Halp Re-doing Home setup (IT-wise)

I will keep my eye on it. This implementation will probably start no earlier than 2011 though.

You can just go the WHS Storage Pool + enabled redundancy instead of the Drobo if you wish. Similar concepts, but I still question the robustness of WHS implementation of failover safety and it is not hotswappable and not nearly as easy as an external enclosure like the Drobo.
 
So is there a benefit of going through either of these two options (MOCA or Powerline) as opposed to Ethernet?

No wires, technically. The MOCA is as fast as a CAT 5 connection with similar ping rates, but since the packets use your existing coax lines throughout the house, there is no need to run ethernet cables outside of the walls everywhere. Same with Powerline technology, using the electric lines as the conduit for packets.
 
That being said, if you don't mind the wires hanging around your house, or if your house has CAT 6 running through it anyway, then it's no big deal and keep doing what you are doing.
 
There is zero need for the added expense of a Drobo for a WHS. Just makes things unnecessarily complicated.

Get yourself a couple WD Green drives to start and you'll be able to add more to the storage pool as needed. Then just enable duplication for the folders.

You can also add an external drive for WHS to back up your data to that.
 
There is zero need for the added expense of a Drobo for a WHS. Just makes things unnecessarily complicated.

Get yourself a couple WD Green drives to start and you'll be able to add more to the storage pool as needed. Then just enable duplication for the folders.

You can also add an external drive for WHS to back up your data to that.

That's the purpose of the Drobo.

Or to have a simpler management of the Storage Pool.
 
Simpler? WHS included management tool is already simple.

A Drobo is a complete waste of money, just plug in a USB drive or two, or three, for a lot less money. :rolleyes:

Yes. What's simpler than in WHS stating one Storage Pool drive, the USB or Fireware drive called Drobo. Then all you have to do is feed the Drobo with whatever drives you want. No worrying about backing up, no worrying about failures, or enlarging (which WHS makes very easy, I must say). From the WHS end and the lack of cracking the case open to inspect a faulty drive or to upgrade a drive to the ease of just adding ONCE the Drobo external drive to the Storage Pool, that's pretty darn simple.
 
No wires, technically. The MOCA is as fast as a CAT 5 connection with similar ping rates, but since the packets use your existing coax lines throughout the house, there is no need to run ethernet cables outside of the walls everywhere. Same with Powerline technology, using the electric lines as the conduit for packets.

That being said, if you don't mind the wires hanging around your house, or if your house has CAT 6 running through it anyway, then it's no big deal and keep doing what you are doing.

I have coax extending into two rooms only. Obviously one is where my TV is. I do however intend on modifying my setup so that everything will more than likely enter the basement and then extend out to wherever it needs to go. With the eventual need of adding machines in places where currently nothing is set (i.e. my son will eventually need a computer) I will have to run cabling in some form (either coax or ethernet) in the first place.

How does Powerline handle spikes? (seeing as you recommended it off of a surge protector)

Regarding wires in general, my intent is to run CAT 6 into every room of the house. So I already plan on going into the walls.
 
I have coax extending into two rooms only. Obviously one is where my TV is. I do however intend on modifying my setup so that everything will more than likely enter the basement and then extend out to wherever it needs to go. With the eventual need of adding machines in places where currently nothing is set (i.e. my son will eventually need a computer) I will have to run cabling in some form (either coax or ethernet) in the first place.

How does Powerline handle spikes? (seeing as you recommended it off of a surge protector)

Regarding wires in general, my intent is to run CAT 6 into every room of the house. So I already plan on going into the walls.

If you plan on going through the walls for every room, ignore the MOCA/Powerline choices. CAT 6 will be faster and better and if you are doing it already, cheaper.

Don't know about surges as we haven't had too many, but so far they are working just fine.
 
If you plan on going through the walls for every room, ignore the MOCA/Powerline choices. CAT 6 will be faster and better and if you are doing it already, cheaper.

Don't know about surges as we haven't had too many, but so far they are working just fine.

I was looking and noticed that MOCA is the faster of the two and has a throughput of 80 Mbps. With Gigabit as an option for Ethernet, I'm definitely going for that. I won't need it for HD streaming, but transferring files to and from machines will benefit with Ethernet.

So we have the wiring infrastructure set. (Ethernet) Now on to the network itself.

So should I use the old Cisco switches or go for something a little less robust?
 
I was looking and noticed that MOCA is the faster of the two and has a throughput of 80 Mbps. With Gigabit as an option for Ethernet, I'm definitely going for that. I won't need it for HD streaming, but transferring files to and from machines will benefit with Ethernet.

So we have the wiring infrastructure set. (Ethernet) Now on to the network itself.

So should I use the old Cisco switches or go for something a little less robust?

How fast are the Cisco switches? 10/100MB? Depending on how many devices you need plugged in a nice 5 or 8 port GigE switch would probably be more economical, and use less power.
 
Yes. What's simpler than in WHS stating one Storage Pool drive, the USB or Fireware drive called Drobo. Then all you have to do is feed the Drobo with whatever drives you want. No worrying about backing up, no worrying about failures, or enlarging (which WHS makes very easy, I must say). From the WHS end and the lack of cracking the case open to inspect a faulty drive or to upgrade a drive to the ease of just adding ONCE the Drobo external drive to the Storage Pool, that's pretty darn simple.

Install the Disk Management addon. A hot swap drive bay if needed.

No need for a fucking Drobo.
 
How fast are the Cisco switches? 10/100MB? Depending on how many devices you need plugged in a nice 5 or 8 port GigE switch would probably be more economical, and use less power.

I believe they are Gigabit, but I'll have to look again (don't remember the model numbers off the top of my head). We're looking at the following setup most likely.

Wii (wireless)
Xbox (wired most likely)
WHS
2 Personal PCs (maybe a third if the wife wants one)
2 Laptops (if I decide to get one)
 
Install the Disk Management addon. A hot swap drive bay if needed.

No need for a f*cking Drobo.

This reminds me. Chances are I'll need to build a new machine in the first place. All my current machines only support SATA 1.0.

Because of this, Drobo might be cheaper?
 
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This reminds me. Chances are I'll need to build a new machine in the first place. All my current machines only support SATA 1.0.

Because of this, Drobo might be cheaper?

Might be slower as you are going through either a Firewire 800 or USB2.0 port, but if it's a data backup, it doesn't matter THAT much.