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  1. scotty

    VLAN How To: Segmenting a small LAN

    I have a quick question regarding the setup in this article. I ask because I might have to set up this very same setup for a friend's office (shared office). I've done lots of VLAN'ing on bigger Cisco switches and routers, but not much on the Linksys type equipment. My question is essentially...
  2. scotty

    How To Convert your Xbox into a Media Player with XBMC

    I've tested XMBC and I quite like it. Haven't found anything better personally, although Boxee is supposed to be on par. And to be fair, I've had good success with Media Center, although XBMC would definitely be better.
  3. scotty

    Import DVD Library to computer

    I too have wrestled with this... The trick with importing/converting DVD's is formats. What works well for one device won't necessarily work well or work at all on other devices or formats down the road. Not to mention, converting can be trickier than ripping because you're potentially dealing...
  4. scotty

    Question about refurbished routers

    Factory refurbs can sometimes be a bargain. Sometimes it's just due to a minor defect or change. That said, you are obviously rolling the dice a little bit. There's usually at least a 30 or 90 day warranty. So if you're comfortable, give it a go, try to put it through some paces, and you'll...
  5. scotty

    looking to buy new router, can't decide

    I'm using a 655 as an AP, and I have a few installed for friends and family. No problems to speak of so far. My mainstay used to be WRT54's, but have had nothing but problems with the newer revisions (v5+) so I jumped to D-Link. But honestly, I've done a lot of SMB and SOHO consulting over the...
  6. scotty

    Looking for network segregation router <= $200

    I'm pretty sure you can, and there's people who do if you go to the pfsense forums. That said, it's a bit more of a complicated networking setup in VMWare to get it right. Also keep in mind the router would end up being powered on after several devices, so things like DHCP and other services...
  7. scotty

    Home build nas: How improve transfer speed

    Look at SNB's 'How to Build you Own NAS' series. Tim goes through the steps and documents some of the things that make a big difference. In short: - Use PCIe GigE NIC's, normal onboard/PCI nics wont cut it. - Try to use Jumbo frames if you can - The hard drives make a difference. Normal...
  8. scotty

    Is there an EASY modular plug for Gb/Cat6 cabling?

    I've had good success with Leviton's products. Their modular jacks are amongst the easiest I've had to wire. But no matter how you slice it, you're always going to be futzing around with 8 little wires whenever your doing your own Cat5. I too always try to buy pre-made.
  9. scotty

    Looking for network segregation router <= $200

    Haven't seen much out there for around $200 or less. Pretty much the only thing you're going to see at that price is basic VLAN capability, which like you say is all or nothing. You mention something Linux based - and that would be what I would recommend. Look at pfsense. It's Linux based...
  10. scotty

    Reorganizing my home network. Suggestions?

    So maybe just throw an Wireless AP up in the living room via. the cat5 cable... Seems to solve the signal strength problem fairly easily.
  11. scotty

    Reorganizing my home network. Suggestions?

    Keep in mind that the splitter thing won't work with Gigabit ethernet, as Gig uses all 4 pairs. I had an old room-mate who did the splitting thing and it seemed to work for him. The whole goal seems to be to give people better signal, so if you have an ethernet connection running to the living...
  12. scotty

    GPT and RAID 0

    YYou're not factoring the decimal-to-binary conversion loss. This happens with every hard drive, always has. Hard Drive companies define a gigabyte as 1,000,000,000 bytes (decimal). Operating systems define a gigabyte as 2^30 = 1,073,741,824 (binary). Basically, you'll always 'loose' 7% of a...
  13. scotty

    Windows 2008 box as home router?

    +1. If you're going to invest that kind of expensive, go for pfsense. And although you need a decent amount of hardware for Server 08, 95% of that would be used by Windows, and 5% by the routing processes. I run pfsense on a fairly fast home connection on an old P4 2.0 w/ 512 RAM and only 50% of...
  14. scotty

    Windows 2008 box as home router?

    There's already a number of excellent, purpose built routing solutions out there, so why Server 2008? Why not pfsense, monowall, clarkconnect, ipcop, smoothwall, untangle, etc? Any of these would be better for a low power setup, with fewer system requirements, easier to configure, and way more...
  15. scotty

    Best lan Config?

    I'm no expert on the technical ins and outs of the Windows browsing service, but I don't think it uses DNS to any extent. I think the 'slow browsing' issue is exclusive from the other DNS issue you're having. I've been to LAN parties where being able to see certain machines takes ages. I...
  16. scotty

    High performance switches - on a budget

    One of the nice things you can do with managed/higher end switches is set priority ports and sometimes some QoS to mitigate the problem with leaching/downloading/porn sharing and all the other stuff the tends to go on at LAN parties. Of the guys I've talked to who've run really big LAN parties...
  17. scotty

    High performance switches - on a budget

    Of the big LAN parties I've been to over the years (100+ people), there's usually some fairly standard HP or Cisco switches running the show. Games tend to not take too much bandwidth, so I wouldn't think you need much.
  18. scotty

    Super-rookie with questions

    A couple quick points. Tim (thiggins) would be a much better person to comment, but in my own research I've found very little consumer or enterprise wireless solutions offering that range in your budget. I'm work in a company with several remote field offices and sub-sites a 1km or two away and...
  19. scotty

    Best lan Config?

    So it sounds like it's just DNS. If they were to access the web server by IP in their browser (i.e. http://192.168.1.20) - I'm assuming it would work and there's no other connectivity issues at play. Correct? I would confirm that your DHCP server is dishing out the proper DNS server address...
  20. scotty

    Best lan Config?

    So to clarify, gaming is working fine but people are having a hard time seeing shared files? Or are there other problems (i.e. dropping connections, lag)? Since you're all on the same network to begin with, if you can see and play games fine, it's not a networking issue. If it's a file...
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