Off the back of upgrading my home network to support VLANs I undertook a Crash course in home networking. It got me thinking about how my home networking technology has changed over the years.
Network the first, dial-up modems
OK, so it’s a stretch to call this a home network. One PC plugged into a modem via a serial cable with the modem in turn connected to the phone line. During my time at university this was an important connection for me to the servers I needed for assignment work. In a house of six, where picking up the phone meant the line dropped out, I managed to control access a surprising amount of the time.
The “cabling” setup involved a splitter under the house, and a hole drilled through the masonry into my room.
Even once I started work, The Sound of dial-up Internet was familiar though now the line connected directly to a PCMCIA modem card in the laptop.
Network the second, always on cable modem
Now for some real speed! A cable modem from Foxtel provided alongside their TV service. The significant difference from dial-up is the always on nature of the connection. And the disconnection from the phone line with a dedicated cable into the house.
That almost wasn’t the case for us. During later renovations we discovered the installer managed to drill a hole that shaved plastic off a power point’s wiring. Thankfully not their last install.
Network the third, ADSL and ADSL2
Cable suffered from only being available in major metropolitan areas. Eventually everyone had similar network access via ADSL down the phone line. Quality and speeds depended on how far you were from the exchange (a problem that continues with the NBN for now).
Always on internet became an expectation and sitting down at a computer to surf, listen to music etc was now part of daily life. It was at this time that home networking really became a thing. We started to have multiple devices that we needed to connect.
In my own experience I had antenna between the house and shed to get a connection through to where I was working in a de facto home office.
Two things to note:
- Telstra support call where the person helping me took a full 30 seconds to ask me to type in 10.1.1.1. I’d done it about 2 seconds in.
- A 2-3Mbps connection that would regularly be slower on Sunday. Here a useful technician did a line test. Told me I should be getting much more. Replaced modem that day and upped the speed to 14Mbps.
Network the fourth, full wireless
Complexity has gone up a notch and chasing wireless connectivity for phone and laptops became necessary. Modems started coming out with antennae. First one, then two. Now it’s hard to get something with fewer than six! Networking wasn’t that much harder, but it is starting to be well beyond the understanding of many.
Either on ADSL, or later VDSL2, this is where most are likely to end their networking journey.
Network the fifth, security rules
Security has always been a concern for home networks. I’ve done my best until now, but want to lift my game and protect myself as well as I can. With all security there is a trade-off between practicality, cost and protection. I can up my level because I have a good tech background and the means to understand what’s needed (yeah, with some help).
I will be honest. This is just like the joke of the two campers and an approaching angry bear. One is putting on their runners. “I don’t need to outrun the bear. I just need to outrun you!” My strategy here is to reduce my cyber security risk in the hope the baddies will move on and try someone else.
The plan? VLANs to segregate IoT devices and traffic. I think these are the most risky ingress points. From there I can progressively tighten up the system. It will take some time. I still have a lot to learn.