12 November 2024 | Do-It-Yourself, How to, Networking |
With fiber internet, ultra-high download speeds are pushing the envelope in terms of home routers.
While 1 Gbps Ethernet used to be enough, many ISPs are offering 2Gbps speeds – and up!
Unfortunately, your standard home router these days usually only offers a single 2.5 Gbps multigig Ethernet port – and sometimes NO 2.5 GbE ports at all.
So what do you do if you need multiple 2.5 gig Ethernet ports?
Why, you roll your own router, of course! It’s a lot easier than it seems…
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26 September 2023 | Do-It-Yourself, How to, Networking, Video, Wireless Wonderland |
So, you’ve gone wired and are enjoying the speed, stability, and privacy of Ethernet.
One problem: There’s no button to turn off WiFi on your ISP’s router/modem!
What to do?
Why, hack it, of course!
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2 April 2019 | Computers, Gizmos, How Does it Work?, Networking, Video |
These days, WiFi is everywhere. Even your washing machine probably has it. 😉
I typically don’t recommend using WiFi due to the huge amount of evidence indicating that it’s probably not the best thing for your health.
But there’s another reason to go back to cables…
WiFi is quite often WAAAY slower than most people think. In fact, it’s very rare that you will get anywhere near the maximum speeds advertised when you buy a WiFi access point or router.
What to do, what to do?
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26 February 2019 | Do-It-Yourself, Gizmos |
Everyone has a home router, whether they know it or not.
For most of us, our router is the DSL / Cable / Fiber “box” given to us by our ISP.
You can, of course, add your own home router in between your home network and your ISP’s box. This provides an extra level of safety – among other things.
Those of us who are a bit more techie (and crazy) like to roll our own router. There are many reasons for this, not the least of which is security.
Unfortunately, not all routers are created equal, even when they’re “created” by you!
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14 August 2018 | How Does it Work?, Networking, Video |
Your average home WiFi router or access point often has a setting so that you can reduce its transmit power level.
This is pretty handy to know given what I talked about in my earlier video, Are WiFi, Bluetooth, 4G, and 5G bad for you?
The typical range for 2.4GHz WiFi is 150ft (46m) indoors, and 300ft (92m) outdoors. For 5GHz Wifi, it’s more like 50ft (15m) and 100ft (30m). The lower you set the power, the shorter the range – but the less you are blasted by the WiFi signal!
There’s no reason to leave the transmit power at maximum if you don’t need the range… As an added bonus, lower range means increased security since it’s less likely someone else will “see” your WiFi network.
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3 July 2018 | Computers, Do-It-Yourself, Networking |
I’m not a big fan of WiFi, but I do use it from time to time.
It’s just convenient to use for some gizmos where an ethernet dongle is not supported.
Trouble is, I kept forgetting to turn off my WiFi router when I was done.
And then – two days later – I would discover I was still bombarding myself with magic 5 GHz death rays.
Not any more!!
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14 May 2015 | Computers, Networking |
Bonjour is Apple’s way of doing zero-configuration networking. It’s a bit of software that does three things:
- Service discovery on the local network (LAN)
- IP address assignment/sharing
- Hostname resolution
Normally, things like IP address assignment are handled by DHCP. With Bonjour, the idea is that all you have to do is plug your gizmos in, and turn them on. Bonjour will then “scan” the network, and all devices and services on the LAN will be automagically configured for you. Each gizmo will have an automatically configured IP and hostname, and you’re done.
This is great, except when you don’t want Bonjour to do its thing. Perhaps you have a mostly Windows/Linux LAN, or you want to restrict access to a certain group of computers on your LAN that are separated from the rest by a physical home router/firewall. Bonjour makes this rather difficult, since it sneaks by basic IP/MAC filtering you might set in your router.
So, how do you block Bonjour?
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With fiber internet, ultra-high download speeds are pushing the envelope in terms of home routers.
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