Went from:



To this:




I had to get my network cable out of my hallway. Luckily I'm on the first floor, so I just ran it through the walls and into the basement. I bought some connectors and wall plates. Making Cat5e cable sucks.

I don't see how it would.
I've done much worse in my day.

...wait, is that Scotch tape holding the wall plate up? Now that WOULD get you kicked out if it were up to me.

looks like a pretty clean install...of course the raw wire hanging out in the hallway doesnt look near as neat (jk)...a man's gotta do what has to be done so his toys work.

There's scotch tape because the screws have stripped the holes. I'm going to the hardware store today to get bigger screws so they will actually grab.

I also have to get some to cut a bigger hole in my wall for the extra hardware. The ethernet port extends pretty far back and takes up a ton of space.

i wired our house when it was only a frame. in addition to electrical, we put in ethernet, 2 telephone lines, 2 cable lines, and surround speaker. now that was a pain in the ass. i still have trouble with those stupid ethernet connectors getting messed up.

I thought about doing this when my house was being built, but decided to go wireless instead. It fits my needa and works great.

I wish I had wired for surround sound though.

My Media Center doesn't have an open PCI port for wireless. I had to wire it. Even if I did have an open slot, I think I'd still want it wired since this is my file server too.

Internal: 160Gb Seagate, 200Gb Seagate
External: 250Gb Maxtor

Yeah I can understand. That's why I built my own "pseudo-Media Center" PC.

I have 2 internal 300GB Western Digital HDs, DL DVD burner and a Hauppauge WINTV tuner. I'm using the Belkin wireless pre-N PCI card and corresponding router.

My PC is just running off of Win XP and only has a 2.6GHz processor, but it was a whole lot cheaper than getting a Media Center PC and I wouldn't use all the feature of a Media Center PC either. All I wanted was the ability to schedule/record TV shows.

I turned my old desktop into my media center. )4 Northwood 2.8GHz, 512Mb RAM, 610Gbs, Hauppauge PVR-150MCE, Shuttle SFF case.

I have a Centrino IBM Thinkpad and a Dell Latitude from my work, so I didn't really need my desktop.

What are you using for software?
Did you ever use wireless G? Is there a noticeable speed difference with pre-N?

Here Bobby, no more tape:

bryant, you could have gone with a usb wireless adapter. but yeah, i definetly prefer wired ethernet over wireless if possible: faster, simpler, more secure.
for those familiar with the Geek Squad , i work for them... so i get to put up with wireless crap all the time

since we're sharing setups...
in the old part of the house, the cable comes in and i have the modem and a wireless G router there. bedrooms in the old house are wired to the router, and a line goes from the router to where the old and new half of the house meets, where i have a switch. the switch has all the ethernet outlets in the new half wired into it, and a line going from the switch to my studio/lounge area, where i have a gigabit switch. i run my primary desktop and a studio workstation off that the gigabit (i need fast transfers between them for huge sound files, as well as my movie collection). then if im fixing someones computer or whatever i connect it to that gigabit switch since it's convenient. i also have a wireless router coming off of that so i can have a strong wireless signal on both sides of the house and partially outside. only reason i have wireless is for my laptop.

primary desktop:
ASUS mobo, AMD64 3400+, 1.5GB pc400 ram, 2x 120GB 7200rpm serial-ATA150 hard drives RAID-0, 300GB storage ATA133, 256mb ddr video card with dual VGA outputs for dual monitors, DL dvdrw, 10/100/1000 ethernet, video capture, etc...
tri-boot Windows XP Pro, Windows Vista Beta2, Windows XP x64.

Sounds like you have a very similar setup to me. I use the same Hauppague video card and love it!

I took my old Compaq desktop and put it into a Thermaltake Tsunami case. I have 1GB of RAM and a slower CPU, but otherwise somewhat similar to yours.

My old wireless was a Linksys b router that worked in my old apartment. But in my house, the range was really bad. With the pre-n the rate is 108Mbps but I don't think my ISP download speed is even close to that. But the range is definitely extended. I used to have a 60% signal strength upstairs and it's now 99% OUTSIDE. I work from my work issued laptop on the patio some days.

Zuul, that's a sweet setup you have going. I thought about going with a RAID config, but i don't have the cash flow, at least until I get out of school.

I would consider a WD Raptor 74gig x 2 RAID 0, but since my case is only built for one hard drive (second is in floppy bay), I figured I'd go for max storage space. I got the 200Gb Seagate for $50 after rebate.

UMFan, I'm working off a wireless B right now just cause I haven't gotten my G router yet from my parent's house. File transfers are terrible, but I can't notice really with the internet. I have 6 MBit cable and my network probably runs at just about that with overhead.

those raptors would freakin fly! i went with dual 7200's cause it was WAY cheaper and not a huge enough diff to be worth it.
raid0 is definetly the way to go... worth waiting for more money. i can install xp in like 11 minutes

UM,
how much did you pay for the pre-N equipment?

Bryant,

What you did will not violate your lease...If you're worried at all, just replace the wall plate with the original one when you move. I did the same thing in my old apartment.

Hope this helps

I'm using these (http://www.panduit.com/products/Products.asp?param=955&ig_id=122) to run my "jukebox". I have an old Toshiba laptop with all of my mp3's on it. I set my playlist to repeat and random, then I have my own radio station running through my stereos

I saw all the options that you could put into wall plates when I was buying my new one. I have so many good ideas now. All I need now it a house....