A new home…a new network :) Since we depend quite a lot on the network at home and use it for all kinds of things, it needed be fast and stable. Also the integration of a server adds to the complexity of your network.

The network consists of two major parts. The first on is the Fritzbox 7170, a versatile ADSL modem with an integrated PABX (phone switchboard). It also includes a switch and wifi but those are 100Mbit/54Mbit. To slow for our needs and I also already have a nice, much better Cisco WAG320N, so we use that box for switching (gigabit) and wireless (full wireless-N).

The server is directly hooked up to the Cisco together with an other wireless device, a bridged connection to our television. This means that we have a very fast wired network, a fast wifi network (for our PC and laptops) and also a wireless bridge. The bridge and the wifi network are seperated from each other so streaming data to the television will hardly be influenced by network usage of the laptops.

In the future we will add some more devices like a Popcorn Hour A-200 and we still need to connect our X-Box and Nintendo WII, but that’s just a matter of switching them on ;)  The first experience with the new network is great, I had some doubts about the VOIP, but even when stressing the network it keeps working just fine!