Webb Family Blog

I’m trying to make good use of my time off between classes. The first weekend off, I spent much of my time in the attic. In preparation for changing my television and internet providers from Comcast to SureWest, I rewired my house for networking. I have chosen to use high-quality CAT6 cable, certified for speeds up to 550 MHz (CAT6 certification requires speeds up to 250 MHz without attenuation.) I chose to go with something that would not become obsolete in the near future. I used a total of 1630 feet of this cable. Several rooms have multiple runs so no additional switch or hub is needed in a room. All of these cables terminate in a 48-port Ethernet patch panel. While I don’t have a need for THAT many network jacks, it does provide a nice organizational aspect. The panel breaks the 48 ports into eight groups of six ports. I’ve designated each group to a different room. No room has more than 6 ports. The patch panel also provides a spot to label each port. Once I’m completely finished, I’ll be placing this patch panel and a 24-port Ethernet switch into a rack. This will allow for up to 23 network devices to be hard-wired to the network.

Running all this network cabling had its moments. The most difficult part was placing cable to the main TV viewing location. This is in a portion that has a vaulted ceiling. While it gives the impression that the ceiling is the backside of the roof, there is actually a small crawl space. Crawl would actually be a misnomer, as there is no room to crawl. This area is called a scissor truss. In order to get from one area to the next, I needed to lie down on my back, supporting myself across two to three of these trusses. I then pulled my body up with my arms from the trusses above me, pulling myself forward while pushing against the furthest truss with my feet. I had to go one truss at a time. It was very tight. Once I got to where I needed to be, I had to roll over and straddle a void between two trusses with my chin resting against the topside of the ceiling drywall with the back of my head being against the bottom side of the roof sheathing. I had very little room to move. I ran a total of six network cables and two RG6 coaxial cables (for possibly future antenna, satellite or additional cable… I had the cable and easier to do now) for this location. When trying to access an existing box in the master bedroom, I was a little too rough and damaged the coax cable. Since I had coaxial cable on hand, I ended up running new coax from the Comcast connection to this room. I was happy when I finished all the work in the attic.

While I was working on the wiring, Kellie and her father, who where available to assist me at any time, were busy working in the garage. The garage has been a big disorganized mess since we moved in, almost two years ago. We’ve attempted to clean it numerous times, but I HATE to organize and clean. I like things clean, I just don’t like making it that way. They accomplished quite a bit, including putting up new cupboards and shelving system.

My birthday and our second anniversary was on July 10^th. I spent much of this recuperating from the weekend. My body was in a lot of pain and physically exhausted. I did move my SmoothWall router/firewall machine from behind the main TV to the closet in the computer room. I also moved another computer into the closet and moved the fax machine to the office. I was able to do away with a lot of no longer needed computer hardware. After spending much of the day lounging around, Kellie and I went out for the evening. We went to see the opening night of Les Misérables being performed at the Sacramento Music Circus. This was the first time this Broadway musical has been performed on a theater on the round… a round stage in the center of the building. It was a very nice production. Unfortunately, it didn’t get out until 11PM and I needed to go to work the next morning.

Fast forward to this past weekend…

This past weekend I spent being an electrician. I spent much of Sunday and Monday in the garage. I installed a couple electrical outlets, and several lights in the garage. I also spent plenty of time on the computer. I upgraded my SmoothWall router/firewall from the current release version to the latest 3.0 beta version; Degu III. It has a few little issues, but is very slick. I can watch in live time how much bandwidth is being used by each network device/computer in the house. It adds out-going traffic firewall control, opening only absolutely needed outgoing ports. It will likely cause a few “growing pains,” as there may be some legitimate outgoing ports that are blocked, but it will provide more protection to my system. I find this kind of thing fun.

I am currently at work today. Next Monday is when I get my new SureWest service installed… just in time for our next class to begin, a week from today.

Something that I’ve been “dreaming” about since moving to the Roseville area is finally becoming a reality… fiber-optic service to the home. As it is probably obvious to everyone that knows me, I love technology. Fiber-optic service will provide me faster Internet and potentially more high-definition programming than I now receive. I am currently with Comcast for both television and internet. SureWest will now provide me with fiber optic service. With Comcast, I currently receive internet speeds of 8Mbps download and 768 Kbps upload, which is their fastest option. Some of you may not realize exactly what the differences in speeds are. When on the Internet, you both send and receive information. Most people receive a lot more information than they send, so most internet service providers (ISPs) give more speed to the download. Comcast and SureWest BOTH offer different speed options and with Comcast, I am at the fastest speed they offer for both directions of information, which is a little bit faster than DSL and quite a bit faster than dial-up modems. With SureWest, I’ve decided to go with their middle-tier speed, 20 Mbps download and 20 Mbps upload (they offer 10, 20 & 50 Mbps bidirectional). Now what does this all mean? Below, you can see a table that shows how long it would take to transfer a 10 Megabyte file, such as sending a group of pictures to be posted on Picasa, SnapFish or Flickr. I’ve also shown how long it would take to receive the same size file, such as a new program.

You’ll notice that with DSL speeds and up, this isn’t TOO bad a delay. Now, what about bigger files? One hour of standard TV quality video makes about a 1 Gigabyte file. How long will it take to send or receive such size file?

These times are purely theoretical. Speed is only as fast as the slowest connection. With the SureWest connection, most likely that will always be the “other” computer and other traffic.

When it comes to television, Comcast is a traditional cable company. Cable is distributed to homes via coaxial cable, carrying a combination of analog and digital television channels. In our area, they have run out of capacity to add many new channels. In order to add new channels, they must compress digital signals, which have a potential of causing picture break-ups. SureWest, on the other hand, is blazing their own path. SureWest uses IPTV. They send a stream of video signals to a specific set-top-box (STB) based on whatever channel the user has selected, via the same type of network the rest of the Internet is on. Since they are sending one stream at a time to the STB, there is a lot of bandwidth available, so the signal does not need to be compressed as much as cable traditionally does, meaning a clearer picture; this is especially important when comparing high-definition programming. Speaking of high-definition, here are the HDTV channels currently provided by Comcast:

Below is SureWest’s HDTV Lineup:

As you may see, there are several items that are in RED text… these are channels that appear to be available exclusively with the given provider. I believe Comcast places Comcast SportsNet (CSN) on the same channel as Fox Sports Bay Area and other special events, as neither network provides constant programming. MyNetwork is a pretty useless channel. It was formed in the wake of The WB Network and UPN merging into the CW Network. I will be giving up ESPN2 and MHD, but there is very seldom anything on those channels I care about. I will enjoy the addition of National Geographic, HGTV and Food Network in HD.

For the equivalent television programming packages and choosing the middle-tier Internet option (as opposed to the highest), I will be saving over $40/month with SureWest. Sounds like a “no-brainer” decision to me… although there are a few problems…

1. Comcast has a DVR that records up to two different high-definition programming channels at a time for watching later. SureWest does not have a high-definition DVR yet. Rumors are out that one will be “coming soon,” but nothing definitive yet.
   
2. The house has coaxial cable routed for TVs now, but SureWest uses CAT 5e or better networking cable. This isn’t really that much of a drawback, as I’ve wanted to wire my house with network wiring before and this is the final impetus to place the wire. Read my next post on what that will entail.