Working from home has shown that Wi-Fi can sometimes be unstable — it’s still unclear whether it’s the microwave oven or something else. So I’m going to try connecting the laptop the good old way, with a cable. The one catch is that my router only has 5 Ethernet ports, and all 5 are currently occupied. I decided to tackle the problem systematically — first draw out what’s connected where, then figure out where to plug what, whether to get a PoE switch or a plain one, whether to save money and go with Fast Ethernet or go for Gigabit after all… The price range runs from $10 for the simplest 100 Mbit switch to $60 for a Gigabit one with PoE. While the deliberation is still ongoing — here’s what a simple home network diagram looks like. Of course, there are still a few components missing from it; I’ll keep adding them little by little….

I’m obviously not going to connect just one NAS to the UPS — that would be both unfair and unwise.

Well, look who’s here! My first UPS! Having lived on laptops for over a decade, I never felt the need for one — if the power goes out in the building, the ISP’s equipment will most likely go down too, and if it’s just a blown fuse, the router will reboot in a few minutes, no big deal.

Several little gadgets arrived today — groceries and toilet paper get logistics priority over hardware, so the wait was long. But this thing with 12 outlets + 5 USB ports should significantly reduce the entropy of my little cabinet. Life in the 21st century demands constant charging, and not just physical exercise to keep the belly in check, but electrical charging too.

My long-held, if somewhat forgotten, dream of setting up a home NAS was rekindled by a post from Tivasyk.

Now instead of this set of sticks

2 GB each, I have this “sweet pair”:

DDR3 1333MHz, 4 GB each.