1. 1 Interop Atlanta 99 SS1 © DavidS trom Inc. Home Networking: How You Can Provide Tech Support for Your Family and Still Keep Your Day Job presented by: David Strom David Strom, Inc. (516) 944-3407 david@strom.com

2. 2 Interop Atlanta 99 SS1 © DavidS trom Inc. Summary My own home experience Wiring choices Internet access technologies Advantages and disadvantages of each Skills, costs required to implement See Byte article here: www.byte.com/features/1999/04/0419homenetwork.html

3. 3 Interop Atlanta 99 SS1 © DavidS trom Inc. My Current Home LAN Standard Ethernet RJ45 wiring, cheap hub, two Win98 PCs Cablevision Optimum Online since January, two hour install, multiple outages. Overall bandwidth ~10x ISDN SonicWall firewall with NAT

4. 4 Interop Atlanta 99 SS1 © DavidS trom Inc. How I Got There Needed a friend to terminate, test and make cables Drilled holes through the floors Spent lots of time debugging wire plant, protocols Not bullet-proof: power outages can ruin network configuration

5. 5 Interop Atlanta 99 SS1 © DavidS trom Inc. Issues Understanding what to do with which Windows OS version isn’t obvious Care to not share your PC with your neighbors Do you really need a home firewall? Understand your applications needs of family members before doing anything

6. 6 Interop Atlanta 99 SS1 © DavidS trom Inc. The Real Issue You are on call 24x7 for your family LAN, whether you like it or not

7. 7 Interop Atlanta 99 SS1 © DavidS trom Inc. Goals Easy to support Reliable Resilient to well-meaning but ignorant family members’ efforts Upgradable as you add more PCs Minimize home disruptions to phone and power

8. 8 Interop Atlanta 99 SS1 © DavidS trom Inc. Other Suggestions Remember phone service is a mission-critical family application, so mess with it at your peril Do your installation when the family is out of the home Maybe hire your neighbor’s teen to do the job

9. 9 Interop Atlanta 99 SS1 © DavidS trom Inc. Motivations for Home LANs Shared Internet Access Play DVD movies on larger TV screens Multiuser games

10. 10 Interop Atlanta 99 SS1 © DavidS trom Inc. Questions to Answer Before Installing a Home LAN Are you brave and talented enough to open up the PC and install a network card and its drivers? Are your PCs located near existing (and working) phone or cable TV jacks? Do you have the carpentry skills and spousal design approval to run wires and drill holes around your house?

11. 11 Interop Atlanta 99 SS1 © DavidS trom Inc. Home Wiring Choices No, No, No: Powerline Yes, No, No: Wireless No, Yes, No: HomePNA (single shared phone pair) or Peracom (cable TV coax) Yes, No, Yes: Standard Ethernet (two dedicated pairs)

12. 12 Interop Atlanta 99 SS1 © DavidS trom Inc. Powerline Least reliable of the four technologies Quirky installation Slowest overall network throughput When it works it is wonderful Typical vendor: Intelogis

13. 13 Interop Atlanta 99 SS1 © DavidS trom Inc. Wireless Can be the most expensive Good for support roaming laptops Typical vendors: Aironet, Proxim, Diamond, WebGear

14. 14 Interop Atlanta 99 SS1 © DavidS trom Inc. HomePNA Lots of choices now on the market But quirky install on older PCI PCs Understanding which phone lines are shared isn’t obvious in all homes Still need Ethernet card for cable access Typical vendors can be found at homepna.com or homepna.org

15. 15 Interop Atlanta 99 SS1 © DavidS trom Inc. Standard Ethernet Widest number of choices of equipment Need cable fabrication expertise Great if you have access to a basement or attic to run the wires

16. 16 Interop Atlanta 99 SS1 © DavidS trom Inc. Internet Connection choices Cable DSL ISDN Dial-up

17. 17 Interop Atlanta 99 SS1 © DavidS trom Inc. Cable Advantages One phone-call install Know nothing about routers Wiring is already in the home

18. 18 Interop Atlanta 99 SS1 © DavidS trom Inc. Cable Disadvantages Reliability and reputation low: single supplier per area No relationships with business users Need firewall and/or security improvements As popularity grows, bandwidth drops (2-20 x ISDN connection) Some MSOs don’t support LANs

19. 19 Interop Atlanta 99 SS1 © DavidS trom Inc. DSL Advantages Not sharing your connection Competition in many urban areas Cost competitive with T-1 service

20. 20 Interop Atlanta 99 SS1 © DavidS trom Inc. DSL Disadvantages Multiple truck rolls Customer is caught among ISP, iLEC and CLEC Limited number of routers supported Confusing choices of speeds and technologies Distance limits for some suburban users

21. 21 Interop Atlanta 99 SS1 © DavidS trom Inc. ISDN Advantages Widest deployment Largest choice of routers and access technologies (apart from dial-up) Best understood of the four technologies

22. 22 Interop Atlanta 99 SS1 © DavidS trom Inc. ISDN Disadvantages Still dealing with the phone company Bonding two data channels still a black art Can get pricey if you use it lots

23. 23 Interop Atlanta 99 SS1 © DavidS trom Inc. Dial-up Advantages Cheap Easiest of the four to implement Lots of access equipment choices (Ramp, 3Com, etc.)

24. 24 Interop Atlanta 99 SS1 © DavidS trom Inc. Dial-up Disadvantages Slow Not for more than two-three concurrent connections Some ISPs don’t allow shared dial connections

25. 25 Interop Atlanta 99 SS1 © DavidS trom Inc. Skills Required Router, network management Wire plant installation and management Protocol wrangling Good conflict management skills (and we aren’t taking about IRQ conflicts only!)

26. 26 Interop Atlanta 99 SS1 © DavidS trom Inc. Conclusions Technologies still improving, but no clear choices Home wire plant anything but predictable No single vendor solution Speed isn’t the issue: reliability and installation ease is far from a done deal You’ll need to be part electrician, part plumber, and part therapist