Good stuff so far. Can’t wait to see more.
What would you recommend for doing wired networking in an apartment since I obviously can’t start drilling into the neighbors ceiling.
I of course have a wireless network, but it doesn’t always suit what I need to do, and, well, you know how that goes.

Great question. I think I might have to do a follow up episode on this, but for an apartment, I suggest going to a place like http://cableorganizer.com for finding things that will hide your cables effectively. I’ll keep looking into it.

hey, great information in this preview episode but one piece of advice. Instead of crimping modular plug ends onto the cable i would strong suggest adding a keystone jack onto each end of the cable and installing a wall plate and box. This allows more flexiblity with the connections. Also if your planning on wiring a whole house, with many connection looking into purchasing a patch panel to simplify the installation

I didn’t go with wall jacks in this install for a couple of reasons. However, you’ve got some great points.

Nice Show Iyaz, my only problem was that the High Def version would not play well with the Zune HD. I downloaded it several times and I believe it is a file type that it can play so maybe it is just a corrupt file.
Keep up all the good stuff you do.
Ken in Kansas.

@Ken: arg – file incompatibility! The HD version is a m4v and I’ll take a look at Zune approved formats.

I double checked the Zune HD site and it says it can play m4v video’s but here is the exact info from the site:
MPEG-4 media created with the H.264 video codec and the AAC-LC audio codec File Extensions .m4v and .mp4
It was hard to find when I first got the Zune so here is the page if that can help you at all.
http://www.zune.net/en-us/support/usersguide/musicvideospictures/avcodecsandformats.htm
Good Luck and Thanks, Ken

iYaz excellent show, but kind of short. I would have liked to see how you solved a few more issue on the tech part, where and why you picked your drops, did you do a drop behind your tv, should anyone try to do this or should you know why you need a drop, etc. Excellent start though. Good luck with the show I hope you decide to film more soon.

Whew. Looks like I’ll be doing a follow up episode on wired networking where I answer all of these questions. At over 9 minutes, the program is very long, so I’m expecting future eps to be even shorter (maybe). Thanks for watching folks. New episode next week.

Good show!

How about a companion show that shows us how to schmooze the wife into drilling holes in the floor? Tips like “the diamond must be larger than the hole you plan to drill.”

Thanks. Actually an episode on debating your spouse is actually in the lineup. Maybe it’ll get fast-tracked.

Great show! You mentioned that you plan on future episodes being even shorter, but I was actually hoping that you would go into greater depth (like some of the other viewers have also noted). It would have been great if you covered a bit more on in-wall installation (for multiple rooms or levels) and keeping up with building codes as well as how to install one of the wall jacks.

I’m looking forward to your next episode. Keep up the great work!

Hey, Jeff.

Thanks for watching. There will be a follow up ep on wired networking down the road since I received all this great feedback. Whether I go into the wall or not is still up in the air. The next ep will be out tomorrow and is going to be around 15 minutes. I’m not aiming to have short or long shows – I’m just trying to give enough information to the audience so the show is useful.

[…] week, we built a gigabit Ethernet network. This week, we’re putting all our pictures, music, and movies on a server and accessing […]

Hey Old Nerd;) For me, the first episode wasnt as much needed as for the others, thats because I am lucky 🙂
My house has already gigabit ethernet in nearly every room!
Just wachting the second episode now… Okay it gives the idea of what it is like to do this. If you expect more of your mediacenter, Linux MCE should do the trick…
Im looking forward seeing your podcast.
Bye.

@Paul – you lucky, bum! Like I told @Sam, I’ll probably tackle Linux in another episode. Glad you like the show.

Iyaz, I’m digging you shows. I have a question through. last year I started running cat5e cable(not finished). Your thoughts on running cat5e vs cat6?

I liked your first episode and as a Technion who has installed cable for the past 3 years I can save that you covered the basics pretty well. There were a couple of little details you missed but thats just me splitting hairs because of being a perfectionist. Like other people I would like to see the follow you said you have planned. There is a million different aspects to running cables and getting all the tricks/rules down can be a long process.

Here are a couple of things that can be in the next wiring episode:
Basic home construction (just how walls are built and stud spacing to start)
Punch-down blocks/Keystone Jacks wall plate installation
(You can show tip of using credit card for wall plate size marking and retrofit box install)
Tips on how to fish lines down walls and tips when its insulated
Good Labeling tips (label printer/sharpie)

That should be a good start. 🙂

Thanks for all the tips.

We covered some basic home construction in ep 04 (we showed how to attach a VESA mount to a wall), but that’s a great idea.
Punch-down blocks are coming, I promise!
Fishing is a pain, but I may do that for a follow up.
Labeling – I should have mentioned that! My cables are labelled for my network, but I forgot to put that in the show.

Thanks for watching and for leaving such a helpful comment.

Great show!
Do you have a recommendation for a content filter (web filter) appliance for the home when connecting the home network to the internet rather than a software approach since I have several wireless devices in the hands of my kids and I don’t want to try to find individual solutions for each device. I’m willing to pay for a device and a monthly or annual subscription. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Thanks for doing the show.

I think your best bet is to go into your router and block certain addresses. My router has a parental control setting where I can filter by address and/or by keyword. That way all the content on your network is filtered the way you’d like. Thanks for watching! Subscribe and tell your friends!

Take a look at this vid by Cisco (maybe you have a Cisco router)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4zgDsYOf0A#t=2m56s

really should have mentioned some kind of cable testers. I wouldn’t use any homemade cable no matter how much you believe it works, until you run it through a tester.

You make a good point. I just used my laptop around the house to check the cables. It’s a little bulky, but it works.

Iyaz, thank you for this show. I heard you on another show and you plugged this one ( I think it was Tech News Today). With both my wife and I not being nerds, this helps us understand what we should be doing. I have some knowledge (and am learning more by the minute) but I am far behind someone like yourself. That being stated, I saw under a more recent podcast that your video library was 3.5 TB. Really? How the heck did you get that much stuff? ( or is that a question that can’t be answered).

Hello, Billy Jean.

I have 3.5TB of stuff b/c I rip a lot of my DVDs to those hard drives. I also have a lot of full runs of TV shows on the server. There are also gigabytes of music from my own CDs and purchases.

Plus, I download HD podcasts to that server as well. It all adds up to around 3.5TB.