Home networking odyssey: Of scrimping and crimping

By Mike Azzara

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Chapter 3

Aug. 13: My iChat buddy, Brad Shimmin, was away on vacation, so I was stalled on seeing if video chat worked with the new modem. Amazon delivered a new Linksys WRT150N router, but it remained in the box because I wanted to know which network element was the bottleneck; if I upgraded the router before trying the video chat, then I'd never know. (I ordered it despite Strom's advice to focus on the modem because I figured the newer technology would still yield a performance improvement, and because I was hoping the integrated WiFi would allow me to eliminate the Netgear.) Meanwhile, I began educating myself on the mystery of terminating cable. A Google search led me to this page: http://www.swhowto.com/CAT5_Ch1.htm. Unlike so much else I found on the Internet, this "how to" was clear, precise, thorough, and very well-written by some guy who simply took it upon himself to educate the world with step-by-step instructions so that anyone can successfully strip and terminate cable. Maybe even me.

Aug. 17: I stopped by my local RadioShack and asked the nerdiest-looking guy in the store if he knew how to terminate cat5 cable. Despite what I read online, I was still afraid of screwing it up and was happy to pay someone else to handle the job. The clerk looked at me like I were speaking French or Latin. (Maybe I should have tried Klingon?) None of the other store clerks knew how either, though one at least guided me to a wall of little doodads I'd need to do it myself. I spent a half hour inspecting everything, reading the packaging, figuring out what I would need--connector modules, wall jacks, wall coverings, rubber boots to protect the modules, the crimping tool--but in the end I chickened out and left empty-handed.

Aug. 27: Brad is back! And, no surprise, Strom was right! The old cable modem must have been burping on the video stream. Brad and I were both impressed with the quality of the iChat 15-frame-per-second video and audio. The network still crashed, but this time only when we were downloading multiple YouTube videos while conducting our live video iChat.
Thus emboldened, I prepared to tackle the network I'd been planning in my head for months. The problem was I hadn't decided exactly how to do it. I leaned toward terminating the cat5 cables in the kids' rooms and buying one more computer so that all of them would have their own. Tonia, however, didn't want the kids to be on computers in their private spaces, and preferred the computers moved into the center hall. This is a really nice space we call the "Family Club"—a roughly 5-x-9-foot space bounded by the front of the house (with a big window) and the stairway railing, so it's open for another 15 or more feet toward the back of the house, around the stairs. But I dreaded that setup because it involved the bane of network installation: carpentry. I'd have to cut through the wall from either Ariel's or Michael's room, turn one of their cables around and mount the jack in the hallway wall. (Note: In the end, I couldn't bring myself to buy a fifth computer while I was unemployed, so I did it Tonia's way. But at this point in time, I still thought my idea was better and hadn't given in.)

Aug. 28: I bit the bullet and went back to RadioShack to buy the modules, jacks, crimping tool, and other miscellanea. Total bill: $92.38, including tax. The crimping tool was the most expensive, at about $35.

Aug. 30: It occurred to me that I hadn't received a single voice-mail on my home-office line since installing the new cable modem on Aug. 9. This less-than-brilliant insight hit after caller ID showed my outplacement consultant trying to reach me while I was on a call with my client at Ernst & Young. (I was consulting on the side, even though I had intended to take the summer off.) I know she would have left a message, so I called my office number from the house line; sure enough, it rang and rang but never went to voice-mail.

Turned out my voice-mail needed to be reinitialized after the new cable modem was installed, but none of the little helpful messages the cable provider had pop up on my screen mentioned that fact. How many messages had I missed between then and today? But what the cable company taketh away, the cable company also giveth: In the process of reactivating voice-mail, I learned about a cool new feature. I always had notification of voice messages sent to my e-mail box, with an audio, or .wav, file of the caller's message attached. But now I could also receive text message notification to my cell phone that a voice-mail has been recorded. Even though I have to call in for the message, it's still handy that every time someone leaves a message on the home-office line, I get a text to my cell phone with the time, calling number and message duration. (An added benefit: My kids think I'm cool because there's still technology I can still teach them about, instead of vice versa. This texting feature impressed them, though not as much as the dragon ride we took in Second Life.)