My Network

I live in a two story house with an unfinished basement and attic.

Wiring Closets:
In the basement, I have a main wiring closet that is contained around a relay rack that houses three servers.  In the rack, there is a:

• 1 Panamax eight outlet surge protection system with built-in data protection

• 1 Netgear 16 port hub

• 1 Netgear RT311 DSL/Cable Router

• 2 Siemon CT Series Patch Panels

• 1 Belkin 4 port OmniCube KVM Switch

• 1 APC Smart-UPS 700RM with an SNMP Management Card

• 1 KMD K6 300 with 128megs SDRAM and 1.5gb HD

• 1 KMD K6 200 with 128megs SDRAM and 20gb HD

• 1 Dell Poweredge 500SC / PIII 1.0Ghz 256megs SDRAM and 20gb HD

Two servers are also installed in the rack, with the third one on a shelf unit next to the rack.  The three servers control the lighting, security, and file sharing of the house.  A small  business is also located in the house (that is why there are three servers.)  

A second wiring closet is located in the attic.  This is due to expansion of the network on the upper floor of the house.  In this closet, there is an:

• 1 3com Officeconnect Hub

• 1 Siemon HD5 16 port Patch Panel

The hub is mounted on a small shelf.  A CAT5 cable runs up the side of the house in a PVC pipe, leading from the main wiring closet in the basement.  This cable connects the main wiring closet to the remote wiring closet.

Network Devices:
On the first floor of my house there are 3 network jacks.  One is located in the dining room, while 2 others are located in the downstairs office.  With a long patch cable connected to the dining room port, you could take a laptop just about anywhere on the first floor.  In the downstairs office, there is a HP Laserjet 2100TN with a built-in Print Server and a Dell Dimension Desktop.  This printer is the only one in the house.  Sharing this one printer lowers the cost in consumables like ink and paper, because it is centralized.

When you are outside, connecting to the network is very easy with a network jack installed on the deck.  A laptop can be connected to this.  Internet access and also being able to print to the network printer is the most common use of this.  This is a great feature in the warm weather.  Two telephone jacks and also a cable TV jack have been installed into a weather proof box with a flip-up clear plastic cover.

On the second floor, there are 3 network jacks.  One is in my bedroom, and the other two are in the upstairs office.  One is connected to my laptop when I am home and the other one is connected to another older Pentium Dell Dimension desktop.