donmacn wrote: > > I suppose it stands to reason that the more network players I have, the > more important the network itself becomes, and I guess I really need to > learn more about how that all hangs together and operates. >
Absolutely true. If you don't know how it works, it's unlikely you will be able to do any meaningful troubleshooting. donmacn wrote: > > Is it true that you get what you pay for? - is commercial kit (routers > etc) somehow better or more reliable than domestic stuff? > The short answer is "Yes." The longer answer is that there is perfectly good, consumer grade gear that has the correct feature set to be useful. However, it will generally not be as robust as the the equivalent commercial/enterprise class equipment. Since I make a living as an IT guy, I tend to over-engineer my home network to give me additional flexibility and capability. I'm more concerned about Internet connectivity and the speed of my internal LAN, so I put better quality devices in place for those functions. The Cisco RV042 series of broadband routers are full-featured, extremely robust, and relatively inexpensive. They also require a bit more networking knowledge to get the most out of them, but no arcane command line instructions are needed; the web interface to configure it is about as straightforward as it gets. I tend to favor "smart" HP 1810 class gigabit switches for the internal LAN. Great performance, especially with teamed NICs on my servers and Link Aggregation Control Protocol (LACP) enabled on the switch ports. But, on the wifi side, I have minimal needs, so I use really cheap TP-Link wireless N routers as access points. For all of about $20 US I get decent N coverage for my phone, tablet and any visitors, and I they bridge well together to extend wifi as needed. I even have a portable LMS setup with a laptop, USB HDs, a SB3 and one of the TP-Link routers that I take to parties. The laptop and SB3 plug into the router's switch ports and I use it's wifi to control the playlist with my tablet or phone. The SB3 connects SPDIF out to a Cambridge Audio DACmagic and the balanced out from that plug into my soundboard that then connects to the PA. donmacn wrote: > > In terms of mapping the network, is there a device or app that can be > used to gauge wifi signal strength through the house, or an individual > room? > Wifi analyzer is a great tool for identifying wireless networks, what band and channel they use and their signal strength. But it won't specifically "map" your network. It may help to make a drawing of your network devices and how they are connected, just to get a handle on the scope of what to document. Here's a simple picture I made for someone a while back: 15970 I'll provide some more specifics per your PM in a bit. +-------------------------------------------------------------------+ |Filename: ASI-LAN.jpg | |Download: http://forums.slimdevices.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=15970| +-------------------------------------------------------------------+ Win7Pro(x64)[3.3Ghz i5, 8GB RAM, 120GB SSD system, 15TB storage], LMS 7.7.3 -> Logitech Squeezebox Classic V.3 -> Cambridge Audio DacMagic -> NAD C160 -> 2 x NAD C272 -> Quad 22L2 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ get.amped's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=10022 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=101601
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