The last update on my home network had seen new and improved routing; I am still feeling the benefits of that change and I highly recommend it to anyone who is looking to bring their LAN up to the next level. I have made some tweaks to the network since then which represent a change in thinking (philosophy is too strong a word here) on my part as well. Here is what I’ve done and the reasoning behind a lot of the decisions I’ve made, and finally an examination of the virtue of starting from scratch.
The Setup
Since that update I have moved to a larger apartment which really allows me to put my network to work and I think finally starts to show the point of doing all this. It was also fun to unplug the whole tangled mess of wires and start fresh. My new place has five rooms as opposed to the two maybe three in my studio. I’m still in the process of building up the network again but here’s a summary of what I have in place so far:
- DSL line from the wall goes to a Speedstream 5260 ADSL Modem/Bridge
- The Modem connects to Lucy, the PII running IPCop
- Lucy controls two subnet’s from two physically separate NIC’s
- The blue subnet goes to a lightweight DLink Wireless Access Point
- The green subnet goes to the wired LAN
- On the green LAN there are currently 3 computers
- Pearl, a Pentium D dual core 1 Tb Raid 5 running FreeNAS
- Anne, iMac G5 running Debian Etch
- Cate, Celeron D running Debian Etch
This is the basic network setup. There are obviously plans to expand which I will touch on later. Since I started “from scratch” recently here is why I did what I did.
ISP
I decided to stick with DSL…at least for now. Honestly, I’m not too happy with the available choices in general. I like DSL because it is a direct line which makes it safer as opposed to an open LAN which is the Cable model. If I could (maybe I’ll look into this again), I would go with a static IP on the DSL rather than connecting with PPPoE. I think there is some speed to be gained by doing this — the unadvertised kind of speed that businesses get and individuals don’t. Basically, I’m looking forward to fiber, or a local DIY ISP or something besides the two ubiquitous choices.
Routing
The differences here is the change from a LAN + DMZ setup to a LAN + WiFi setup. I don’t particularly like or trust WiFi so I’ve kept it separate from my trusted network; the only way the two could interact with with a vpn (which I do not have set up currently). It is nice to have it set up this way because it allows friends to come over and use the internet (or even neighbors) without opening myself up to intrusion on my private network.
Hosting is fun to experiment with but is impractical for any serious applications. I lost the DMZ and moved all of my domains to Dreamhost. I’m very happy with the service there. They are professionals, I am not. Anything that I want to seriously share with the world I do on Dreamhost now. I still have a DynDNS name or two pointed at my network for convenience sake.
If I were to set up my routing again from scratch, I think I would go with Monowall instead of IPCop. This comes from my experience so far with FreeNAS, which is built on Monowall. I can’t think of anything I’d rather have running my data storage, or firewall than BSD. These atticware “embedded” appliances are an excellent and cheap way to add functionality to your network.
NAS
Speaking of FreeNAS, The new box in the house is my dual core NAS appliance. The computer was a barebones steal of a deal on Tiger Direct — where I do most of my computer and electronics shopping. My new apartment is also near a Micro Center which I have have been very impressed with as well. Anyways, the barebones box was a steal, and for me it was worth doing it right. This was my second attempt at a NAS and I will write a whole article about what I’ve learned from that project alone.
Switch to Debian
I have made a significant switch from Ubuntu to Debian on most of my machines. The article, “Debian redefines itself with new release” by Bruce Byfield on Linux.com really got me interested in trying it out. I found much of the article to be spot on, and describing exactly what I want in a distro. The added stability that comes with the care that Debian puts into it’s releases really makes the difference for me. The breakneck pace of Ubuntu development was fun at first but rebuilding your kernel ever two weeks became a hassle…especially when you multiply that by the number of computers on your network. I believe there is new blood at Debian and it is worth taking another look if it has been a while since you last touched the distro.
Future Developments
I am currently working on getting MythTV set up correctly on Cate. I am very close…oh so very close…and am looking forward to that accomplishment. In the mean time I am having fun watching free HD television pulled off of my rabbit ears with a pcHDTV 3000 card. Xine makes a great front end, but most movie players will allow you to play a DVB channel. After MythTV, Cate will get all the tweaks needed to play all sorts of media. LIRC is a long term dream as well, but is way down the list. Also, I will setup the MythTV frontend on all my other machines so I can use it in all rooms of the house (especially Anne, in the bedroom).
I am building a work bench for all future electronics, woodworking, robotics, and bicycle projects. I’ll set up Penney (a Dell PIV running Debian as well) to run as the desktop on the bench. This will have more of a development box feel to it. There will likely also be an additional switch on the bench for embedded projects (and watch out little Roomba!).
I am feeling more and more the lack of a printer and scanner so they will be added soon I’m sure. I will make sure they are as network attached as possible, especially the printer.
An Asterisk box is another network appliance I would like to experiment with. It hasn’t been a high priority because I don’t use my land line telephone very much. The software and hardware seem like a lot of fun though so I will likely be putting one of my atticware boxes to work on that in the future.
Summary
Before I was into computer networking, I used to love playing with audio gear. I would set up all sorts of configurations with amp’s, pre-amps, effects, media, instruments…basically anything I could get my hands on. Every once in a while my signal would loose it’s way, and no matter how hard I tried I couldn’t fix the problem. My solution was to unplug everything, make a pile off all the wires, and start again. Whenever I’d do this it would lead to a better set up, and I would learn something new in the process.
I had almost forgotten this lesson until this move reminded me. Every now and then it’s good to unplug everything, make a neat pile of the wires, and start over. Rethink your previous assumptions and remind yourself why you did what you did in the first place. It’s a very rewarding process and feels like you’ve grown and developed after you have finished it. If you feel like you’ve reached a plateau give it a shot and see what happens.
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