MIT Engineers

[crotch]

We get our shine the same way you do hedge......

[Jungle Rat]

Crotch is a fool.

[DooKSucks]

E / Aggie / Any other computer inclined posters:

Our house was built in 1946. The master suite (and 500+ sq foot great room in the basement below it) was built in 1960, and the den / television room was built in 1972 by closing in the front carport. If you're looking at the house from the road, it's shaped like z turned 90 degrees to the left or a capital h with the upper left and bottom right portions cut off.

The house's exterior is stucco, and the house was built on a slab (odd for that time period). The original portion of the basement has reinforced concrete for a ceiling, and the original portion of the house has several plaster walls remaining. So, between the stucco exterior (wire / mesh would have been used for the stucco, which is a factor for the master suite and the front den / tv room), plaster walls (like the stucco, there's wire / mesh used for the plaster), reinforced concrete (rebar), size (2500 sq foot on the main floor and another 1200 sq foot in the basement) and odd angles, this house is a son of a bitch when it comes to wireless. Running a cable from a main switch and having interconnected, wired access points isn't an option because the studs all have horizontal cross bracing in between them at multiple points and it is impossible to get ethernet cable through the walls given these and other factors (it was tried by the mother-in-law's ex-husband ten years ago). Thus I'm stuck / forced to get a mesh system.

I have a cheap and potentially unsafe (cheap china shit...Tenda) mesh system now. I put it in on an ad hoc basis when I needed something quick last year. It's quickly going to shit, and I want to get something better.

We have 200 down / 10 up. I just need to be able to have at least 40 mbps download in the far reaches (the modem and router need to be in the great room underneath the master suite (think upper right hand corner of the H because I have my office there -- and I need a wired connection for some work stuff) to ensure no issues with streaming a tv, working off of laptop and a couple of phones along with the other various items that would be connected for everyday / constant use.

So, what mesh system should I get? I know I would need to buy at least one and probably two extra node/satellites for a total of five points including the point/router that is connected to the modem.

[Jungle Rat]

Move

[eCat]

your house is what they call a faraday cage. Inside the plaster there is essentially chicken wire that encloses each room with a wire mesh that degrades the wireless signal. They suck for wifi.

I personally think the best Mesh system is buying Asus routers that are mesh. That is what I have and I chose it over Google, but given what you just said, I would go with Google Wifi and if you wanted to take advantage of Google Home, then I would buy the Google Wifi Nest.

Plan on dropping about $400 for 4 nodes - that will get you 2 ethernet ports at each node. You can set them up with the google app on your phone.

Alot of people like the netgear system, but the netgear and asus both setup a "master" system and the other nodes connect to it which means you have to have a more open floorplan.

Another option is a powerline adapter. If your home wiring is solid - meaning no backfeeds or knob and tube nonsense, then a powerline adapter uses your house wiring to extend your ethernet from one room to another.

also, while you sound limited on how you can run ethernet, thru walls isn't your only option. I lived in a house that was built in the '30s. Plaster walls, etc., and what i ended up doing was running thru the closet. I went up in the attic, drilled holes thru the closet ceiling (actually I drilled up into the attic and used a coat hanger to show me where the hole was thru the insulation in the attic. Then I was able to buy a $40 ethernet switch and run ethernet thru the house. I just had the router in the closet and got a neutral colored extension cord to power it up running it under the closet door.

Sounds like you want a cleaner solution. Try the Google Nest first - order it off Costco (or have someone do it for you if you aren't a member). If it sucks for you then you can return it. Costco has it for like $100 less than Amazon. After doing some research I setup a google wifi mesh system for my BIL. He doesn't live in an older home but he has a larger home.
https://www.costco.com/google-nest-wifi ... 7182.html
Now if you want a cheaper alternative, then you can go the Asus router buying RT-66Us. The setup is a little more complicated. You have to log into the "master" router and tell the system you want it to be an AI Mesh router, then for each additional router you buy you have to set it up as a node, then go to the master and tell it to look for the node. This approach lets you just keep adding as many nodes as you want as you grow the system. You can start off with 2, then add 3, 5, 7 - whatever. You can connect them via wifi or ethernet.

You can buy a refurbished RT-66U (there are better ones, but this is the entry level AI-Mesh enabled router they have0 for $70, $89 for brand new, and the powerline adapters for $40. I have RT-68U's which is only slightly faster than the 66 and I get 60mbps across the entire house.

https://www.amazon.com/Asus-Dual-Band-R ... 21&sr=8-21

https://www.amazon.com/Asus-Rt-Ac66u-Ro ... 094&sr=8-4

https://www.amazon.com/TP-Link-AV600-Po ... 786&sr=8-3

There are other options - Amazon has their eero version but its cheaper and slower than Google, and a handful of others. Google Nest is probably the mainstream leader.

[hedge]

Google nest solved all our issues...

[Jungle Rat]

You live in a shack

[hedge]

It still solved our issues...

[DooKSucks]

E, thank you.

[eCat]

so any day now I'm going to get an email from the cruise line telling me that the cruise my wife and I have planned for 2 years is canceled.

and I understand, hell I don't want to until we all get used to the new normal, but they are going to give me an option, a future cruise credit of anywhere between 150% and 225% of my cruise value, which means I could probably bring my kids on a cruise with us next year OR get 100% of my money back.

I'd like to plan on a cruise next year and Carnival, who owns Princess, just secured $6b in loans and sold 6.5% of their company to some Saudi Sheik, so I guess it appears they are cushioned for the entire 2020 cruise season to be cancelled. My concern is if I take the future cruise credit and Carnival goes bankrupt,they won't go insolvent but they'll probably restructure. I wonder if I would lose the cruise credit as a result of their bankruptcy?

[Jungle Rat]

It's going to take a long time for the cruise industry to recover. Especially if as they predict, there is a phase 2 and 3 of Corona. No one will want to risk being stuck for 2 or more weeks on an infected ship low on food, water and people dying. Take the cash. Put it in the market after the soon to be next collapse. Should make enough to help out with bringing the kids when it's all blown over.

[hedge]

Damn, I agree with Rat, 100%...

[Jungle Rat]

Hedge has got the Roni

[hedge]

Man, I've been working with ancient technology, the office computer I've been using is probably 10 years old, so I bought another one online, basic desktop computer but a huge upgrade over this dinosaur. Well, the computer gets here, just looking at the box, it looks to be the same size as the old one, so I start unpacking it, there's a keyboard, all the cords, mouse, all that shit, but where's the computer? There's a big role of bubble wrap, so I start cutting into it, keep unrolling and unrolling, finally here's the new computer, it's about 8x8 inches square and less than 2 inches deep. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised but I kinda was. This thing is great, fast as hell, takes about 5 seconds to start up (the other one was like 5 minutes when you had to restart it, which was a couple times a week), I probably won't even ever have to restart this one. I've finally made it to the 21rst century...

[hedge]

The damn calculator I've got sitting on the corner of the desk is way bigger than the new computer...

[10ac]

Probably an abacus.

[DooKSucks]

My home computer is a 2018 Mac Mini with 16gb ram, 512gb SSD storage and a six core i5 processor. This thing flies and will serve me for years. The only issue is that it uses integrated graphics, which is a pain in the ass on the rarest of occasions (would be a major issue if I gamed, did large amounts of photo editing with LightRoom and PhotoShop, or edited a lot of 4k video).

Length: 7.7 inches (19.7 cm) Width: 7.7 inches (19.7 cm) Depth: 1.4 inches (3.6 cm) Weight: 2.9 pounds (1.3 kg)

[eCat]

because of the stay at home, I've ended up with a lot of time on my hands - so I made a project list and have been knocking them out


Last weekend I finished rebuilding a 1986 Honda TRX 250. This is one of my favorite atv's ever. This is my 3rd one. I don't really have a before pic, but it was pretty rough when I picked it up last fall. Didn't run, plastics were shot and tires were bald/flat.

Put it up for sale, had at least a dozen people interested in it, can't sell it because I found a crack in the lower case. I'll patch the case and give it to my nephew

[eCat]

While I was away on an extended work project, my wife drove my old Toyota and the brakes went out on it.

I decided to do more than just patch the line, so I took the bed off, replaced the gas tank, fuel pump, sending unit, new brakes lines and new fuel lines. Also bought a new spare tire assembly. That thing fought me every step of the way. While I had the bed off I coated the frame in duraliner.




I just got it back together tonight after working on it off and on for 3 weeks, while ordering and waiting on replacement parts.

I'm sure my neighbors are happy its no longer in pieces laying around my driveway

[eCat]

next up is my boat.