This page is old - 2010 or so.
We do a lot of computing out our house. Here’s what our network looks like:
The heart of the network is in our TV Cabinet. There we have Comcast Cable Service coming into a motorola Cable modem. The signal goes to our Linksys WRT54G Wireless G modem and then gets distributed through the house.
In the TV Cabinet are the following devices.
Panasonic 55" Plasma screen. Awesome TV used for watching TV, and viewing the Replay TV and as a monitor for the IBM ThinkCenter PC.
IBM ThinkCenter PC with 200mb hard drive. This was originally setup to be used as the controller for my Home control software - big plans, I never got it done. Now I just back up the other hard drives with it, and use it to show pictures on the plasma screen. It’s hardwire networked to the Linksys.
Replay TV - 40 Gig HD version, I bought a lifetime license for it. Works good, when I remember to program it - however 40 gigs isn’t nearly enough. It’s on my list to put 500 gigs on it, but I haven’t gotten that done either.
Vonage Vtech cordless phone base. Vonage line for calling national/international
Slinglink turbo. I found this device at CompUSA when they were liquidating the local store. It was designed to network a Slingbox remotely using the house wiring as a conductor. Turns out it will link any network device and it works great. I was having trouble getting a good wireless signal to my office and my wife’s office, so I setup a slinlink connection.
In Eric’s office I have the following.
Slinglink turbo - 4 port connector
Eric’s Desktop - this is my main personal computer. I built it from scratch with a fast processor, lots of memory and added a raid 1 array mirrored set of hard drives in case one of them crashes. Everything backs up automatically to that hard drive.
Linux server - more best laid plans. I built this to host all my web pages on, but about the time they got it done, Comcast increased the size of their personal web hosting from 25mb to 1 gigabyte - making it unnecessary. I did learn to use Linux and I’m going to get the web serving and some wiki serving up sooner or later.
IBM laptop - This is my main work computer - IBM T61
10 Eric’s Personal Laptop - This is an old thinkpad that I use for special projects.
Samsung All in one laser printer fax scanner - awesome printer. I also use the fax machine sometimes and it works good for copies, but I was pretty disappointed with the scanning capability.
Fujitsu ScanSnap - bought this to remove my clutter. It works great - my clutter still creeps in. This is a fantastic device however, it can scan a document directly to a PDF file in no time flat.
Vonage Vtech Cordless Handset
Seagate 300 Mb firewire drive - I use this to keep an offsite backup to my files.
Toshiba Tivo DVR - Like the Replay TV, this thing is great for recording TV. It also burns DVD’s from the hard drive.
Other devices in the house
Kathy’s computer is a compaq desktop with a 19 inch flat screen and a hp laser printer. It is networked through another slinglink device.
Kid’s computer - is upstairs. It’s an emachines computer that audrey uses mostly to play games on. It has an HP Deskjet color printer.
Drew’s Macbook - Drew has a macbook he uses for school at University High School. He uses it constantly and is wirelessly connected over the Linksys network
Lindsey’s Thinkpad - T40 laptop that Lindsey uses to IM with her friends. She also has created a couple of cool stop-action movies with her digital camera.
Wii - not networked yet, but can connect to the Linksys network.
Needless to say, it all takes some time to maintain. At least one computer is constantly on the fritz, but I enjoy it, and we use everything like crazy. We’re probably one of the most wired households around. A couple of things I’ve learned - make sure everybody backs up their data, and keep at least one copy of data offsite if possible. I also make sure all the machines are protected with updated antivirus, and I watch things pretty closely.