Guess what? The router is crap.
So apparently, the Linksys BEFSR81 router that I scored isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Two major drawbacks are going to force me to get rid of it, possibly with extreme prejudice: The QoS features of this router are useless. You can do port-based QoS, but that only deals with transfers WITHIN THE LAN. […]
Home networking is done.
Well it seems like Bell finally transfered my number over to Vonage today. I noticed because the Vonage phone was ringing more than it ever has, and there’s suddenly no voltage on the Bell line 😛 If you’re an incredible geek or just interested, this is what my home network/phone wiring looks like now.
Home network re-wire project
I drew four network diagrams before finally figuring out how I was going to hook things up at home. I really wanted something to provide QoS to the VoIP phone adapter, and ended up borrowing a Linksys wired router (BEFSR81) that does port-based QoS. Doing QoS in Linux is really, really scary, and I wasn’t […]
Flying free without a dial tone: it has begun…
Bell finally showed up at 3pm and wired up my second pair in about 30 minutes. Boy, did the tech really not want to talk to me at all. Thanks Bell, for wasting an entire day of my time. I figured I wouldn’t have to be around, and the tech only knocked on the door […]
ADT did something right…
Now that I no longer fear the big, bad world of security systems, I opened up the box in my basement with the security system’s guts. And looky looky, what did I find but the ADT default programming sheet the installer left, all nicely folded up (click for larger, readable version): While it doesn’t tell […]
Collecting more information about my security system
I’ve amassed a whole lot of information about my security system over the last few days. I’m starting to feel better and better about switching to VoIP and ensuring that my system will be able to communicate. First off. my “ADT Focus 32” system is really a close of the DSC Power832, which is very […]
Getting rid of Bell: still a head-spinning exercise
The debate at home about going VoIP with Vonage for our main phone line heated back up at home yesterday. It’s something we’ve been thinking about for months, and according to our calculations we’d save $40 a month – but it has two main impediments: We use DSL for our internet connection and are not […]
