2 Bit Hacker

In the process of making some changes to my home network in an effort to reduce the amount of power I use for always-on equipment in the apartment. Or at least that’s what I tell people, actually I’m just in it for the gadgets.

Current network is my cable modem, connected to my home storage server/router, which is then connected to a WRT54g which is just being used as a switch and 802.11b/g access point. From there we have my desktop PC, and an Ethernet over powerline bridge to my entertainment center with the XBox 360 and the TiVo HD.

So the plan is to rip out the storage server (a Dell Dimension E521) and the WRT54g, replacing them with an Apple Airport Extreme with an external drive array. This also upgrades my wireless to 802.11n and my wired stuff to gigabit. Eventually, it’ll look something like this:

I picked up the Airport Extreme last night, planning to install it this weekend to take over routing and wireless. I figure I’ll keep the storage server around until I figure out what I want to do for an external drive array off the Airport. I’d like to get a drobo, but they’re still somewhat pricey to me. It is the simplest to maintain solution though.

I’d also like to keep a FreeBSD box on my network so I have something I can shell in to. Somewhat looking at the MSI Wind PC as a low power BSD box. I could mount storage from the Airport and just boot from a CF card (which the Wind PC supports, apparently) to keep power consumption down.

Of course, all of this means spending more money and adding to my pile of computer stuff I don’t use, which already contains a mini-ITX motherboard that I could use for a low-power BSD box, though it would mean buying a power supply and IDE/CF adapter, which would probably add up to most of the cost of the Wind PC and be less powerful. So I’m not sure which path I’m going to take.

I should probably just be happy with what I have and save my money, but what fun is that?

This is my first family holiday in a while where I’ve had no family things to go do. It’s kindof odd. Just me and the Bailey cat at the moment. He moved in on Friday, and seems to be enjoying himself. I think he’s a little confused that the floor is covered in carpet and there aren’t cages on the walls. He’s kindof like a big old kitten; everything here is new to him, and he has some of the kitten skittishness to him.

Work has been going well. My department just finished up a major project, which went pretty smoothly. Now we get some breathing room and will hopefully be able to fix up some of the less important things that deserve to be fixed. The company has issued me a Mac Book Pro, which I am quite liking. I keep comparing it to having a Linux laptop where everything works properly without having to futz with it. I’m really liking the little things, like iCal and Address Book, and how well everything syncs together, including my BlackBerry.

Stuff in the apartment has stalled a bit now that most of it is how I’d like it. The past couple of weeks I’ve been coming home, taking a walk, and just haven’t felt like doing much around the place. I should probably work on the office a bit this afternoon. Once I get that squared away, I’ll have a nice work area for doing projects. I should get some pictures posted once I get everything in place.