Every so often I blog about my software, hardware or network upgrades. Having gone from a dailup to isdn was huge for me (and LAN on 10 mbit). An even bigger step was moving to broadband. The last few years I’ve upgraded to docsis2 with high-speed Internet (and 100 mbit for the LAN and 802.11g). And in the meantime my hardware and local area network were updated with replacements.
In 2011 it’s time to put the high back in high-speed network. And the first step has been taken with upgrading the LAN to 1 gbit with 802.11n, and the Internet modem to a docsis3 with 120 mbit down and 10 mbit up. All thanks to UPC.nl. And yes, it really does feel like overkill.
As I have been blogging between 2005 and 2010, my move away from Windows to Apple has also introduced new technologies with better performance. The ethernet ports are 1 gbit and the wifi is all 802.11n. My cables and Linksys router were for 100 mbit but with a 30 mbit account this was more than plenty. Any big transfers were done over a Firewire-800 external hard drive. With the upgrade to 120 mbit Internet that’s now outdated. The router got replaced by a cable modem with 1 gbit on board, and 802.11n. So not only did the Internet speeds improve, my LAN had a little boost as well.
The first step this year with the upgrade and update has been completed, and it’s now a matter of configuring everything properly again. My .com domain is being used for all publicly reachable hosts. And the .net is being used internally. The next step is to replace the cat-5e cables with 6, and shorten the coax cable between the splitter and the mysterious second splitter – and the cable modem. And to invest into a proper network backup NAS. Get a good quality color laser printer that is wireless on 802.11n or network connected.
Focus this year on the network will be to organize it a bit better, remove that what I do not need, sell old hardware, and improve performance.