I want to set up a small network at home, as described below. I’m far from being a networking expert, and am hoping someone will have some suggestions for hardware, or pointers to some other site that will help.
This network will be almost exclusively for testing parallel software using MPI (plus the occasional file transfer & backup operations). When I’m not actively testing, everything but my main machine will be shut down & turned off. Everything has built-in gbit ethernet ports.
I think (again, I’m a long way from being an expert) that if I want to keep the internet connection from the main machine, I need to use a router rather than a switch. The problem is that all the gbit routers I see are either wireless (which is unacceptable, the network MUST be wired), or commercial units starting at $1000 or so.
Anyone have any suggestions?
Thanks,
James
PS: The network will look like this:
Main machine is dual core notebook, connected to internet via cable modem. It’s the one I do all my work (and non-work stuff) on.
Main compute node is quad core desktop. It only gets turned on to do compute-intensive tests (some of which may run for days).
Other nodes may be second notebook, or perhaps additional desktop, depends on what I need. I don’t envision using more than 3 machines, though.
Guess I wasn’t clear on what I was asking, or maybe I don’t understand what you’re saying. Yes, I’ve turned off the wireless in the notebook (the desktop doesn’t have it). So how/where do I find a reasonably-priced router ($100 or so, similar to the advertised wireless gaming ones I see)? Or can I do what I want with a switch?
Everything I’ve found either starts from the premise that I want wireless, or assumes that I know a lot more about networking than I do.
Why not get an old redundant pc with 2 or 3 nics (depending on whether it’s cable internet and whether you want a dmz), load a dedicated firewall like smoothwall or dansguardian and use this for the internet connections. They will also run quite well on an old pentium p1 with low ram and a 2 gig hard drive.
Then get a cheap plain gigabit switch for your internal network.
If you don’t really need gigabit (most home networks don’t) have a look on some of the auction sites for a 2nd hand cicso or 3com 10/100 switch. If you want wireless, basic access points are cheap and all throe in some sort of routing as well to give you an extra few network connections.
The money saved is better spent on extra ram, bigger hard drive or something else for your computer.
Mainly the power drain - I have a thing about reducing power consumption, and have my main machine (a T61 notebook) down to where it consumes about 15 watts in just-writing-code mode. Then there’s the fan noise…
If you don’t really need gigabit (most home networks don’t)…
But mine will not be your typical home network The main thing I’ll be doing is testing parallel code, so I want min latency/max throughput to get as close to production conditions as possible.
Hi
I’m running a linksys WRT54G which has wireless b/g and 4 x 10/100M
ports. Am planning to upgrade sometime in the near future to something
like a WRT320N.
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The above one looks like it would suit the
The main thing I’ll be doing is testing parallel code, so I want min latency/max throughput to get as close to production conditions as possible.