is going on with the CAT5 in my new apartment. There is at least one drop to every room, but a quick glance into the wiring cabinet makes me think it's only set up for phone service. I'll have to take a look again in the daylight and see what can be done with it, but I might end up swapping the punch-down block to something more appropriate.

Or I might just scrap the project entirely since Wi-Fi is working remarkably well, but it irks me to see those plugs on the wall going to waste. At a minimum I'd like to at least get the one behind the entertainment unit serving the TV, Apple TV, etc.

# ¿ Dec 2, 2014 21:35

Star War Sex Parrot: Oct 2, 2003

Other than receiving a bum 6141 fresh out of the box a few weeks ago, yeah their modems are great. DOA units can happen with just about any product so I don't hold it against them. It was just surprising since I've purchased probably a dozen Motorola modems over the years and this was the first DOA one. I replaced it with a 6183 anyway and now it's all good.

# ¿ Dec 11, 2014 17:23

Star War Sex Parrot: Oct 2, 2003

Acid Reflux posted:

Aha! In my frustration, I didn't even consider a regular flowchart type program. Libre is going to fit the bill nicely. Thanks very much

Just use draw.io instead of installing something.

# ¿ Jan 2, 2015 18:33

Star War Sex Parrot: Oct 2, 2003

Internet Explorer posted:

How have I not heard of this before? I've only used Visio / Gliffy in the past. This seems pretty awesome for a free product.

I had the same reaction about a year ago. I still break out Visio occasionally, but I only have that on my workstation so most of my flow charts get done in draw.io anymore.

# ¿ Jan 2, 2015 21:24

Star War Sex Parrot: Oct 2, 2003

frogbs posted:

So even if I go back to my old router, it's likely that my modem will still be using the slower DNS servers?

I'll try the open DNS servers in addition to 8.8.8.8. Thanks for your help!

Could always give namebench a shot to see which DNS servers are best for you.

# ¿ Apr 2, 2015 02:56

Star War Sex Parrot: Oct 2, 2003

My apartment's got Cat5e to every room, but I just glanced at the punchdown block and with my limited knowledge of wired networking it seems like it's set up for phone service, not any sort of useful networking.

Am I correct that this is really only useful for splitting the incoming line to all of the other drops, rather than any sort of local network? Thanks in advance.

# ¿ Jun 30, 2015 22:48

Star War Sex Parrot: Oct 2, 2003

flosofl posted:

That's 110 block, which is what you use for terminating ethernet cabling, so I'm not sure what the problem is?

Look at the second section of the info plate. This is a multi-service break-out box and they're using it for data distribution. It specifically mentions T568B wiring, which is one of the standards for 4 UTP wiring for data.

You're speaking greek to me. What do I need to do (aka where do I need to run cables on this block from) to terminate at RJ45 jacks so I can throw a switch in the wiring cabinet?

# ¿ Jun 30, 2015 22:56

Star War Sex Parrot: Oct 2, 2003

stuxracer posted:

Is the board pictured the "left" side of the diagram.

It seems so, based on the PR5 and PR6 I can see at the top right of the board, which matches up to the voice side of the diagram.

# ¿ Jun 30, 2015 22:57

Star War Sex Parrot: Oct 2, 2003

Rexxed posted:

From the picture it looks like that's the telo (left) side, not the data side (which is an optional accessory they didn't install). You can just wire telephone cables to other telephone cables to split them into telephone extensions (in the photo the traces on the pcb just connect them through to each other). For ethernet, each cable has to go to some kind of powered device that can can "talk ethernet" like a switch. With all of the cables already wired to that panel you could get a punchdown block and a switch for that location, then punch down those cables again and run a little ethernet cable to a switch, but they won't work as-is

This was my suspicion.

Rexxed posted:

(well honestly you may be able to get one cable into a jack in one room and one out in another room but it'll get hosed up if more than one thing is passing through there, and there's no guarantees).

Yeah I tried this at one point, thinking that if I only used two jacks at opposite ends of the apartment, then the behavior might just be like a straight-through. However, it didn't seem to work.

Thanks for taking a look, everyone! Would it make sense to just punch down everything coming into the cabinet to this block, and then just toss a switch in the cabinet if I'm interested in wired networking through the apartment?

# ¿ Jun 30, 2015 23:06

Star War Sex Parrot: Oct 2, 2003

flosofl posted:

There should be RJ 45 ports somewhere on the other side of that box.

There aren't. As best as I can tell I only have the left side of that diagram. Notice underneath the right side that it says "optional" -- I think that's my problem.

# ¿ Jun 30, 2015 23:07

Star War Sex Parrot: Oct 2, 2003

flosofl posted:

Well poo poo, you're right. It looks like they took the cat5e and threw it on the phone breakout, but wired it as if it was data. That's just weird.

That's why I thought it would have maybe worked as a straight-through if I only used 2 ports, but it didn't.

flosofl posted:

That'll work.

Get a tone tool and make sure all that wiring is going to your data ports. You basically plug a tone generator in the room jack and go back to the box and wave a wand that will make a noise when it's near the "live" wire.

They're not terribly expensive. Monoprice has one around $35.

http://www.monoprice.com/Product?c_id=109&cp_id=10913&cs_id=1091305&p_id=8134&seq=1&format=2

Cool, thanks for your help!

# ¿ Jun 30, 2015 23:28

Star War Sex Parrot: Oct 2, 2003

Shaocaholica posted:

How well does the Airport Extreme AC stack up against those crazy $300 spider routers in terms of reception?

I dunno why don't you check smallnetbuilder:

http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/tools/charts/router/view

Seems like the Airport Extreme is a bit poo poo, if I'm reading most of these charts correctly.

# ¿ Oct 28, 2015 19:36

Star War Sex Parrot: Oct 2, 2003

slidebite posted:

For terminating their ends, am I OK just getting a basic kit like THIS for making the ends and testing the cables to make sure they work? I've never done anything like that before but I am reasonably mechanically competent.

Thanks!

I think that the proper way to do this would actually be to punch down the terminating ends into something like a patch panel, not just crimp RJ45 connectors on the end. Regardless, your plan will still work and involves less intermediate hardware between the cables coming out of the wall and switch going into the cabinet.

For reference, I used this guy in my wiring cabinet recently and am quite happy with it.

Also you're gonna want to open up one of those wall plates and double check which standard they used (568A vs. 568B) to install stuff at the other end.

All of those is pretty straightforward and just comes down to matching colors, so don't feel intimidated.

Star War Sex Parrot fucked around with this message at 18:36 on Nov 15, 2015

# ¿ Nov 15, 2015 18:31

Star War Sex Parrot: Oct 2, 2003

Binary Badger posted:

Yeah, management is still done with a dedicated app available for Mac OS X or Windows.

Or iOS.

# ¿ Jan 6, 2016 23:54

Star War Sex Parrot: Oct 2, 2003

Bouchacha posted:

I'm stumped by this. I'm trying to access a specific website (I haven't encountered this with any other site) and here's what happens:

Chrome URL: time out
Chrome IP address: time out
IE URL: time out
IE IP address: time out

CMD ping: works fine and replies within 64ms
CMD tracert: seems to work fine

Ipad connected to same wifi: works fine and I can see the website as intended

I thought it was a DNS issue but not even the IP address works, and I don't understand how the ping command can work but neither browsers. I also don't understand why only one website is affected. I haven't changed any network settings and proxy is set to auto-detect. Help?

How comfortable are you with Wireshark?

# ¿ Jun 17, 2016 01:32

Star War Sex Parrot: Oct 2, 2003

GobiasIndustries posted:

If I moved it upstairs, made a new wireless SSID and moved about half of the devices it, would it (theoretically) clear up some of the traffic problems we're running into?

It depends on what activity is causing the combo router/modem to poo poo the bed under heavy load, but offloading some of the Wi-Fi access point duties is unlikely to help. Your best shot with the equipment that you have would probably be to disable the router and access point capabilities of the combo (if possible) and let it behave strictly as a modem. Offload the NAT, routing, and Wi-Fi duties to the TP-Link and hope that the configuration is more stable. It's still possible the modem will crap out under heavy load in this configuration, but it's less likely. I'm surprised you're not having dual NAT issues already with the TP-Link in default configuration. Is anything else directly plugged into the combo besides the TP-Link router?

Or just enjoy the cottage for a week.

Star War Sex Parrot fucked around with this message at 19:15 on Jul 6, 2016

# ¿ Jul 6, 2016 19:11

Star War Sex Parrot: Oct 2, 2003

GobiasIndustries posted:

The TP link isn't a router, just an AP, so the best I could do with it is move DHCP over. It's the only hard-wired device and hasn't been doing anything since nobody is connected to it.

You're probably boned, then. I doubt offloading the Wi-Fi duties will keep the combo from crashing. It's worth a shot!

# ¿ Jul 6, 2016 19:27

Star War Sex Parrot: Oct 2, 2003

Thermopyle posted:

What's a good and easy way of testing WiFi throughput from client devices? Particularly Android devices, but something more cross-platform is cool too.

I've got an Ubiquiti ERL router and both Windows and Linux hosts on the network.

iperf is pretty much the standard.

https://iperf.fr

# ¿ Sep 2, 2016 23:27

Star War Sex Parrot: Oct 2, 2003

astral posted:

The aforementioned 6183 firmware update to re-enable ipv6 has been rolling out along with the removal of the modem page's reboot button (to guard against malicious websites sending requests to reboot your cable modem).

Is this something ISPs do regularly to both rented and customer-owned cable modems? I know I've checked my 6183 firmware version before out of curiosity, but was never clear on if that's something I can update, the ISP can update, or it's just stuck at whatever it shipped with.

# ¿ Nov 29, 2016 05:02

Star War Sex Parrot: Oct 2, 2003

Henrik Zetterberg posted:

Is the OP still accurate for recommendations?

God drat I wish I could update the thread title to "Yes the OP is accurate, stop asking"

# ¿ Nov 30, 2016 22:31

Star War Sex Parrot: Oct 2, 2003

Golbez posted:

Since Google Wifi only has one LAN port, what options would I have for my situation where I need four wired ports? Probably none, and probably Google Wifi isn't for me, since that's more of a power user thing, yes?

You just add a network switch.

# ¿ Dec 7, 2016 05:39

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# ¿ May 21, 2024 06:56

Star War Sex Parrot: Oct 2, 2003

smax posted:

Time Warner/Spectrum too.

And Cox.

# ¿ Jan 5, 2017 21:20

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Serious Hardware/Software Crap > The Home Networking Megathread - Yes the OP is out of date

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