Just about everyone I speak with lately is thinking about or making improvements to their home Internet experiences. The concept of digital networks has clearly extended to consumer homes and created lots of questions and, for many, lots of frustration. I will use this post to review the basics for non-geeks, and outline my suggestions on how to incorporate four digital staples in the home: shared Internet, music, pictures, and video.
First, it doesn’t matter if you use Cablevision, FIOS, Time Warner, Comcast, or any other Internet provider. Everyone that has Internet access, with some kind of equipment from your provider, has a computer network in the house. The geeks call this a LAN (local area network.) This is a good thing, as it allows you to easily add more computers or other devices that can talk to each other and share Internet access on them.
Second, lets review the basic equipment that you likely already have or may still need:
1) Cable Modem, FIOS box, etc.: This is the box with the funny flashing lights that connects your home to an Internet provider’s (Cablevision, FIOS, etc.) network. It is usually wired to the side of your house where larger wires connect it to the street. Essentially it provides your access to the Internet. Sometimes (in the case of FIOS) it also acts as your router.
2) Router (wired/wireless/both): This is a sophisticated device that manages security, and access to the Internet both in and out of your home. In most cases it includes a splitter so many devices can access the Internet simultaneously. Basically, you plug-in (or connect via wireless) a fat phone jack (called a patch cable) from your computer (or device) to the router and voila you get access to the Internet.
3) Cabling (or not): Many people use wireless access between their home computers and their router. In many cases this works fine for basic Internet access/email with minimal complaints. However, this is not my suggested solution for video, pictures, gaming, etc. as there is more of a bandwidth demand and wireless access can often seem like bumper-to-bumper traffic on a Friday evening. I suggest wired cabling (Cat 5e or Cat 6 for those who want to know) for maximum speed and throughput performance between the router and computers.
4) PC, Mac, iPhone, etc: I use all three listed devices (and more) on my home network and they work fine connected to my router. Macs can be easier to use and manage, PCs have their benefits, and iPhones are simple mobile, and fun. Essential to know is that regardless of what device they are, or how many of them you have (one or many,) they all get connected (via a wire or wireless) to a router so they can gain simultaneous access to the Internet.
5) Switch: When you want to connect many wired devices to your network and find your router only provides a few wired ports you need a switch. Switches come in varying size (4, 8, 12, 16, 24, etc. ports) and speed (Fast Ethernet or Gigabit) configurations. My suggestion is to purchase a Gigabit switch with a few extra ports. The switch simply connects to your router and to other devices you want to have Internet/network access. A relatively inexpensive life saver in many cases.
6) Network Areas Storage Device (NAS): In my humble opinion this is one of the most important devices for the digital family as it centralizes data security, storage, and backup for every computer in the house. It is very likely you have any number of computers in the house with super important and disparate data (music, pictures, financial information, etc.) Some of these computers are haphazardly backed-up, and you will likely not do anything to improve the situation until you have a hard drive failure. You will then cry at all the data you just lost, and then consider a smart solution to this overwhelming collection of data. If this is you then I suggest you consider purchasing a four-drive NAS device and configure it so all your data is secure and centralized. If setup correctly (which is typically rather easy,) the NAS shows up as a centralized hard drive on all computers connected to your LAN. In other words, one Music folder, one Video folder, etc. that is shared amongst all computers on the LAN. Yes, you can add private personal folders and adjust which computers/users have access to those folders. The NAS automatically protects the data across the four hard drives, providing real-time backup. So, if one of the hard drives in the NAS fails your data is fine on the other three. Feel free to review my previous posts; Mike Damone’s Plan on Holiday Gifts for Techno-Geeks, and Three Location Backup and the Cloud for more information on a NAS and backup.
How does the family benefit from a LAN with a centralized NAS?
- Shared Internet access. Once all the devices are connected to a router and configured correctly, each has simultaneous access to the Internet, the NAS for data, and each other.
- Shared Digital Music. If your family is like mine your music collection is growing and getting more valuable each day. With your home LAN and NAS you can keep all your music organized in one location, and readily accessible by various deices and computers. In other words, several devices (PC, Mac, iPhone, etc.) on your LAN can individually setup iTunes (or other media player software) to pull music from the same music folder on the NAS. Even better, if you are like me and looking for ways to bring your digital music collection off your computer and into your everyday family experience, go buy a Sonos system. I’ve tried two other competing systems and selected Sonos. It’s a small device and software that connect your digital music collection (or Internet radio, or and online radio station) to your home stereo, speakers, or a boom box. So simple, yet such an incredible experience. Also, take a look at a previous post I wrote, Apple Genius vs. Internet Radio, Who Wins in which I explore purchased digital music vs. rented digital music.
- Shared Digital Pictures and Video. Similar to how you would store and share your digital music, the storage of digital pictures/video should be centralized on your LAN via a NAS as well. To enjoy your home pictures/video I suggest every computer (PC or Mac) downloads a FREE copy of Google’s Picasa software. If configured correctly, this software can automatically access and update your pictures/video from the NAS. Basically, everyone in my house takes pictures/video and individually uploads them (from a SD Card reader on individual personal computers) to newly-created sub-folders (ex. Winter Sledding 12-2009) in a master “Pictures” or “Video” folder on our NAS. That’s it. Picasa automatically recognizes new pictures/video loaded on the NAS and updates/organizes the content on each individual computer with the latest and greatest for viewing and editing.
- Online Video. There is lots of great Internet video available today with lots more being added every day. Free video aggregation sites such as Hulu or YouTube, and paid video aggregation sites such as the a-la-carte iTunes store or subscription-based Netflix Watch Instantly service provide great options for movies, TV shows, etc. You can also visit sites such as CBS.com, ABC.com, etc. for network-specific shows. The question I am often asked is how to take that great video content and get it on my big screen TV as a computer monitor is less than ideal. My suggestion is to find someone (for $100) to clean-off (reformat) an old laptop and connect that to your TV (with a VGA cable.) Assuming you change the TV input accordingly and connect your laptop to your LAN, you will instantly be able to watch Internet video on your TV. You can also purchase a new computer specifically for the TV, in which case I would suggest a Mac Mini. Alternatively, there are several stand-alone devices that have capabilities to play Internet video on a home TV, such as; Xbox 360, Playstation 3, Roku Digital Video Player, Internet-connected Blu-Ray Players, Internet-connected HD TVs, etc.
Gear-up and enjoy.
