Here's my setup. PLDT Fibr Modem to Airport Extreme Base Station. AEBS has a printer connected to it and a WD Mybook 1.5 TB for Time Machine backups. AEBS then connects via ethernet to a Linksys PLSK400. A few rooms away, the other PLSK400 unit is plugged in and is connected via ethernet to my Airport Express and to my Apple TV. No lag HD streaming!
A more recent pic. Killed off the 15 y/o CRT monitor and moved the NAS to another floor for pseudo off-site backup. A proper managed D-Link gigabit switch replaced the two 8-port CDRK gigabit switches.
@oj88: I *liked* your post kasi kinareer mo. It takes time and effort to create a meaningful post/thread. We could use more knowledge *seeders* in our community. Keep it up, even if your network diagram did not show a single Apple device. But, at least, all your network devices have MAC addresses.
I too have a simple setup at home: 1. A d-link ADSL 2 modem/router that's much beefier than the ISP supplied modem router. 2. A d-link green-powered 8-port gbit switch. 3. A 1TB Apple Time Capsule for WiFi. 4. A 2TB d-link DNS 323 NAS 5. A 14TB custom built file server. I used an intel atom motherboard, 4 GB RAM, 4x 2TB & 2x 3TB WD Green Power drives. I installed Ubuntu 12.04 Server on it and configured LVM and Samba. It's also configured for Time Machine backup. 6. An Apple Mac Mini 2012 w/ 16 GB RAM is connected to the Sony Bravia in the living room and functions as a HTPC. The whole setup consumes very little power so they are on 24/7. I'm thinking of upgrading my APC UPSes to a beefier model sometime in the future.
Well, thank you. We're not without Apple devices. I just didn't drew them in because clients such as these change almost every month. But just to give you an idea, here's a rundown of Apple devices on my network off the top of my head: 1x MacBook Pro (my Dad's) 3x iPhones 6x iPads
Update! Added home-wide OpenVPN access. Family members can now watch streaming video or access US-only content through any of their connected media players and HTPCs. Scored points with my folks as they particularly loved streaming TV and movies. Thinking of adding Hulu Plus if they ran out of stuff to watch on Netflix.
Added a few more Roku 3's, 'connected' an office and my lab, a 2nd ISP, an IP CCTV, and deployed several IP phones so my folks wouldn't have to come out the door and shout. The IP phones are a mix; A pair each of Cisco SPA525G and CP-7960, a D-Link DPH-120S and DPH-140S SIP phones. Also installed CSIPSimple app on Android phones so when they're connected to my WiFi, these phones can have their own local numbers and can be used to make and receive calls from other IP phones, as well as outside calls using PLDT/landline. Call control is via a Cisco 2621XM router running Cisco CallManager Express 4.1... old by today's standard but it's more than enough for my needs. The 2nd hand market is such a goldmine if you know where and what to look out for. You've undoubtedly realized by now that I am a IT technical practitioner. My day job involves building IT solutions from banks to the corner convenience store. Setting up my home like this is kinda normal to me.
@oj88: I have a similar but much less complex network than yours: 1. ISP CPE in Bridge Mode 2. Cisco / Linksys router with DD-WRT (gateway via PPPoE, guest wifi, smartDNS) 3. Cisco 24 port unmanaged GE switch 4. Time Capsule used as AP and and Time Machine backup (wired) 5. Synology NAS (wired for file storage, transmission, sabnzbd, couchpotato, sickbeard, L2TP VPN server, nagios, plex media server) 6. Roku 3 (wired) 7. Popcorn Hour (wired) 8. Samsung Smart TV (wired) 9. D-Link IP Camera (wireless, running on Synology Surveillance Station) 10. Airport Express (wireless, as range extender) 11. Various PCs, laptops, mobile devices connected wired and wireless The setup is temporary as I will be moving to a new place with structured cabling in all rooms. Wanted to get your advice on telephony. Synology has a built in Asterisk server package and I'm sort of on the fence on whether or not to enable it or not. I understand that if I turn it on, I will probably need to install an FXO or something like that to connect to my phone line. Even if I don't But I read on the internet about a bunch of horror stories of the network being hacked and fraudulent calls being made resulting in very high IDD charges. What do you think? Seems that you are using a Cisco Call Manager to get your telephony system running. Will this be easy and cheap to integrate? I'm only looking at five end points. Thanks.
I originally wanted to run Elastix as it provides a TON more features than what CCME 4.1 can offer. But I have a couple of issues: 1. FXO/FXS boards - Elastix runs on a PC platform and requires (as you mentioned) an FXO port to connect to the outside world. From my point of view at least, investing on the PC and voice cards will typically run me in excess of US$250 maybe US$300. On the other hand, I already have an old Cisco router with the necessary software and voice ports (2xFXO + 2xFXS), remnants from when I was still studying for my Cisco certs. So from a commercial standpoint, it's a no-brainer for me to utilize what I already have, even though I'd end up with a plain-vanilla phone system. 2. Stability - I admit that I have very limited knowledge of voice environments outside of Cisco CallManager/Express. Elastix/Asterisk is relatively new to me as far as design and administration are concerned. Sure I was able to setup two test endpoints with Elastix but, if anything should go wrong, I don't think I know enough around their respective CLI to confidently support it. By comparison, I've been deploying Cisco products for almost a decade and a half. I've never seen CCM break down other than due to a hardware fault. Enterprise-grade... built like a tank! And if something stops working, I know enough about it to be confident I can fix it myself. If you're building from scratch, going Cisco will definitely be more expensive. They are so in-demand that it's rare to find them very cheap. My recommendation for you is to stick with Asterisk or Elastix. Scare up a spare PC and a couple of SIP phones and you're golden. After you've built enough confidence, that's the time to shell out for those voice cards. As far as hacking is concerned. Just make sure that outside callers are not able to get a 2nd outside line. And if you use PINs to restrict access to NDD/IDD, don't use '1234' and such.
Bayantel Modem =>Linksys router => Lan1 =>gigabit switch Sw1=> WDNAS/ Sw2=> 2ndflr /Sw3 => TV/movie area Linksys router =>Lan2 =>AP =>AP Linksys router => wireless (repeater) for other areas
Seen on the thread that some are using Cat5/Cat6 cabling. Am thinking about it although I cringe at the cost of cabling even just on our 2nd floor at home with some LAN ports. Sorry for the noob question: How is the signal strength as the LAN port gets farther away from the router?
Just follow good practice when laying down LAN cables: 1. It should be no more than 100 meters (total cable length, including patch cables) from the router/switch to the other device (be it another switch, PC or Mac, etc.) 2. The LAN cable should have some distance from noise or interference sources such as power lines, radio transceivers, inductive appliances, and the likes 3. Use quality, known-brand (not counterfeit) cables such as Belden, D-Link, etc. 4. Although both Cat5e and Cat6, when terminated properly, can do GigabitEthernet (1 Gbps), stick to Cat6 at the minimum. It offers more headroom to resist noise compared to Cat5e. The newer standard is Cat6a. Pretty expensive and unless you need 10 Gbps to go 100 meters, just stick to Cat6. DO NOT use Cat5 (without the 'e'). These are only good for FastEthernet (100 Mbps) and lower.
Ok, I wanted to use Visio, but it turns out it was just expensive to use because I really don't have any other use for it, except this. My Home Network setup consists of From the start... PLDT Fibr Modem Linksys WRT1900AC#1 Netgear GS108T 8port Gigabit switch w/link aggregation Synology DS1515+, Mac Mini, Apple TV#1, Apple TV#2, Apple TV#3, Apple TV #4, Xbox One #1, Linksys RE6500(repeater) | | Linksys WRT1900AC#2(bridge mode) Brother MFC J200 Printer, Windows PC, iMac, Macbook Pro, Sony TV, Xbox One #2, Xbox 360 #1, Macbook, Macbook Air | | Airport Extreme#1(bridge mode) Airport Extreme#2(repeater), Airport Express(repeater), Xbox 360#2, PS3, IP cam#1, IP cam#2 | | LinksysE1200 DDWRT Guest router(throttled at 10Mbps) Asus RTN10 as repeater for the guest network Plus 9 other iOS and Android devices moving freely. I have a problem with one cable, but it does not hinder any device. I noticed that the cable between the WRT1900AC#2 and the AIrport Extreme, maxes out at 12Megabytes/sec. It turnsout it was an old Cat5 cable and changing it is nearly impossible as it runs below the granite floor(tried tugging). I can see my wife's face frown, when I hinted that I might have to retile the granite floor. I also installed a bigger antennae for WRT1900AC#1,#2 and the RE6500 Range extender. It seems I get a better range. Better range is always welcome.
Juice, Are you getting buffering when you watch videos from your game consoles? If not, then perhaps you would be willing to live with a Fast Ethernet connection to your Apple and Guest setups to save on rewiring costs. Assuming, of course, that you are not OC like me. In my house, I setup structured cabling on all rooms and the study using Cat6. My video players are mainly Smart TVs, which are only FE. Didn't check the older models, but my 2015 Apple TV also only has an FE port. No buffering for me but, in any case, I am not able to maximize the 1G network capability. Your guest network should be ok as you throttle to 10 Mbps anyway. Of course, the only downside is if you are connected to the network downstream from the Cat5 cable and you want to transfer lots of heavy files. In which case, no choice but to move to a location nearer to Linksys 1 or 2. I am assuming from your description of your network above and what devices are connected to what network element that the Linksys devices are in your bedrooms so maybe not such a huge hassle. On another note, did you get link aggregation to work on your Synology and DLink? What kind of transfer speeds are your getting when you connect via GE? I have a 1512+ and wanted to do that but didn't want to spend for a managed switch, so I just setup failover on the Synology instead. I'm such a loser hehe.
I guess i'm a little OC about the Cat5 cable. But, so far there's no buffering on videos. As soon as that happens, I just might re-cable the thing. My wife's Macbook transfers files and saves files from downstairs(AE#1) to the Synology. So far no problems about accessing files. I did get the link aggregation to work with the Synology. The fastest I've seen it do, is transfer at 140+Megabytes/sec. And that's only when I actually try to stress it out by making all the Macs run Time Machine and my Mac to transfer large video files and Apple TVs to stream videos from my iTunes library. I guess it really isn't necessary using link aggregation on a home network setup like mine.
