I posted recently about me planning on upgrading my home network, which I am now pleased to say I successfully have.

I have not had the chance to test/install either the WatchGuard Firebox or NetScreen firewall appliances I have purchased, as such I will post about them at a later date. However stating that, due to ample planning, everything went as expected, as no nasty configuration issues or anything. The connectivity between machines is much faster now, and when syncing my 1TB data drive on my PC with the data on my file server, I have been able to achieve 99% network utilization, according to Task Manager.

Due to the configuration I have created, when I get my WatchGuard Firebox and NetScreen appliances, I will be able to test them and deploy them in such a way that client computers require no configuration in order to use them, because they will sit between the central switch and the router – with the central switch being the only thing actually connected to the router directly. This means that should I choose to filter out specific known websites, such as malware or ad servers, the changes will be network wide without having to fuss with proxy servers.

The only problem I can possibly foresee is if we experience a powercut (and we’ve been having them too often just recently), of course this would have knocked everything offline before the upgrade, but it seems like an even more of an annoyance, to make sure the links, firewall and servers all come back up, as opposed to just the servers before. Without any of these critical components, the network will be non-functional. However the switches and wireless access point should hopefully come back up immediately.

I have taken some images of my equipment;

You can click on them to view bigger versions. You’ll notice that I have annotated the bigger versions with information.

P.S. The equipment is sitting on a HP printer. This is connected to SERVER2 (file server) and is accessible over the network.

EDIT (6/5/10): The wireless access point is no longer the Belkin one. It was too unstable for me (i.e. web interface kept dropping until reboot). I now use a rock solid Netgear router set to AP mode. It has never failed on me, ever. The Belkin is used, when it works, as a wireless repeater downstairs to boost the signal to those laptops. Finally I have installed a 30cm tall antenna, as opposed to the small ones that usually come with routers. It has improved coverage significantly.