Ahh! The joys of being network admin...

[stoid]

So a few weeks ago I finally got sick of putting up with my roommate's crappy D-Link router. Its wireless wouldn't work with Macs so I had to wire my Airport Express into it and the D-Link would crash 4+ times a day and I'd have to go and reset it. So I went on eBay and bought an Airport Extreme base station (802.11g) for $75 shipped. My roommates seemed surprised that I would 'spend so much' on a router. But in 10 minutes I had the thing working, and it's been going strong ever since.

I've been using Azureus for BitTorrent, and it has always given me errors saying that its firewalled, and NAT problems, blah, blah, blah. It still sorta worked, though my torrents always ran abysmally slow even in healthy swarms and would often bottom out for hours. I read the wiki and now after assigning a static IP to my laptop, and port forwarding in the base station, I get happy green lights in Azureus and excellent performance.

It's so wonderful to be in charge of the network, and to be able to fiddle around without having to give a roommate a crash course in computer networks.

Anyone else got stories about dealing with roommates and shared internet connections?

 

[iSaint]

I think you're a nice guy for dealing with roomies as such. Of course, it's making your life easy as well! They should be thankful.

 

[Plymouthbreezer]

Network Admin at schools is fun too!!

*Sits on PowerBook while in English class*

 

[MacAnkka]

I'm the "network admin" in my family, and they certainly need one. Our current network system is a mess. There are three boxes on my table, right next to me: Nokia DSL modem, SMC 8-port NAT/Router/Firewall and a Linksys wireless router. Keeping all of them working, opening ports and so on can be a PITA.

 

[Swarmlord]

Sorry, when I had roommates, there wasn't an Internet. Acoustic modems at 300 baud and BBS access were all the rage though. Try downloading a driver at 300 baud some time.

 

[jayb2000]

yeah, lots of fun... Unless you are doing it for you 77 year old father, via the phone!

 

[Poseidon]

For those of you who are "network admins" for your families/friends/roomies, be thankful that you know enough to be able to do it!

While I'm sure it's annoying having computer-stupid folks ask you questions, I'd much rather have the knowledge and be "forced" to share it then be the computer-illiterate person trying to figure this stuff out - which I am.

 

[SC68Cal]

What is this joy you speak of? I knoweth not.

(Network Admin at Temple University)

 

[Leareth]

I love it when I convert people to macs and they get an airport express.
They are always amazed how quick and easy it is to set up a wireless network in their house/office and how little there is to maintain.
Especially those who had experience with XP pro and D-link or linksys routers.
They always want me to come by and set it up for them and maintain it , I have to keep pointing out that once its set up its good to go. no hassles.
they get even more impressed when I connect the printer to it and everyone on the network can print their stuff instead of going to the "printing computer".

I have set up all my neighbours wireless networks and actually got 5 of them to agree to share one and the associated costs so they get high speed internet for $5 a month each.