Corners
January 17th, 2010, 05:03 AM
Posted this on another local forum, but thought I'd share here. :)
..................
I am officially posting from a Linux operating system that I installed. :D This may not be that big of a deal to a lot of you, but this is the first time I've done anything like this, so I'm proud of myself.
When we built our house back in 2004, I went in afterhours and ran CAT5 piggy backed to every coaxial (TV) cable in the house. Every cable outlet box had a coiled up blank end CAT5 cable. I never got around to doing anything with it (wireless) until last weekend. I FINALLY built a shelf in the basement where all my network cables collect, wired up the RJ45 ends (also a first), wired up a few wall plates, and got a new "G" wireless router up and running. Man how I've missed wired connections. I don't care what the specs say or whatnot; wired internet works better.
Our main computer is a media machine and has been in our living room hooked up to our 47" TV for over a year and a half, as that machine has turned into our source of entertainment since it was equipped with windows media center and a high-def TV tunner. We don't have cable (waste of money), so we just use the media machine, which pulls in around 19 HD channels over the air, plus we have Netflix (mail and streaming) and Hulu, so between all that, that's plenty to watch. That left our poor office empty and slowly turning into a big storage closet, since no one uses it. Over the course of this year, my wife had been complaining about having to sit on the couch to browse the internet with a wireless keyboard. It sounds nice, but starts to get old after a while.
Fast forward to today. Our old machine (2.54 Gz, 1 gb ram, 250 gb harddrive) had been collecting dust ever since it was replace with the media machine in our living room. This computer had been acting up, running slow, and constantly dropping the wireless internet connect (tried 3 different wireless cards). Had a few friends that do IT for a living look at it, and even they couldn't figure out the internet dropping. Tried reformatting the hard drive and re-installing windows, and nothing worked, hence the new computer. Well, I'm hear to say, she now has new life. I decided to try to install Kubuntu 9.10, which is a KDE version of Linux. After some troubles, and finding an old IDE internal wireless card that Kubuntu did not like, it finally installed and everything was running smooth; except for the internet. I have ZERO Linux experience, so when anything beyond plugging in a USB wireless adapter didn't work, I gave up and decided to go hard wired. This prompted me to get my house wired like I intended. After getting everything wired up, she works like a charm.
This Kubuntu (KDE) Linux is fast! I'm sure it mostly because there is NO junk on this machine. She's running lean and mean right now. She boots a little slow, but I swear she's as fast as the dual core, 3 gb ram machine downstairs.
Well, thanks for listening. I have an office to clean up now! Man there's a bunch of $h*t in here. :shock:
..................
I am officially posting from a Linux operating system that I installed. :D This may not be that big of a deal to a lot of you, but this is the first time I've done anything like this, so I'm proud of myself.
When we built our house back in 2004, I went in afterhours and ran CAT5 piggy backed to every coaxial (TV) cable in the house. Every cable outlet box had a coiled up blank end CAT5 cable. I never got around to doing anything with it (wireless) until last weekend. I FINALLY built a shelf in the basement where all my network cables collect, wired up the RJ45 ends (also a first), wired up a few wall plates, and got a new "G" wireless router up and running. Man how I've missed wired connections. I don't care what the specs say or whatnot; wired internet works better.
Our main computer is a media machine and has been in our living room hooked up to our 47" TV for over a year and a half, as that machine has turned into our source of entertainment since it was equipped with windows media center and a high-def TV tunner. We don't have cable (waste of money), so we just use the media machine, which pulls in around 19 HD channels over the air, plus we have Netflix (mail and streaming) and Hulu, so between all that, that's plenty to watch. That left our poor office empty and slowly turning into a big storage closet, since no one uses it. Over the course of this year, my wife had been complaining about having to sit on the couch to browse the internet with a wireless keyboard. It sounds nice, but starts to get old after a while.
Fast forward to today. Our old machine (2.54 Gz, 1 gb ram, 250 gb harddrive) had been collecting dust ever since it was replace with the media machine in our living room. This computer had been acting up, running slow, and constantly dropping the wireless internet connect (tried 3 different wireless cards). Had a few friends that do IT for a living look at it, and even they couldn't figure out the internet dropping. Tried reformatting the hard drive and re-installing windows, and nothing worked, hence the new computer. Well, I'm hear to say, she now has new life. I decided to try to install Kubuntu 9.10, which is a KDE version of Linux. After some troubles, and finding an old IDE internal wireless card that Kubuntu did not like, it finally installed and everything was running smooth; except for the internet. I have ZERO Linux experience, so when anything beyond plugging in a USB wireless adapter didn't work, I gave up and decided to go hard wired. This prompted me to get my house wired like I intended. After getting everything wired up, she works like a charm.
This Kubuntu (KDE) Linux is fast! I'm sure it mostly because there is NO junk on this machine. She's running lean and mean right now. She boots a little slow, but I swear she's as fast as the dual core, 3 gb ram machine downstairs.
Well, thanks for listening. I have an office to clean up now! Man there's a bunch of $h*t in here. :shock: