Home Networking, pfSense, Motorola Cable Modems, D-Link Routers and Gigabit Switches – HT106

Jim (@jcollison) is joined this week by Paul Braren (@tinkererguy), Nathaniel Lindley (@thanlindley) and John Stutsman (@JohnStutsman) for Show 106!  We were all about Home Networking in this show!  How to do it, how not to and how to get it done with what you have!  Hope you enjoy this episode.  Part 2 will be next week.

Join us for the show live each Thursday at 8pmC/9E at http://theAverageGuy.tv/live

Don’t forget to get registered for the Drobo Giveaway!  http://theAverageGuy.tv/giveaway

Here are the notes from the show.  You can listen and follow along!
______________________________________________________________________________

Paul Braren, @tinkererguy
TinkerTry IT @ home. Efficient virtualization, storage, backup, and more…
All my network-related articles can be found at:
http://tinkertry.com/network
diagrams
http://cdn.tinkertry.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/when-cable-is-down-cellular-workaround-

List of devices

• WRT54G and 3-4 other Linksys routers in early 2000s, stock and tweaked firmware
• 1 Linksys/Vonage combination product for VOIP
• 2 D-Link DIR-655
• Cisco/Linksys E4200 (currently) with SB6120 DOCIS 3.0 cable modem

I’ll dig around the basement, and add more details, mostly focused around my current known-good, stable combination of cable modem+router.
experiences
I’ll be ready, here’s my references, all pretty much here (from last 2 years, the relevant stories):
will discuss things I look for in a router, given

• I had young kids (protection)
• I now have gamers (low latency Justin.tv streaming, he’s broadcasting full 1080p video of StarCraft II and his webcam, while playing and talking)

effective QOS tuning video:
http://www.tinkertry.com/voip-tuning-101
upgrades
Done many upgrades from older routers to new, at family and friends houses.
Many firmware upgrades also done for various reasons over the years, with mixed success, and tales to tell.
______________________________________________________________________________
Paul Braren, continued…
shownotes:
forgot to mention how variable routers are when it comes to interruption of service, such as changing port forwarding, on some routers, you have to reboot for that simple change to take effect, which bumps network access for everybody in the house, not acceptable!
Also forgot to mention to use Windows 8 / Windows Server 2012 Task Manager to monitor live bandwidth usage, see examples here:
https://tinkertry.com/skype-v-google-hangout-testing
how to do WOL for a WiFi only Yoga 13?
coming soon to tinkertry.com
Hardware mentions:
More about John Stutsman 2001 vintage D-Link DGL-4500:
http://www.dlink.com/us/en/home-solutions/connect/routers/dgl-4500-xtreme-n-gaming-router
Cisco-Linksys WRT54G Wireless-G Router, also 2001:
http://www.amazon.com/Cisco-WRT54G-Cisco-Linksys-Wireless-G-Router/dp/B00007KDVI
popular for OpenWrt and Tomato firmware
D-Link DIR-655, 2003:
http://www.amazon.com/D-Link-DIR-655-Extreme-N-Gigabit-Wireless/dp/B000LIFB7S
Cisco/Linksys E4200 Jan 2011:
http://www.amazon.com/Cisco-Linksys-E4200-Dual-Band-Wireless-N-Router/dp/B004K1EZDS
ASUS RT-N56U
http://www.asus.com/Networking/RTN56U
ASUS 802.11AC
http://event.asus.com/2013/nw/802_11ac/edm.htm
802.11ac is the Next Big Thing in Wireless
New 802.11ac is faster and better than 802.11n, paving the way for high-performance wireless HD. But how long will 5 GHz band stay uncrowded?
http://www.cepro.com/article/802.11ac
Stutsman Style bookmarks:
http://cdn.tinkertry.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Windows-Server-2012-John-Stutsman-style.jpg
from
“The 2nd Annual Home Server Show Meetup” in Indianapolis Indiana October 20th 2012
good reviews of home networking equipment:
http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/
______________________________________________________________________________
Nathaniel Lindley, @thanlindley
diagrams

http://goo.gl/S8f83
list of devices

• pfsense router on old Dell tower, 2 NICs, DNS, DHCP, Traffic monitor, Firewall
  • I like the vnstat2 package for clear traffic usage graphs
  • no UPnP vulnerability
• Motorola/Vonage modem for VOIP (I called to get the price back down to reasonable)
• Wireless AP (Linksys WRT54G with tomato for 802.11g), Linksys E2500 (802.11n); Apple Airport Extreme 802.11n with Printer sharing
• Motorola Surfboard cable modem (Comcast)
• SiliconDust HDHomerun IP tuner
• Gigabit switches (Trendnet Green and Netgear GS series)
• desktops, laptops, mobile devices

experiences
Been happy with pfsense as a router, better than Buffalo DD-WRT and older linksys, would like to learn more about QOS and reporting
Pay for OpenDNS account and use them to block nasty sites, works for me at router level
Sometimes, when both wife and I are on VPN (mostly when her WinXP laptop is on wireless) we will both get disconnected — enough to need to turn off wireless on laptop and then back on to reconnect.  Why could that be?
upgrades
At this point, I think I have too many cascading switches in switches to get wired connections to various areas of the house, will that cause networking problems?  don’t really think I can run more cable in walls.
I’d like to learn more about using iperf to test bandwidth internally and look for bottlenecks

John Stutsman, @JohnStutsman
Diagram

List of devices

• Cable Modem: Motorola SURFboard eXtreme Cable Modem Model SB6121 DOCSIS 3.0
• Router: D-Link DGL-4500
• Main Switch: D-Link 24 Port Gigabit Switch DGS-1024D
• Additional Switches: D-Link 5 Port Gigabit Switch DGS-2205; D-Link 8 Port Gigabit Switch DGS-2208
• HD HomeRun
• HP Officejet 6000 Wireless/wired Printer
• Desktop, Laptop, HTPC
• Various wireless iOS devices
• Wifi Radio Ira Myine IR001
• Various Servers

Previous devices

• Router: D-Link DI-524 b/g
• Bridge/Access Point: 3*D-Link DAP-1522
• Power-Line Ethernet (Power-Line Carrier): D-Link DHP-302
• Cable Modem: RCA DCM425
• Before the DGS-1024D I used a D-Link 8 Port Gigabit Switch DGS-2208 then later a DGS-2208 and a DGS-2205 daisy chained

Experiences

• The DGL-4500 has been very stable — pretty much set it and forget i
• Per Michael’s suggestions in BYOB Episode 77 I made mod’s per his suggestions referencing:
  • See DHS Link
  • See  The How and Why of the exploit
• Reference for other Security enhancements:
  • http://www.ghacks.net/2006/04/08/home-network-router-security-secrets/
  • http://www.informit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=461084&rll=1

Some testing I did in 2009-2010 (see attached pdf above) showed –
Net effect of testing on 2009-2010 was:

• Power Line Carrier was the Slowest though it was still fast enough for most videos
• Direct CAT6 Cable was the Fastest
• Gigabit switches were faster than the back of Router
• The back panel of the Access Points/Bridges could be used for Gigabit Switches

Additional references:

• An Introduction to Home Networking
• Network Interface Controller Outline
• Network Basics-Part 1
• BYOB Episode 35
• BYOB Podcast 75
  • See Sam Bowne – DoS IPv6 by RA Packets

Upgrades
Future plans include –

• 2nd HD HomeRun – for over the air Broadcast with Antenna in Attic
• CAT6 cable runs to additional rooms in the house
• A lot of my old equipment/hardware has gone to family members I expect I’ll be helping them as their systems evolve

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Chat Logs:

[9:37] PM  Renny: Like that tip KS

[9:38] PM  jpeg2RAW_Mike: Your fine Jackie, I am not posting much easier since I am working on the show from Tuesday

[9:38] PM  ben: googledns

[9:38] PM  Jazzerjay: google here as well

[9:38] PM  OtherJim: Good point KS, always think about the next cable pull.

[9:39] PM  flyboyco: KS good point.  twine is cheap

[9:39] PM  Renny: Dyn.dns does the same

[9:39] PM  up7500: I had to point my MOM’s router to google for DNS due to how bad her ISP was.

[9:40] PM  ben: do u block dns request not going to opendns?

[9:42] PM  ben: if u don’t block dns request except to opendns u can bypass the opendns blocking by using a different dns

[9:42] PM  ben: disable UPNP!!!!

[9:43] PM  tinkererguy: ah, shownotes, here’s some URLs, sorry, should have shared up front

[9:43] PM  tinkererguy: http://tinkertry.com/upnp-vulnerability/

[9:43] PM  tinkererguy: best overall list of my network related articles here:

[9:43] PM  tinkererguy: http://tinkertry.com/network

[9:45] PM  jpeg2RAW_Mike: What if you have 3

[9:45] PM  ben: yes

[9:45] PM  CanadianGeek: it would yes

[9:46] PM  jpeg2RAW_Mike: pfSense can handle UPnP and with 3 Xbox’s, UPnP makes it much easier

[9:46] PM  ben: there is a program to test i’ll find it

[9:46] PM  ben: yes lanspeed works well

[9:46] PM  CanadianGeek: why not have an internal port on your pfscense box for each switch??

[9:47] PM  OtherJim: Good idea CG

[9:47] PM  CanadianGeek: instead of doing a switch off of switch

[9:48] PM  Nathaniel: the trick is getting the wired connetion to the rooms I want it.  I’m going to have to think through that idea.

[9:48] PM  Nathaniel: like a 4 port NIC?

[9:48] PM  Renny: Lot more cable to run

[9:48] PM  ben: I have used lanspeed and used it to proove a switch was being saturated

[9:49] PM  CanadianGeek: well you may have to check the pci slots on the pfscense box to see what it can support. You could get a single port pci card for the pfscense server

[9:49] PM  ben: just get a 16 or 24 port GB switch

[9:50] PM  CanadianGeek: also check what pfscense supports the cards

[9:50] PM  Nathaniel: I do use the built-in NIC and a PCI gigabit NIC in the Pfsense box

[9:50] PM  Nathaniel: the gig nic goes to a single 8-port gigabit switch

[9:51] PM  Renny: I agree Joe Miner

[9:51] PM  CanadianGeek: awwww misinterprited, my bad

[9:52] PM  Renny: I have had video issues on 10/100 switches

[9:53] PM  CanadianGeek: depends on the size of the videos you’re streaming through the network. There could be issues

[9:54] PM  OtherJim: My first home router had no wifi, but it had a serial port and could dial a 56k modem!

[9:54] PM  Nathaniel: this one?  http://www.totusoft.com/lanspeed.html

[9:54] PM  ben: yes

[9:55] PM  ben: did u see a difference between cat5 cat5e and cat6 wire

[9:56] PM  flyboyco: i have never noticed the difference

[9:57] PM  Nathaniel: Dlink DGL-4500 http://www.dlink.com/us/en/home-solutions/connect/routers/dgl-4500-xtreme-n-gaming-router

[9:57] PM  CanadianGeek: I’ve noticed a difference between cat5 and cat6, but the difference between cat5e and cat6 is so slim it’s hardly noticble.

[9:58] PM  Renny: Cat5/6 only really makes a difference over longer distances

[9:58] PM  CanadianGeek: and through put Renny

[9:58] PM  Nathaniel: does POE show a difference on Cat5e vs. Cat 6

[9:58] PM  Nathaniel: /

[9:58] PM  Nathaniel: ?

[9:59] PM  Renny: Cat6 less prone to interference too (better shielding)

[9:59] PM  CanadianGeek: cat5e and 6 is a distance thing, but not cat5 and 6

[9:59] PM  tinkererguy: sorry, never had to use power over ethernet, not sure about your good question Nathaniel

[9:59] PM  Nathaniel: not at home, no.  just curious for work. 🙂

[9:59] PM  flyboyco: renny, i agree, but I have never seen the difference

[10:00] PM  Renny: @flyboy they are almost the same price these days so I just go w ith 6

[10:00] PM  flyboyco: for the small cost difference, use 6.

[10:00] PM  flyboyco: renny, i totally agree.

[10:00] PM  OtherJim: Agreed

[10:01] PM  ben: small cost diff for house maybe office it gets costly

[10:02] PM  flyboyco: if it’s an office, the difference will be noticed in the next couple years

[10:03] PM  Renny: Cat6 is future proof for 10Gig too, so just use it

[10:04] PM  Jim theHost: http://homeservershow.com/an-introduction-to-home-networking.html

[10:05] PM  tinkererguy: John’s legendary bookmarking talents documented here:

[10:05] PM  tinkererguy: http://tinkertry.com/home-server-show-meetup-indianapolis-october-2012/

[10:05] PM  Renny: Stutzman Style

[10:05] PM  Jim theHost: http://homeservershow.com/an-introduction-to-home-networking.html

[10:05] PM  tinkererguy: http://cdn.tinkertry.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Windows-Server-2012-John-Stutsman-style.jpg

[10:05] PM  flyboyco: i’m done with wife’s video.  just curious about the Drobo deal…  didi I miss the cue?

[10:06] PM  Jim theHost: not yet…let me do that

[10:06] PM  Renny: nope

[10:06] PM  CanadianGeek: @jim thehost, good start for networking

[10:06] PM  flyboyco: SWEET

[10:06] PM  ben2: cat5e can handle 10g

[10:06] PM  KS: Cat7 for 10G, but even that does not meet the distance specs of ethernet.

[10:07] PM  Jackie_Kingsley: ok, cool 🙂

[10:07] PM  flyboyco: (sorry, jim the host)  I feel like I was cheating on you…

[10:07] PM  ben2: ben2 is ben (clicked something while on the phone

[10:07] PM  flyboyco: but it WAS my wife

[10:08] PM  Renny: There’s a catch, only Australians can enter

[10:08] PM  OtherJim: lol

[10:08] PM  Jazzerjay: haha

[10:09] PM  CanadianGeek: roland??

[10:09] PM  flyboyco: I know Roland

[10:09] PM  flyboyco: $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

[10:09] PM  flyboyco: someone had to…

[10:09] PM  OtherJim: Drobo with NIC is kind of new

[10:09] PM  Renny: they used to make synthasizers

[10:09] PM  ben2: try synology boxes

[10:10] PM  up7500: Just threw the word in.

[10:10] PM  Renny: cant find it

[10:11] PM  Jim theHost: ROLAND

[10:11] PM  Jim theHost: Drobo word of the show

[10:11] PM  jpeg2RAW___Mike: total crap John

[10:11] PM  tinkererguy: very nice Mike

[10:11] PM  tinkererguy: I know you jest

[10:12] PM  tinkererguy: trying to get him to react 😉

[10:12] PM  jpeg2RAW_Mike: iP hone is so yesterday

[10:12] PM  OtherJim: Grandpa has an iPhone like your’s Mike

[10:12] PM  jpeg2RAW_Mike: WHat I want him to reacto to is how slow the Intel 3770k is compaed to my AMD chip

[10:12] PM  jpeg2RAW_Mike: 8 real cores vs 4 real+4 fake

[10:12] PM  Nathaniel: thems fighting words

[10:13] PM  jpeg2RAW_Mike: My AMD 8 core is kicking the butt of my i7 3770k in Wirecast

[10:13] PM  jpeg2RAW_Mike: I am having to overclock the 3770k to 4.2GHz to get it somewhat close

[10:13] PM  tinkererguy: you overclock it, I heard you mention recently, to keep Wirecast happy

[10:13] PM  tinkererguy: (same wavelength)

[10:14] PM  Jazzerjay: no

[10:14] PM  CanadianGeek: No doesn’t matter at this point

[10:15] PM  CanadianGeek: you’re alright Jim

[10:16] PM  CanadianGeek: cat6 is cheap also, 1000 feet for $120 at monoprice

[10:16] PM  OtherJim: No writing, it is Cat3 or less

[10:17] PM  up7500: I will switch to CAT 6 when my currnet box of Cat5E runs out, still got about 600 ft left.

[10:20] PM  CanadianGeek: alot of stuff goes in the 2.4ghz range

[10:21] PM  jpeg2RAW_Mike: wierd, we don’t have any interfernce issues that I have ever noticed

[10:21] PM  CanadianGeek: baby monitors, wifi, wireless home phones, microwaves….amungst others

[10:21] PM  OtherJim: I’ve seen the microwave effect.  Wii on wifi drops, but I don’t care.

[10:22] PM  Nathaniel: got the baby monitors here, too.

[10:22] PM  up7500: anybody else ever have problems with bluetooth when the microwave is on also.

[10:24] PM  KS: http://homeservershow.com/forums/index.php?/topic/4895-wireless-access-point-with-concurrent-dual-radio/?hl=eap600

[10:24] PM  OtherJim: Yes, BT uses 2.4 GHz too. Same problem.

[10:24] PM  CanadianGeek: Hey Direct quote Nat,

[10:25] PM  CanadianGeek: 🙂

[10:26] PM  CanadianGeek: I love appartment buildings. I can break out my backtrack 5 and have some entertainment

[10:26] PM  tinkererguy: http://www.asus.com/Networking/RTN56U/

[10:26] PM  Renny: AC rolling out now

[10:26] PM  Nathaniel: thx

[10:27] PM  CanadianGeek: No worries Nathaniel

[10:27] PM  Renny: As usual AC not a standard yet

[10:27] PM  Nathaniel: good times

[10:28] PM  CanadianGeek: awwwww no networking protacals??? How disappointing 🙁

[10:29] PM  CanadianGeek: Could you repeat the rolls??

[10:30] PM  CanadianGeek: if the rolls are running in the hyper-v vms it should be fine

[10:30] PM  Jim theHost: I am going to set up failover for the hyper v’s but i also want to set up dhcp, domain controller dns active directory but I have heard that you should not install those rolls on the data cente r direc

[10:31] PM  CanadianGeek: Yeah don’t worry about it. He’s good in the hood

[10:32] PM  CanadianGeek: Pass on that he should have the secondaries set to the other system.

[10:33] PM  OtherJim: John has the best documented shade tree ever!

[10:35] PM  flyboyco: great show!  sorry for the distraction…

[10:35] PM  Renny: All part of the fun Flyboy

[10:36] PM  flyboyco: Thanks renny!  Enjoy the 30degree weather

[10:36] PM  Renny: you too,lol

[10:36] PM  flyboyco: 🙂

[10:37] PM  Renny: On it

[10:37] PM  Jackie_Kingsley: goodnight all 🙂

[10:37] PM  OtherJim: Thanks guys, very good show

[10:37] PM  flyboyco: Jim,  hows the nabreaska snow?

[10:37] PM  Jim theHost: thanks guys

[10:37] PM  CanadianGeek: Have a good one Jackie

[10:38] PM  CanadianGeek: And all

[10:38] PM  Nathaniel: so fun

[10:38] PM  Jim theHost: lots of snow here

[10:38] PM  Jim theHost: school is cancelled for tomorrow

[10:38] PM  flyboyco: we had  6: of powder in two days.  push broom stuff

[10:39] PM  flyboyco: I heard Kansas was CLOSED

[10:39] PM  Jim theHost: where are you flyboy?

[10:39] PM  flyboyco: denver

[10:39] PM  Jim theHost: oh yea

[10:39] PM  CanadianGeek: alright I’m out guys, ttyl

[10:39] PM  flyboyco: (keith from denver

[10:40] PM  flyboyco: See ya CG!

[10:41] PM  flyboyco: Just got the Audio Technica.  sweet mic for the $

[10:42] PM  Renny: You podcast Flyboy?

[10:42] PM  Jim theHost: love me the 2100!

[10:42] PM  Jim theHost: very nice mic

[10:43] PM  flyboyco: just getting rady to.  (wife’s indusyrt)

[10:43] PM  Renny: cool

[10:44] PM  flyboyco: She has been in her business for several years, but no serious podcasts yet.  we are going to try

[10:44] PM  OtherJim: John, you need the free MS ZoomIT make it easy to show stuff.

[10:44] PM  OtherJim: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897434.aspx

[10:45] PM  OtherJim: (It is not part of the show tonight, so no big deal.)

[10:45] PM  Jim theHost: did you listen to the interviews with the podcasting guys

[10:45] PM  Jim theHost: flyboy?

[10:45] PM  flyboyco: I did.  We were ready to start, great timing.  Really apprciate the interviews Jim

[10:45] PM  Jim theHost: cool

[10:46] PM  OtherJim: Look at the tower of linksys!

[10:46] PM  Jim theHost: are you suggesting something OtherJim? 🙂

[10:47] PM  OtherJim: It is so cool!

[10:48] PM  OtherJim: You used USB for the VZW device?

[10:48] PM  flyboyco: I think I have the tools…  We are getting a few shows layed out before we atsrt.  trying to be ready for a few shows before we start

[10:48] PM  Jim theHost: let me know if you have any questions keith

[10:49] PM  flyboyco: for sure.  I have a bunch of questions, but will try to be ready before I “call”.

[10:49] PM  Jim theHost: well. when you are ready…let me know

[10:50] PM  Renny: Jim, you up for a short video as part of the show next week? On installing ethernet?

[10:50] PM  Jim theHost: youtube video?

[10:50] PM  Renny: no. original

[10:50] PM  Jim theHost: your video?

[10:51] PM  Renny: yep

[10:51] PM  Jim theHost: can you ship it to me?

[10:51] PM  Renny: of course

[10:51] PM  Jim theHost: I think we can do it

[10:51] PM  Renny: Give it a go anyway and see what you think

[10:57] PM  flyboyco: wow..   thats cool

[10:58] PM  flyboyco: ATR2100!

[10:59] PM  Renny: Great idea for a show Jim, Thanks all for a really informative show

[10:59] PM  flyboyco: renny – thanks for humoring me.

[10:59] PM  flyboyco: great show all!

[11:00] PM  Nathaniel: thanks, I had a great time.

[11:00] PM  Jim theHost: thanks guys

[11:00] PM  Jim theHost: great having you all

[11:00] PM  Renny: Glad to be of assistance

[11:02] PM  John S: Thanks everyone for coming out

[11:02] PM  John S: I had a great time