New Home Network build, help Appreciated

[Supertaff]

Hi All,

Just about to start putting my first wireless home network together and was hoping for some hints and tips from everyone here.

I'll start off with my current set up and where I hope to get to along with the kit I was currently looking at.

Currently have Virgin Media 10mb(going to 20mb in August) cable broadband via an ethernet to my desktop PC. No wireless card in PC

Early next week I have a Laptop (Dell 1520) arriving with built in g wireless connectivity. This will mainly be used for basic office type work, small file transfers and playing online poker so shouldn't need much bandwidth.

I'm also looking then to put in a 500GB or 1TB NAS.

Desktop PC running XP SP2(though will be moving it to Vista Ultimate 64 in next moth or so), Laptop will run Vista Home Premium(32 I believe).

Also later in the year I want to put in a media box to stream HD content from NAS box to TV. Thats the only reason I thought of going with the n rated gear as was told g rated will not cope with HD file transfer requirements.

I also live in a relatively large old house with thick walls and also want to be able to use laptop in the garden which will be approx 20m from the wireless.

Also what if any firewall solution should I put in place with this?

The kit I'd been looking at to complete this build was

Linksys WRT300N-UK Wireless-N Broadband Router/4-Port Switch
Linksys WMP300N Wireless-N PCI Adapter
Western Digital MyBook World 500GB(1 TB) Gigabit Ethernet External Hard Drive
No decision yet on Media box.

Ok guys over to you, comments all appreciated.

Taff

 

[Snapshot]

That should work but you'd have to test whether the wireless will reach the garden. You don't need any firewall in addition to the one provided by the router.

 

[Supertaff]

Cheers for that Snapshot.

I couldn't see anything wrong in the build myself but as the first time I've put one of these together thought best to get someone to give it the once over.

Taff

 

[Fr0dders]

nothing wrong with your build

but one question, have you given external NAS devices a though ? Qnap / Buffalo / Synology all do great ones. Qnap and Synology come highly recommended (i own one, a mate owns another)

They can be plugged into your 4 port router via a wired connection, and basically just plugged in next to the router. They come without a HD, so you can chop and change and put whatever size disk in you want at any time. OS for the box is on a CD, and you just install it from a client PC when you change HDs.

These boxes enable FTP servers / Webservers / Media servers / Print servers not to mention basic file servers that enable your files to be reached without having to turn anything on. With them being FTP servers, you can also access them anywhere in the world via the web. Just register for a dynamic DNS hostname (free from NO-IP.com) and buy a router that supports this. The router will then update no-ip.com with your current ip address effectively making it static. You can host your files on the webserver, or on the FTP server. You can even plug your printer into it, and share your printer between your desktop / laptop without having to turn the other on or move the printer.

 

[Supertaff]

Cheers MrLol.

hadn't really looked at the NAS cases as thought I'd be better off getting a pre-built unit.

But will have a browse around to see what the other options are like.

Taff