AP placement

Ok, those are reputable stores. That's strange. My stuff is Westell, SMC and Linksys. No problems.

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Regards, Joerg

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A small, wall mounted (or in-wall, even better!) cabinet, in a linen closet or coat closet is usually best. Keeps it in the controlled environment of the house. They make several types of plasitc cabinets, even medicine type cabinets, that are good for this!

Charlie

I keep most of my machines (this is office space, not lab space) under the tabletops. Currently, two dual Xeon 1.4G servers (W2Ks and NetBSD), a 3G dual-core workstation (XP), a Tatung SB-1000 (Solaris) and a dinkly little 1G Piii that serves as my bastion host. Plus, a duplexed LJ4M+ and a color Phaser 560, 16 port switch, two DLT8000 10x libraries, two UPS's and a subwoofer.

Power cords "hang" from the underside of the tables (6 x 6 outlet strips). But, some cord ends up lying on the floor as well. And, all the network cabling (there are 12 drops in that area alone) and SCSI cables (4 scanners, disk arrays, tape transports and libraries) as well as USB cables (printers, video and audio accessories, etc.), serial cables, etc.

"Clean up" would be ineffective unless I could *toss* a fair amount of this stuff... :-(

[and that doesn't count what's "off-line"]

I suggested that for the doorway in the laundry room. My suggestion was met with a "Frown of Displeasure" :-/

"I'm on a crusade to hide the various bits of electronic kit that would (currently) otherwise be visible."

The doorbell and thermostat were the first "offenders" to go! :>

We have no closets in the center of the house. Everything is "open" living area. I am contemplating the *floor* under the bottom shelf in one of the pantries as a possible location for some of the kit that I *can't* "hide". I don't think that would be a good location for an AP, though.

I see you live alone?? ;-)

Highest temperature I've measured in this space was 141F (~60C) on a 110F Summer day. I figure a device *intended* for use in direct sunlight would probably be OK in such a place.

If I were to put it in the garage, I could just fasten it to the ceiling (still an eyesore). But, not an ideal location there. Best spot would be in an interior wall. But, walls are hard to gain access to "discretely". An access panel would be just as much of an eyesore as the device itself. :<

Maybe I can tinker with one of the skylights and hide it in the space "beside" same.

On a sunny day (Wed, 17 Mar 2010 12:18:43 -0700) it happened D Yuniskis wrote in :

That just changes the problem to "hiding a cabinet" instead of "hiding an AP". :<

*Behind* a medicine cabinet might be a good option (since access would be hidden yet still available). But, then you're dealing with a (metal) medicine cabinet instead of HVAC ducts. :-/

Maybe use a picostation hidden behind an "old works" Jbox. A bit of a nuisance to access but do-able. Trick would be figuring out how to locate it high enough in the wall...

I assume that was sans electronics. Now imagine a unit in there that dissipates 10 watts all the time, and no ventilation ... psshhhhh ... *PHUT*

Or worse ...

But who cares? It ain't the living room :-)

Or put a Jersey of your favorite football team over it. Oh wait, you are probably married as well ...

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Hmm, I do hardcore simulations and all that yet all there is here is one desktop (on the ground) and one netbook on the desk. This is also the office. In the lab there's just one laptop.

Maybe get rid of some machines ... :-)

There are no cables on the ground here. The ones that were too long meander in the channels and are tucked together with lacing cord and stuff so nothing slides out.

It's got to be done anyhow, some day.

Oh, then I am blessed. My wife also frowns upon certain suggestions, then there's the "Now you've got to be kidding!" category, but the laundry room would be ok.

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The "ceiling" is ventilated. Otherwise your roof wouldn't last one season!

Then why not leave *everything* "exposed"? :> I am amazed at how much *crap* there is that should be "hidden" (and I haven't even begun to tackle the zone controls for the HVAC, yet!). Of course, some things *can't* (smoke/CO). Next house I think we will build and put this stuff into the plans *before* the walls go up! :-/

Or, *my* idea... very *little* "living area" and oodles of "work/play area" -- preferably below grade!!

I have tools hosted on a variety of OS's. And, write code in a variety of different environments. I've tried, in the past, multi-boot configurations but they have been way too hard to maintain (upgrade that *one* machine and you spend a long time getting everything working again).

So, I tailor each machine to a particular purpose. Easier to find space for a machine than it is to try to get the tools working on a machine that they aren't compatible with.

E.g., I do my mechanical CAD on a different machine than I do my DTP work. Different peripherals, different computational loads, etc.

I am hoping the trend in virtualization will eventually let me move even more of this stuff to "portable" implementations. But, for now, I stick with what works.

But I suspect you don't have as many "things" in one space! :) E.g., there are 36 power outlets under the tabletops. All of them have something plugged into them (though few are actually "on" at any given time).

And, everything on top of the tabletop connects to a machine

*under* it. So, all of those cables come down to meet up with their respective hosts.

That's why god invented retirement! :>

Our laundry room acts as a primary entrance/egress as it connects to the garage. So, anything in there gets seen a lot -- either as you come into the house or exit from it.

We're still arguing about locating the power transformers for the landscape lighting *above* the doorway into the house *from* the garage (i.e., only visible from inside the garage when you are entering the house).

But, like a democracy, we vote on these things. With the two of us, that's easy: just three votes to count -- one for me, ...

I've tried Linux in a virtual machine on this office PC. Works like a champ. The really cool thing is, I could configure it so I can mouse over to the other OS and, for example, copy something from a Linux program into a Windows program.

No, I try to be sort of a minimalist, I don't need more than one PC at a time. Maybe two during Gerber reviews and that's where the netbook or a laptop comes in.

Same here, but guests rarely enter that way.

I just drilled a hole and hung it. Fait a complit, as the French say ...

I hear ya :-)

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That's what I do on one of my Sun boxes -- except the "emulation" is with real hardware (a PC *inside* the Sun). It has worked well for supporting *really* old tools. I just create a bunch of

9G "files" (seems a respectible size for a filesystem) for each of the emulation environments I want to run. Comething gets hosed? Just copy filesystemX.original to filesystem.current and click "reboot PC".

The SunPCi even has dedicated serial port (and video if I ever needed it) so I can support some older ICE's that need that *real* hardware (not virtualized).

Ditto. But *which* PC I need varies. I may be writing a driver (emacs under NetBSD) on one machine, referring to the schematic for it on another (Windows), and viewing a console session to the target on a third. Hence the "U" layout -- makes it easy for me to move from machine to machine without having to move my chair :-/

It's not the guests she worries about. *She* doesn't want to see it! We have very different outlooks in that regard. E.g., she sees it a waste of effort to do any landscaping etc. in the front yard -- preferring to spend all the effort on the *back* yard (which only *we* can see).

Depends on how much that sort of thing "costs you" (afterwards). I'd prefer a mutually satisfying solution. And, cleaner looking *is* cleaner looking :-/

Can't win...

"Be reasonable: do it MY way..."

If you want to hide something, get a politician to do that for you and lie about it at the same time.

The space between drywall and roof is? That wouldn't be very energy-efficient.

Anyhow, ours is different. 2" pecky cedar, soundboard insulation, double felt, batten system, fiber insulation between the battens, Dekra metal shingles on top. Any electronics device in there, if it contains electrolytics, would almost be guaranteed to be dead by August.

Well, I could mount the HVAC controls flush but it'll still show. It's kind of hard to look at the LCD and operate buttons when it's behind drywall :-)

Yup. But we are married ...

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Yes. There is fiberglass insulation in there but also a channel (above) for air to flow on the underside of the roofing. I think this is true even of regular attics (and in other parts of the country as well). E.g., my folks' home in new england has a roof vent the entire length of the ridgeline. And, real vents in the gable ends of the attic! I.e., in winter, the attic is

*cold* -- but the fiberglass on top of the "ceiling" (below) keeps that cold from infiltrating the house itself.

I've been moving all of the controls to "virtual controls" instead of dedicated "control panels". Ideally, two or three "stations" around the house (by the exterior doors, etc.) from which you can access these things -- *if* you need to access them (otherwise, talk to the controller from a PC, etc. and "set once"). I mean, how often do you have to tweek the irrigation schedule, etc.??

All the more reason! ;-) Keep you out of each other's hair and let you independently manage your own "mess"! :> Guests wonder why they are never allowed in the office...

I have my DSL modem and wireless router on the top of bookshelves in the great room. They're about 8' off the floor in almost dead center in the house and can only be seen from one place on the "catwalk" between the upstairs bedrooms. Works great.

That's what we have in the office part of the house. Maybe I misunderstoof and you don't have cathedral ceilings. Then yeah, you could put it into the attic. But: Attics become freaking hot in summer and ice cold in winter. Not so great for electrolytics.

I am a strong believer in decentralized systems. Especially after rather bad experiences with X10. Nothing beats something hardwired.

My wife hates messes. But I can't have a messy office anyways because I always serve several clients at the same time. Got to keep all that strictly separated. So there's coded folders, boxes and so on. In the evening there's (usually) a clean desk and lab bench surface, all neatly tucked away.

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That is why the suggestion of the coat or linen closet, or panty, or other storage space near the center of the house. Then you don't need to hide it!

Great place to also put your wire distribution center, as well.

Charlie