Networks

[andrewducker]

About 9 months ago Meredith got given an internet radio for her birthday.  This would then alllow her to listen to WOXY, her favourite internet radio station, while she was in the kitchen.

However, the kitchen is at the opposite end of the flat from the study, and with the WiFi signal fading to nothing just short of there.  So I bought her a wireless repeater.  Which turned out to be a right pain, because actually connecting it to a networkthat had security set up on it took a lot of swearing and googling.  But I got there eventually.  Only to find that it, too, had signal issues from the only place that it could be reasonably sited (due to power sockets).  It would lose signal intermittently, and need to be reset to pick it up again.

And so today I went round to Hugh's with two powerline boxes and plugged one in at either end of the flat.  Which instantly produced 75Mbits of bandwidth with no problems whatsoever.  Turning the wireless repeater into an access point was a doddle, and now he has decent, reliable, signal at both ends of the flat.

I also demonstrated the wireless music streamer I picked up recently for £45, running against TVersity on my laptop.  It works perfectly at streaming music from my laptop and also streams music from internet radio stations (like the aforementioned WOXY or the BBC).  Its main failing is that it needs external speakers or headphones, as it doesn't have any built in.  But that's fine for me - Julie and I are going to set it up in the kitchen and plug in a pair of half decent speakers.  Now I just need a NAS box that has UPNP built in...

Comments

[meaningrequired.livejournal.com]

I'd also love to have a speaker in the bathroom...

[andrewducker]

Absolutely. Difficult to do though, particularly considering how steamy it gets in there. Not the speakers (there are plenty of speakers around) but the music player itself.

Hmmm we can look at this tonight and work out where one would put it :->

[a-pawson.livejournal.com]

Why stop there when you can get a waterproof TV installed in your bath or shower.

http://www.waterprooftv.co.uk/aquavision17_mk4.html

[momentsmusicaux.livejournal.com]

I can't get wifi at all in my bedroom at the new place, which is a real pain as I have to work in the kitchen instead of the desk.
I'm getting a shiny new iMac tomorrow whose wifi reception I am hoping will be better than the laptop's, but if it's still no good my fallback plan was to just go buy a mobile broadband dongle from 3.
Got any other ideas?

[andrewducker]

Something off this list:
http://www.dabs.com/category/networking-and-communication,network-devices,routers-and-bridges/11177-49980000

lug one of them into the router and one in your room. You can then put an access point in your room as well, should you want WiFi at your end of the flat...

[momentsmusicaux.livejournal.com]

Hmm.... two months' mobile broadband is probably going to be cheaper!
Hopefully when I get my own place I'll be at liberty to put the router somewhere central.

[andrewducker]

But then you'll have Kewl Tech!

Any news on your own place?

[momentsmusicaux.livejournal.com]

Myeah but Kewl Tech I will have no further use for. This is something I am trimming down -- I gave away about 7 PC towers to the local PC refurb place a few months back as part of pre-packing tidying.
Don't suppose you know anyone who HAS such cool tech lying around unused and would be prepared to lend them out?

Own place: just depends on finding something! Off to look at a flat tonight.

[andrewducker]

Well, if you'd asked me _before_ I used them to set my brother's network up...