What's your wireless home setup?

[Buddhaboy]

I love the Christmas season because I have time to play around with all the gadgets I have at home. I have a grand plan to re-work my wireless home network in the next few days.

Our home currently has 2 iBooks, 1 PC, 1 Xbox, 1 Printer, and an AEBS and an AX.

The AEBS is in the attic and is the access point to PLDT myDSL.

The AX is in our bedroom and is configured as a remote base station.

The Xbox has a large hard drive on board and has Xbox Media Center installed. It is hard wired to the AX.

The PC is wireless capable but has hardly been used in the past few months except as a PVR.

Now here's what I plan to do.

I want to convert the PC into a multimedia (video, iTunes, data) server as well as an X-link Kai engine host since Xbox Media Center is capable of looking for multimedia network shares (including shared iTunes libraries) while iTunes and VLAN should work fine for the iBook. I've actualy gotten Xlink Kai and iTunes to work over the network (o, di ba? Lester! :P). No success yet on VLAN though.

I plan on connecting my external firewire HD to the PC as well so I can up the storage for video files. I plan on purchasing Macdrive since I'd rather keep the HD in HFS+ format. The PC shall continue functioning as a PVR as well, so having the extra HD space would be really good for me.

If finances permit, I could probably purchase another AX to stream music into our dining room.

Now here are my questions:

Is there anything more than I can do with my PC to maximize it? It's a P4 1.8 Ghz with Windows XP Home and 256 mb RAM.

And no, throwing it in the trash is not an option. I still have a strange fascination with Windows and my PC. I actually find a lot of satisfaction in removing spyware and virii. It just drives home the point that my Macs are so much safer.

What are your own home network setups?

I'd love to find out before I actually get some work done.

Merry Christmas to all!


:lol:

[Edited on 12-25-2004 by Buddhaboy]

[Macmon]

Hi Gabe,
Merry Christmas!

My home setup is simple.
DSL with a Linksys WRT65G router.
Have 3 Desktops connected via wired LAN and 1 ibook via WiFi.

Since your unit has only 256 RAM, How about adding additional memory?

You may want to consider in getting a SATA drive for your desktop.

:2cents:

[hypersomniac]

DSL with Linksys WRT54G in my bedroom
an eMac Desktop wired to the Linksys. The eMac also has an amp and bookshelf speakers connected to it, not the multimedia speaker stuff.

two iBooks and an IBM Thinkpad all with Wifi.
Airport Express downstairs connected to another sound system.
The eMac serves as the MP3 server, and my iBook as controller to pick
the music i want play.

Before I wanted to make the PS2 network capable, but didnt do so. Maybe if i have kids. For serving video, i think it still a hassle pa since i have to rip DVDs or download video files and then get a large storage. I havent even ripped all my CDs to iTunes. Maybe in the near future, there will be cheaper HD based media player that does the ripping easily and have wifi capability na din. 1 Terabyte on the living room ? :lol:

When i make a video i just burn a VCD then bring it downstairs. Cheaper solution for now.

Gabe, maybe a wireless video/web camera is a good thing to add if youi want to see your place remotely ?

[elbert]

I had a Linksys WRT54G in the living room, but I just gave it away for Christmas. Temporarily, I'm using and AirPort Express (which usually is with me wherever I go). Next week, I'll purchase the WRT54GS to be my base station

My broadband is provided by Eastern EvO DSL.

Our wireless setup is for our two computers--my 12" PB and my wife's tangerine clamshell.

[directX]

AEBS connected to PLDT DSL.
Netgear connected to AEBS's LAN port.
1 Linux/windows PC connected to netgear (wired).
1 Powermac connected to netgear (wired).
1 iPaq 6365 connected to netgear (wireless at b).
1 Zaurus SL5500 connected to netgear (wireless at b).
1 Powerbook connected to AEBS (wireless at g).

[El CaMOTe]

GlobeDSL connected to WAN port of AEBS (w/modem,antenna port), then,

Epson 740 printer to USB port;

Legacy Apple 16/600 Laserprinter connected to ethernet port;
(Since my whole house is wired, I will eventually connect a netgear 4 port hub to the AEBS ethernet port, so I can connect each room, but not yet !)

G4 667 MHz TiBook with Sonnet Aria G Cardbus surfin' wirelessly in the Master's bedroom,

G4 867 QuickSilver desktop with Sonnet Aria G PCI card surfin wirelessly in my workshop.

When i want to surf in the main house in the compound, I put in my other AEBS (w/o modem) configured as a extended base station and that's how I streamed SmoothJazz.com for our Noche Buena feast this morning using my TiBook !! It still is magical to me, this wireless surfin'. Too bad my sister in Lausanne was prepping her Noche Buena for 30 people (!!) and couldn't go online yahoo chat.

Mac/AEBS is fantastic, ...God is Great, God is Good ! Allahu IESU !!

Happy Birthday Papa Dios !

[fafa_roland]

Originally posted by Buddhaboy
I love the Christmas season because I have time to play around with all the gadgets I have at home. I have a grand plan to re-work my wireless home network in the next few days.

Our home currently has 2 iBooks, 1 PC, 1 Xbox, 1 Printer, and an AEBS and an AX.

The AEBS is in the attic and is the access point to PLDT myDSL.

The AX is in our bedroom and is configured as a remote base station.

The Xbox has a large hard drive on board and has Xbox Media Center installed. It is hard wired to the AX.

The PC is wireless capable but has hardly been used in the past few months except as a PVR.

Now here's what I plan to do.

I want to convert the PC into a multimedia (video, iTunes, data) server as well as an X-link Kai engine host since Xbox Media Center is capable of looking for multimedia network shares (including shared iTunes libraries) while iTunes and VLAN should work fine for the iBook. I've actualy gotten Xlink Kai and iTunes to work over the network (o, di ba? Lester! :P). No success yet on VLAN though.

I plan on connecting my external firewire HD to the PC as well so I can up the storage for video files. I plan on purchasing Macdrive since I'd rather keep the HD in HFS+ format. The PC shall continue functioning as a PVR as well, so having the extra HD space would be really good for me.

If finances permit, I could probably purchase another AX to stream music into our dining room.

Now here are my questions:

Is there anything more than I can do with my PC to maximize it? It's a P4 1.8 Ghz with Windows XP Home and 256 mb RAM.

And no, throwing it in the trash is not an option. I still have a strange fascination with Windows and my PC. I actually find a lot of satisfaction in removing spyware and virii. It just drives home the point that my Macs are so much safer.

What are your own home network setups?

I'd love to find out before I actually get some work done.

Merry Christmas to all!


:lol:

[Edited on 12-25-2004 by Buddhaboy]

nice setup!

enweis from what i have read the sole purpose of your PC would just be a Multimedia Server. I would recommend increasing the memory to 512mb or more, processor speed is enough, you can change Win Home to XP, upgrade to service pack 2.

I hope to see you on Kai! My friends from Pinoyxbox usually plays there. Kindly log on to www.pinoyxbox.com them kindly private message Rdperalta so he could give you access to the Xlink forum. But nothing beats Xbox Live!

[hubes]

PLDT DSL connected to an AirPort Express base station sending the signal to an eMac and a 12" Powerbook.

[Eric]

• Linksys WRT54G connected to PLDT MyDSL Pro
• Dual G4 w/ Airport card; HP PSC 1350 All-in-one connected via USB
• 14" iBook w/ Airport Extreme
• 12" Powerbook w/ Airport Extreme
• Also have Airport Express w/c I use from time to time to connect iTunes to our sound system.

[Edited on 12-25-2004 by Eric]

[CooLes]

You've done so much with your Xbox already Gabe. I envy you. No DSL yet since Mobile One somehow screwed up my application. Its more than two weeks already and am filing a letter of complaint soon! You bet am ready for Kai link when DSL arrives. For now, am still waiting for my ROTK Collectors Edition so I can dump it all on the Xbox HD.

Well you can maximize your PC by turning it into a HTPC (home theater PC)
:evil: Simply put, with the right hardware (read: ATI video card) and software, you connect your PC into an HDTV with either a VGA or DVI input and enjoy progressive scan DVDs with quality thats better than the best progressive scan DVD players. If you are interested I can refer you to my cousin who does this on the side He also says that the quality is even better daw than a Philips Pixel Plus. He has a Pixel Plus at home but that feature is disengaged since he already plugged an external processor.

Right now my home network consists of the PowerBook wirelessly connected to the Linksys WRT54G router. The Cube and the Xbox are connected via LAN on the router. And also a Speedtouch DSL modem.