My proposed home setup

M

mrcarson2

Registered
Let me know if this setup will work or is the most optimal.
Here is what I am proposing to create for my home.
I have a G3 B&W 450, I will install tiger server on it. Cable internet. Cat5e wired to all rooms with computers. A wireless access point for use when i go mobile throughout the house. I want the G3 to get the outside IP from the cable modem and I want it to broadcast DHCP to all of the client machines both wired and wireless. (the WAP would just be directly connected to the switch) I want the G3 to host a website and I want it to be my file storage server as well. So my question is, do I need to install a second ethernet adapter into the G3? I have a switch that will connect all of the other wired computers. Ideally I would like a gigabit ethernet card in my G3 and get a gigabit switch. It would be cool also to set up a webpage that creates an html page with all of the files that i have on my server and would just a simple password to access the website be secure enough? Anyway I have been thinking about this setup for some time now and it just occured to me that I may need that second ethernet card. I think that this would be the ideal setup because I could use the server as a NAS that could be accessible over the web and LAN and have my old G3 be useful again!
 
Running Cat5 cable to other rooms is a really annoying task, and you would be better off updating the other computers to wireless. Once you factor in the fiddling around running cables, the facia plates, the ethernet leads and so on, it tends to be cheaper nowadays to go wireless anyway.

A gigabit ethernet connection will only really affect the communcations to another computer with a gigabit ethernet card, and will make no difference at all when you're looking at Cable internet.

Also, setting up a "web page" to access your fils is a bit redundant and time consuming, when a simple FTP, Samba of AFP server would do the job more easily. And installing two ethernet cards and setting up NAS can also be a pain in the rear, when you consider that a switch/router will do the job just as well.
 
I'd plug the cable modem into a router instead of the G3. It'll be a lot simpler. The G3 will be just another client on the network, but will still be able to host a web server or anything else (just forward the necessary ports to that machine in the routers configuration).

That's what I do. Right now I have a wireless/ethernet combo router (a LinkSys WRT54G, to be precise, but I don't recommend this particular model, since it's given me a lot of headaches). Most machines are connected through ethernet, but I can easily move to wireless with new devices (although I choose not to, since ethernet is more reliable).
 
Right, that is why I want to primarily use ethernet, because it is more reliable. The whole reason why I wanted gigabit was so that I could use the G3 as a NAS so I could store all of my media and do backups. I wanted the website thing so that If i was at a computer that only had a browser, I could access them, but ftp can do the same i guess. Also it looks like adding a router is the best way to go. I forgot about port forwarding, i was worried that if my machine did not have an outside IP that I would be unable to access it from the web. Thanks for the replies.
 
Running just the G3 on gigabit would be a waste of money, since unless all the client computers connecting to it are running on gigabit as well it will have to slow down its communications to 100mbps.

And you can still have your G3 as a client on the network and do exactly the sort of things you want to do, without the hassle of trying to set up NAS or two ethernet cards.
 
symphonix said:
Running just the G3 on gigabit would be a waste of money, since unless all the client computers connecting to it are running on gigabit as well it will have to slow down its communications to 100mbps.

And you can still have your G3 as a client on the network and do exactly the sort of things you want to do, without the hassle of trying to set up NAS or two ethernet cards.
Click to expand...

Of course other systems may benefit from the gigabit network and when replacing the G3 with a mac with gigabit card this system will benefit too. So laying down a gigabit network may not be to beneficial right now, but might be for future use. If you can, use at least cat6 for cables, the investment is low in general, but might prevent high cost by replacing the cat5 cables by cat6 cables.


Good luck, Kees
 
I agree with using cat6 and using a dedicated router over making the g3 as a gateway/router. In general, you don't want your server to be the gateway because it is harder to compromise your server.
 
bluedevils said:
I agree with using cat6 and using a dedicated router over making the g3 as a gateway/router. In general, you don't want your server to be the gateway because it is harder to compromise your server.
Click to expand...

Also a router is a lot harder to crack from the outside world when compared to a multi-purpose server, too many programs leaving room for too many intrusions.


Good luck, Kees
 
hey thanks for the suggestions. By the way I wanted gigabit so that all of the client ethernet computers would be able to access data on the g3 at that speed. I know that I will have to have a gigabit switch and gigabit cards in each client. I am just used to having an external hard drive and the speeds that it delivers compared to 100mbps ethernet.
 
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