Integrating Windows Media Center and Windows Home Server for the Average Family Part 2

This is the second in a series of articles detailing how one network went from dilapidated junker to media hero with the help of WMC and WHS.  For an overview of the scope and purpose of this project, I would encourage you to review Part 1.

The Ad-hoc Network Restored to Glory

Last week, I described my network as a disorganized mess of a network with inconsistent network setups, out of synch OS installations, and no coherent backup and monitoring strategy.  I had finally decided to add a Windows Home Server and had come to the uncomfortable conclusion that I was beyond the point of rehabilitating my network.  My first task was to reboot this network and prep the network for the introduction of Windows Home Server.  It began with the router.

I put together my first home network in 1997 so that I could practice for the MSCE exams.  My house has not been without one since.  In 2001, I hired electricians to brave the desert summer heat and my tiny crawlspace of an attic to install a wired network.  In those days, hiring electricians to run several hundred feet of Cat 5 cable resulted in a network that was 10X faster than a wireless network, available in every room of the house without dropping a connection, and only about 3/4 the price.  A couple of years ago my friend, Jose, helped me replace that cabling with Cat 6 in exchange for assisting him wire his house.  A wired network might still be capable of operating 10X faster than a wireless network, but you won’t necessarily see a difference in connectivity or bandwidth and, even doing all the wiring yourself, you probably won’t save any money.  In fact, you will probably have a hard time finding a decent router that does not come with all the wireless capability that most people need.

This is a testament to how rapidly wireless networking has developed and matured.  If you have already wired your domicile, then I would encourage you to make use of it.  Streaming media to multiple rooms can task any network and can be doubly tasking when you start throwing HD into the mix, but it probably is not worthwhile to wire the average house anymore.  In my case, I already had the wiring and needed to replace an ailing router, so I chose my new router accordingly.  If you are looking for a new router, or running an 802.11b-only wireless network, in which case you should be looking for a new router, then it is time to go for 802.11n.  802.11n allows for the range, the bandwidth, and the backward compatibility that every good home network will need for several years.  I know, the box says it is still a draft specification.  At this point, Draft N has become so commonplace and so closely aligned with what we will probably see when the 802.11n spec does get finalized, that it is meaningless to worry about it. 

If you are running on 802.11g, it might be better to hold off on a hardware upgrade until you have reached the point where you are regularly saturating your bandwidth, but I do have some advice for anyone contemplating following my lead with a network reboot: reset your router to factory spec and check with your manufacturer for firmware upgrades.  If you are rebooting your network, you are going to end up resetting the networking info on all of your computers anyway and you might be surprised by the features and security settings that your router provides that you did not notice or know how to use the first time around.  Like anything else related to computers, the more you play with networked devices, the better you will become at planning, deploying, and securing your network.

I selected the D-Link DIR 655 for my new router.  It received a thumbs-up in the WGS forums for auto-configuring with WHS, offered 802.11n and gigabit switching, and recently received a firmware upgrade from D-Link that allows the user to set the wireless radio to shut down during unattended periods to help conserve electricity.  It won’t save the world, but I am sucker for “green” computing.  I wanted to spring for one of the newer dual-band routers that operate at both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz because I have so many wireless networks in my area and it would have been nice to avoid the spectrum congestion.  Consider carefully before going with a dual band router that has to be switched between frequencies manually.  You can spend a pretty penny outfitting your entire network with 5 GHz adapters and you will be giving up one of the big advantages of 802.11n: automatic backward compatibility with 802.11b/g devices.  There are a few new routers that can broadcast in both bands simultaneously, but I ultimately could not justify the exorbitant price tag of these dual band routers and the adapters to take advantage of the 5GHz spectrum. 

Whether starting with a new router or resetting an existing router, there are several suggestions I would make in setting up your router for an effective and easy to troubleshoot home network.   First, change the default password on the administration interface so that no one can access your router’s configuration.  Leaving your wi-fi connection as an open access point is a purely personal choice, but there is no reason for anyone to muck around with your router settings.  What’s more, you can lock down your signal any way you want, if someone can dial in the default IP address of your router and walk right into the configuration, there is no security on your network. 

Next, learn how to establish or reserve a static IP address.  Every modern router will use DHCP to assign IP addresses automatically to your network devices, but sometimes it is important to bypass DHCP and make sure that your device’s IP never changes.  WHS is an example of one such device.  Some firewall software can also get cranky when networked computers change IP addresses, though this is not as much of an issue as it once was.  I personally like to assign static IP addresses to all of my desktops and networked devices.  It is rather old school and largely unnecessary with a modern OS and router, but is a choice that can make monitoring your network easier.  Many routers only record the IP and MAC address of connected computers and some devices do not provide a name for routers, so knowing exactly what device was at which IP address at a given time can make troubleshooting easier.

Finally, create a naming and description plan before you start deploying computers on the network.  Again, this is a personal management issue, but a consistent naming scheme will help you monitor the health of your network and troubleshoot the devices on your network.  It will also help make your network less threatening to your family and help them understand and appreciate the network in a profound way.  For instance, I once set up a home network using Harry Potter references.  The network was named Hogwarts; the parents’ computer was Dumbledore; the eldest boy’s computer was Potter; the eldest daughter’s computer was Hermione; the ratty old laptop that kept crashing was Snape.  It is cheesy, but there was never any question for that family about which computer was doing what or where to find a shared folder and I know from follow-up conversations that family, which was not at all computer literate, had a personal understanding of how their network was set up and could talk about their network in a comfortable manner.

Because I wanted to reboot my network in as pristine a state as possible, I did several things before rolling it out.  I mapped out where I would need switches and upgraded to gigabit switches where necessary.  I again chose D-Link for the switches, blindly following their “green” marketing pitch.  I then backed up all of the data on the network.  I happened to have a 1Tb Western Digital World Book drive to use as a data dump, but in times past I have simply designated a particular system.  I then picked the desktop that I was going to configure the router with and would be assigning the first static IP to.  I chose to completely wipe the system and reinstall Vista.  Indeed, I would eventually wipe and reinstall every system in the house before attaching it to the network.  This is an extreme measure and I imagine most people will not follow in my path.  I chose this path because I was determined to start my life with WHS with as well-organized a network and data set as possible, right down to the backup images of the individual systems.  If you do not want to go this path, I would still suggest starting with only one system connected to the router.  Before you add each system to the network, completely erase all of your old network settings.  There is nothing worse than rolling out a network and meticulously crafting a naming scheme and setting permissions, only find some of your systems connecting with old network settings that have default priority.

With my first desktop restored to pristine condition and the router set up to my personal satisfaction, I started adding computers one at a time.  Because I wanted to assign static IPs to my desktops, I added those first.  Most routers will assign IP addresses sequentially and for management purposes I wanted my static IPs blocked together.  Though you can usually assign any IP address you want, I did not want any randomly assigned IP addresses to get in the way of establishing my block.  With the desktops out of the way, it was time to start adding the devices that I wanted to give static IPs to.  In my case, this was only my Xbox 360 and Zunes, but your mileage may vary.  With the static IPs assigned, I added the laptops to the network.

I had reconstituted my network.  I had made it faster, more reliable, more secure, and more consistent.  Choosing to reset the OS on every system meant that I knew every system was set up just right for a stable starting configuration and was ripe for an image backup.  My network had a consistent naming and addressing scheme and was thoroughly secured to my satisfaction.  The last device I had to add was my new Windows Home Server.  This was to be my first personal experience installing and setting up WHS, and I will detail my experiences next time.