Network upgrade yay!

[djbartos93]

Lets start from the beginning...Recently i went to a LAN party hosted by indybird, and he had bought a network switch of of craigslist, now this wasnt any small network switch this was a large 32 port switch. the cost...only $15 ($25 with shipping)

http://i397.photobucket.com/albums/pp57/djbartos93/DSCN0888.jpg
The first thing i did...take a picture.

After reciving the switch i plugged it in and soon relized just like indybird's switch my fans were bad (we got them from the same person) this made me think...should i get the right size fan or keep this low budget. well i went with the low budget version and took a 80mm fan i had sitting around and messed around with it for a few days to get the best set up for the fan and to allow the unit to get the most air.
The next day i came up with a small funnel like duct with the fan sucking air thru the unit this only took me and my dad a few minuiets to put together and came out quite nicely...

http://i397.photobucket.com/albums/pp57/djbartos93/DSCN0890.jpg
the final product of my fan and the duct that funnels the air out of the switch.

the next thing i had to do was decide on a location, i figured since for my previous network i had a cable already running thru a storage room it would be a great place to put the switch all i had to do was make a few changes to the cables and such. I am still working on designing the cable lay out to the rest of my house so i have no pics of my cables and such. before we could actually install the switch and other components that are yet to be put up we needed some power, so my dad once again comes to the rescue and helps me run a power line into the storage room.

Once i decide on the location and had the power line run I had to mount it someware, so with a little help from my dad i managed to get a little shelf mad up for it and the fan and got it all mounted on the wall.

http://i397.photobucket.com/albums/pp57/djbartos93/DSCN0889.jpg
You can see at the very top the new power we ran, and a surge strip in the lower portion. the cables running to it were just to test the system. as you can see there is also a board running from the celiing down to the shelf this is because in the storage room there is a cloths shoot and i didnt want laundry covering up my fan all the time. also you can see the start of a second shelf.

http://i397.photobucket.com/albums/pp57/djbartos93/DSCN0891.jpg
just a close up of the power strip we installed.

http://i397.photobucket.com/albums/pp57/djbartos93/DSCN0892.jpg
hora for blurry pics!!! that says DSH-32 if you were wondering...

Later that day...
later i decided i was going to make the switch the main hub for the internet in the house so i had to put a modem and router down there. my origonal plan was to put my secondary router down there along with a NAS that has been sitting on my desk. well the plans changed and i am now putting my old laptop "server" down there along with my modem my main router and my NAS so the need for a cooled shelf became evident. after getting some fans an 80mm and a 120mm i decided i would put them in the bottom of the shelf and with a little advice from indybird to have the air blowing up to aid the prosess of convecton. and for another time my dad comes in to help me build this shelf!! w00t! so we came up with this...

http://i397.photobucket.com/albums/pp57/djbartos93/DSCN0893.jpg
in this image you can see the larger part of the shelf is for my "server" and the smaller part is ware my modem router and NAS will sit.

http://i397.photobucket.com/albums/pp57/djbartos93/DSCN0894.jpg
thats the 120mm fan, rather than making one big hole we decided to cut some slots into it. not the best cutting you will ever see but things will be on top of it so you will never see it.

http://i397.photobucket.com/albums/pp57/djbartos93/DSCN0895.jpg
and for the 80mm fan we just drilled a bunch of holes :)

and the bottom of the shelf...
http://i397.photobucket.com/albums/pp57/djbartos93/DSCN0896.jpg

so far thats all i have done. I hope to have this all done and cables run by the end of the week but we will see how that goes! defiantly more updates to come as i continue work on it, probably tomorrow seeing as i have a half day of school.:D:D

[djbartos93]

UPDATE!!! well i didn't get around to updating yesterday because i was actually doing a lot of work on this project.
Lets start from the beginning, as you saw in my last update i was still designing my cables, now that i did that due to cost i decided to be kinda ghetto an just run the wires thru my floor. the only reason that worked is because the switch is just below the room ware the cables came up. As for my existing cable i just cut that soldered on some extra cable to the end and then crimped on some ends.

http://i397.photobucket.com/albums/pp57/djbartos93/DSCN0908.jpg the wires coming out of my floor to my xbox 360 and computer.

http://i397.photobucket.com/albums/pp57/djbartos93/DSCN0924.jpg the joint in the cable.

The tool used to crimp the wires was a very cool thing, you could actually put all the wires into the end without cutting and crimp the end. as it crimped i would cut off the extra cable.

http://i397.photobucket.com/albums/pp57/djbartos93/DSCN0910.jpg the fancy tool.

after all the wires were crimped together i began testing everything and getting all the cables organized. during this process i soldered any open wires fixed any vibrating fans and got everything as quiet as possible to solve one problem i had to put some rubber tube on all the screws

http://i397.photobucket.com/albums/pp57/djbartos93/DSCN0899.jpg well thats the best pic i could take of the tubes on the screws, but thats what the blue is.

Overall this project was a very successful adventure! and after all of the cable management was done it looks very nice, for under $100 i managed to install a 32 port network switch, a cooled shelf and ran 6 new cables! what a deal!!

and now....the final product....

http://i397.photobucket.com/albums/pp57/djbartos93/DSCN0919.jpg after 3 days of work and some creativity this is what i got!! its all up and running staying nice and cool and giving my house internet! in this pic we can see (on the bottom shelf) the "server" laptop my netgear wireless N router being used as a DHCP server, the Western Digital 500GB Network Attached Storage and the comcast modem. (on the top shelf) the network switch, and the fan for the switch.

http://i397.photobucket.com/albums/pp57/djbartos93/DSCN0922.jpg just a close up of my power center and the modem, you can see the 80mm fan and all the plugs.

and finally with cable management and all...http://i397.photobucket.com/albums/pp57/djbartos93/DSCN0921.jpg

Well thats all on this work log for now, some minor updates might come in the next few days. :D

-djbartos93

[nevermind1534]

Let me know if you want another big network switch; I'm in the area.

Nice work on the mod.

[Zeroignite]

Pretty sweet find, and the shelf is even better!
You are now obligated to host a LAN party soon, you know ;)

[gamer_from_aust]

you seem to have lost ur laptop screen.

[djbartos93]

you seem to have lost ur laptop screen.

yeah it was my friends...he kinda stepped on the screen :facepalm:

[djbartos93]

hey guys! its been a while since i have actually worked on this project, mostly because it has been working great for me. but i have some new ideas in the works for this project, not quite sure how all of em will turn out but i know that running more wires will work fine its just some of the other random ideas i got goin in my head for this project. Truly im not even sure about all of em but im hoping to get something going on it tonight or tomorrow and i will keep this updated on everything that i do with it so keep checking back.

[chaksq]

Nice, and effective! Good ideas, and nice setup.

I see Harry Potter!