Fact: most DJs are not home much. So when we're home, we want things to just WORK the way we want them to.
So, over the course of the next two months, I'm going to use each weekend to remove old tech from my house and replace it with shiny new toys, in an attempt to improve my house while also letting me do some crazy fun stuff that I couldn't with that old tech.
The goals:
- Save money on electricity bill/unnecessary maintenance expenses
- Be able to watch movies from server/Mac in living room
- Be able to download/listen to new music/other sources in any room
(I get about 2000 tracks a month, so a running playlist is nice to have) - Be able to listen to iHeartRadio or podcasts in any room
- Consolidate the contents of all my old hard drives onto the server
- Automate backups of my studio and my travel laptops
(DJs if you aren't doing this already you're a stupid idiot) - Gigabit Ethernet in studio between PC/Server/wired internet
- Faster, more secure WiFi on laptop/iPad/cell chones
- Stop people from stealing my WiFi (sorry Dominican neighbors)
What I have now:
- Mac Pro with dual 22" monitors in studio
- ReadyNAS Duo server in studio
- Gigabit Ethernet switch connecting the two to my router
- Linksys WRT300N wireless router + 10/100 switch connected to cable
- Crappy 27" TV with Onkyo 7-speaker surround receiver and basic cable
- Crappy 29" TV with basic cable
- Nintendo Wii
- Sony PS2
- A ton of old hard drives
- Mewmerz the orange cat
Step 1: Wireless Router - Cisco Linksys E4200 ($170)
This replaces my old Linksys WRT300N, which was made before Wireless N (fast WiFi) was a real thing. This was essential; the old router had issues connecting fast to my Wii already, did NOT like taking WiFi password from devices, and putting more strain on it (which I was totally going to do) wasn't going to work out. Good time to upgrade.
I went with this specific model because it had a Gigabit Ethernet hub built in and dual-band wireless; with it mounted in my studio, and the GigE switch already between my Mac and the rest of my studio gear, this would make the entire room GigE. The more stable N standard (compared to the 300N, which remember was pre-N) and dual-band modes used in this version would also help the rest of the project come together, since this thing was going to get pounded pretty hardcore with the rest of what I'm planning, and having a stable firmware with full support for the standards meant I could finally put a WiFi password on my network (sorry Dominican neighbors).
Step 2: Data Robotics DroboFS server ($700 without drives)
This replaces the ReadyNAS Duo, which was great for its time, but only has two bays, and for true backups (i.e. RAID 1 or better) would only give me as much space as the size of a single drive you throw in it. On the other hand, the DroboFS can take 5 drives of really any size, and automatically resizes the total space based on the drives you throw in it. Since I was using this for backups and not much else, I was able to use a 3TB and two 2TB drives from previous ReadyNAS backups, and another 1.5GB drive I had laying around, to make one gigantic, redundant 5TB drive, with that other 3TB drive serving as the basis for the original backup.
This made an already large backup volume with everything I already had, and was a good basis for backing up the rest; I used the Drobo software to add the contents of a bunch of drives left over from my work studio and years gone by, and I’m still not up to the 5TB limit yet. And if I hit that, adding my 3TB drive will bump that up to over 7TB. The Drobo software also automates backups from a connected Mac, so backing up my laptops became as easy as connecting them to my Mac and leaving them sit overnight.
Next week: Wireless audio throughout my entire home!
