Home Networking - I need help
James Colannino
email2jamez at covad.net
Sat Mar 22 23:00:33 CST 2003
Hey everyone. Over the course of the next few months (or years,)
provided that I can bring in enough money to fund this, I'm planning on
developing a vast home network as sort of an experiment to increase my
knowledge in a vast array of different topics. I'm living with a family
of 4, and I was wondering if anyone has any suggestions for this. My
plans (very roughly) are as follows:
-firewalled central server hooked up to a wireless router, connected to
broadband DSL via a static IP.
-small cube computer (maybe something roughly like a PIII 1.0Ghz, 512MB
RAM, 20GB HD) connected directly to the central server via a physical
100Mbps ethernet connection, hooked up to one of the inputs on our TV so
that anyone could sit down and easily decide to browse the internet or
check their mail while not having to get up from the couch. I would like
to allow for access to other computers around the house as well as the
internet.
-a voice mail server for the phone to replace the answering machine,
allowing for extensions to be dialed along with the phone number (or
after the phone is reached) so that you don't require different phone
lines to reach different areas around the house depending on who you're
trying to reach. This would also be physically connected via 100Mbps
ethernet link to the central server where all the voice messages would
be stored. Or would it be better to store the messages locally on the
voice mail server and leave it disconnected from the rest of the network?
-A computer in every room wirelessly connected to the central server
allowing for internet access. I would like all of these computers to
have access to voice mail, internet, etc.
-I would like to create a small intranet for the household
-A mail server (I could use the central server for that) for email sent
within the local intranet. Also, I would like the mail server to be
used for the sending and receiving of emial to and from the internet,
along with a registered domain, thus eliminating the dependence on our ISP.
-make the house a wireless access point for laptops.
-I would like the intranet to contain various locally served HTML pages
for various things.
Any suggestions? Comments? Think I'm nuts? =P Anything I'm missing?
Any input whatsoever would be very appreciated. Keep in mind that I
know little about networking, so if anything I have said sounds
extremely stupid, please be kind O=)
James
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