| Computer Network
We run a fully switched 100Mb Fast Ethernet network with about a dozen
or so computers for
business and recreational purposes and for home automation.
Summary
2003 saw a further upgrade of the equipment and we now have a
fully switched 100Mb network with 1TeraByte (1,000GB) of on-line storage,
Colour and mono networked laser printers and an ADSL connection to the Internet
supplied by BT Openworld. Once you have tried broadband, you will
not want to go back to a modem so why not The main machines in use are:
Main PC
My main PC has an AMD 2200XP processor with 200GB of storage; a Sony DVD
+-RW drive with Bluetooth, IRDA, Scanner and Video cameras connected to
it. I use an iiyama 18.1" TFT monitor.
Firewall
We have a PC running Windows 2000 that acts as a firewall and which
prevented the MS-Blast worm getting into our network as port 135 was
blocked. It is quite amazing just
how many different people scan our network for weaknesses and trojan
horses every day. This PC has an AMD Duron 750 CPU with 256MB
memory.
CD and mp3 Server
Situated in the dining room is the CD and mp3 server. This unit is
driven by a Celeron 466 on an ABit BE6-II motherboard which has 256MB of
memory and a pair of 80GB drives that are mirrors of each other. The 80GB drives holds all our CD's which I have converted to
mp3 format. Any computer within Redoak can play these mp3 files; the music
can also be played through our audio-visual surround sound amplifier in
the lounge.
The Data Storage PC
This also has an ABit BE6-II motherboard with 128MB RAM and it uses a
Celeron 466MHz processor. It has 5 IDE drives of 40GB, 40GB, 37GB,
60GB and 13GB
and it is used for data storage. Back-up is a real problem, so,
since we have a 100Mb network, complete hard drives are periodically
dumped onto this PC. Moving 20-30GB across the network does not take
very long. From here the data is moved to either DAT tape or now
onto DVD +R disks.
The 560X
We now use an IBM 560X Thinkpad to control our home automation
which runs 24 hours a day using the HomeSeer
software.
The machine talks to us and explains when lights are switched on ad off
etc; it also explains and logs when and where movement is detected
outside....but no more on our security system, of which this is part!
Primary Laptop - Dell Latitude LS
This is my primary travelling computer which performs many functions.
It is connected to the LAN via it's 100Mb NIC for internet access and can
also directly connected to the Internet via it's internal V90 modem.
Also, I can connect my mobile phone to it and so send and receive emails
and faxes when away from home. Being a keen photographer, I can
either download pictures via the USB port or plug a camera's compact flash
card into a converter to download pictures which are then transferred to
the main PC. I have both Bluetooth and IRDA dongles to communicate with
my mobile phones. The Dell LS is very light and is excellent for its
job.
Look here for some Dell special offers
IBM ThinkPad T23
This is my business computer which I acquired in December 2001. It
has a 14.1" TFT screen with integral V90 modem, 512MB RAM, a 46GB
hard drive and a CDRW/DVD-ROM running Windows 2000 Professional. It is connected via a 100Mb
PCMCIA Ethernet card to the network for disaster recovery data backup and
printing. Lotus Notes 6. Using TCP/IP encryption software, I can
connect to my company's business LAN via the Internet.
Print Servers
One of the limitations of having printers connected to a main computer is
that the main computer needs to be switched on for printing. We are
therefore using a D-Link 10/100Mb print server and this enables any user to print to our colour
or monochrome at any time.
It makes no sense for small, medium or large company users to have
their own dedicated printers. Both these laptops are connected to
the LAN using 100Mb NICs.
Network
All the desk top machines are networked with D-Link 10/100baseTX DFE-530TX
or DFE-540TX PCI Ethernet adapters. The laptops also have
10/100baseTX PC Card Ethernet adapters. We do not use slow 10Mb cards any
more.
Network security is carefully implemented with Windows 2000 set to
audit key events.
Security
Thinking of helping yourself to any of our kit? Well think again
since having both an electronics and financial background we have a very
sophisticated unobtrusive security system installed that does not
just rely on main power. I will provide no details of security
on this site, and neither will details be provided to email enquiries.
General
No parts of the PCs are generally ever scrapped. I tend to upgrade
my machine and use the displaced parts to upgrade the other PCs connected
to the network.
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Redoak
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