First off, I have to confess that it’s taking all my restraint not to start to tear open my new stuff and dive into this project. At work, life is all planning, but at home, I have the luxury of seeing how something works quickly then gradually getting it tweaked, but I feel that this is worth trying to do right. Also, I wanted to write down how I did it. First step is a network inventory. Continue reading “The Inventory of the Equipment Attached to My Network”

It’s been a year since I wrote here, and now I hope I’m back. It’s been a busy time so now that I have a big home infrastructure project, I figure it’s a good time to write some more.

WiFi

I have long had a nagging feeling in the back of my head that my house’s WiFi isn’t what it could be, especially since I live in a 2500 sqft house and I have to use 3 Netgear APs to get somewhat spotty coverage. A large part of this is that my house was built in 1934, and it has plaster walls, and an addition in the back that is separated from the rest of the house by the original brick back wall of the rest of the house. Even with 3 APs, we have iffy coverage, and the Netgear equipment, while generally very good, isn’t really meant for this use.

Also, my network has grown a lot since I originally designed it, and I’m not sure it does all it ought to.

It is fortuitous, then, that I read Lee Hutchinson’s article  (arstechnica.com) on his 3 years using Ubiquiti Unifi products. It was like he was speaking right to me, and I realized, on navigating to their site and seeing that the intro video is them wiring up a stadium, that this was exactly what I needed.

I read his article more than 10 times, working to tease out all the wisdom about what he had done, and also to see how I would approach a similar problem. I think I’m ready to jump. Continue reading “And We’re Back”