Technology, Books and Other Neat Stuff

Here's a piece I've written for IT Pro on the basics of upgrading an existing network to gigabit ethernet...

Gigabit networking hardware is getting cheaper, so much cheaper that gigabit network cards are now standard in many desktop PCs and servers. Used as a server room technology in the past, it is now ready for the desktop and the small business. If you're already running a 100Base-T or even 10Base-T -network, you may be closer to moving to gigabit than you might think.

Read More.

...and it's letting in data.

We got out the big drill bit again today, and put a hole through the wall between the office and the lounge. Feeding cat 5 ethernet cabling through it was a little tricky (I wasn't as straight as I could have been going through the wall), but marypcb found a use for an old cat toy, and we soon got the cable through using it and some wire.

Still, that's the media PC hooked up to the music, photo and video files on the 1TB NAS by 100Mbps wire rather than through a 802.11G wireless connection to an AP at the other end of the house. At some point soon I'll dig out the old 8 port switch and give the lounge a switched connection, and hook up another AP to improve coverage.

It's good to have power tools.