Discovering Hidden Network Treasure

Recently I had an inquiry from a neighbor about how to improve their home network. 

These first contacts are always a bit tricky because I don't know the source of their problems or how their home is laid out. 

But my experience has taught me one thing - that ISPs (internet service providers) always come into a home, drop some useless WiFi router/modem into some remote room of the home and then leave. They do not make any effort to check signal strength anywhere that the customer will actually use the WiFi, and they definitely don't make any attempt to offer an ethernet wall jack anywhere to let the customer add to the network or plug in directly. In recent years, the ISPs have started offering band-aide solutions in the form of "mesh" boxes. These give the illusion of more connectivity, but they don't truly unlock the potential of the internet speed that you are already paying for. After some initial ideas of how I could help, I setup a time to meet at the house and see first hand what the problems were and present my thoughts for the best solution. 

This is exactly why I offer a free consultation session - everyone's needs are different!

My expectation was that this home was going to need some sort of network cable(s) run in order to add a basic network skeleton and be able to install access points in key locations to blanket the home in real WiFi coverage. 

When I arrived, I found the cable modem/WiFi router in the downstairs office room - no surprise. Its input was from a coaxial cable that came from the very typical "network" box found in an upstairs kids closet. (this will be important later). The output of the modem was some ethernet jacks as well as an activated VOIP port for the customer to have a home phone. That port was connected directly to a wireless phone base station. The ethernet was in turn connected to a "wireline" transmitter. These devices are used to jump the ethernet signal from one room to another using your electrical wall power wires. They do OK for getting a network signal to a hard to reach location. But in this case, this was the second problem after the modem being in a remote room. 

In this case, the home owner was paying for 150Mb down / 20Mb up service. Not too bad these days. But, with useless WiFi, they couldn't use that or any other speed. But with that "wireline" approach, they were bottlenecked to 27Mb down.

At receiver end of the "wireline" was another older store bought WiFi router. Aside from being older, it was also the typical consumer grade product that most people would normally buy. These devices tend to bottleneck when more than one user is trying to heavily use them. 

The overall approach was good, but it had no chance of ever working well enough to use the speed they are paying for. 

And worse, the bottlenecked WiFi signal is still not reaching to their living areas. 

Then I made my discovery! 

In that "network" box upstairs I found an abandoned telephone distribution block. Since the ISPs now use VOIP, they never bother to even attempt to tie it back to this original distribution system. (which is super simple if you needed that these days) 

This home was built in the early 2000's and instead of old telephone wires, they used network wires!!
See those green wires plugging into that box?  Those have 4 pairs of twisted wires that go to various rooms in the house. At the other end, they only were using 1 pair for telephone jacks.

This was a treasure to find! 
It meant that I could replace that phone distribution box with a network switch and then change the phone jacks (RJ11) into ethernet jacks (RJ45)  - and viola! - the makings of a skeleton network in this home! And because we are in an upstairs closet, I could easily run a new wire straight up into the attic to add more access points on the second floor! 

At the other side of those green lines I had the option to either wire an access point directly, or use the network jack to add an additional small switch. 

Why would I do that? Well, consider that one of those jacks was in the media room behind the TV - I could wire the TV and game consoles directly and not need to add traffic to the WiFi network! 

But the real elegance of this plan was still to come. 

With both the coaxial cable lines and this new network access, I could locate that cable modem in this box along with a UPS (uninterruptible power supply) and this could yield a network connection and WiFi even during short power outages! 

So, take a look in your closet and see if you have treasure hiding there from a phone system you are no longer are using! 

As part of my process, I sketch my ideas and then make a "schematic" of the connections as a sanity check that I am not missing anything and have the correct size switch, etc. 

Then I also prepare a proposal for the owners to consider and discuss with me before we begin. It includes the estimate of hardware I need them to purchase using an Amazon list link, as well as estimates for my time.

I keep things real up front, no hidden costs. I just am trying to help people use the potential of the internet they are already paying for! 

As you can see, I am very pleased with the Ubiquiti Unifi line of products. These are considered "Enterprise" grade level and I will link to several products below. 
BTW, I do not represent Ubiquiti, I am just a geek who loves their products and want to share what I have discovered! 

Contact me if I can help you step up your network game!

Links: 

Main Ubiquiti Unifi Website

Ubiquiti Security Gateway (USG)

Ubiquiti NanoHD Access Points

Ubiquiti other Access Points

Ubiquiti POE+ Switches

Cloud Key Gen 2

Cloud Key Gen 2 Plus

Ubiquiti Video

Why did I start Blomstrom.Tech?

For those of you that know me personally, you know that I love to help people with both mechanical or techie stuff. I love to tinker and learn. 

I’ve been messing with computers since the days of the Apple II, and love to help people build custom machines that you just can’t find at the stores.

Along the way, I’ve had to learn how to connect machines together and my network skills grew. To organize information, I’ve created many websites over the years to help share between my design departments and the community.

And I have been blessed to have designed PCB’s (Printed Circuit Boards) for some pretty cool devices over the years. (Palm pilot, GPS3 satellite, proto work that led to Qualcomm’s Snapdragon, US Robotics modems, supercomputers and avionics systems to name a few).

My first two jobs as a designer were at service bureaus that also built bare boards. This was an amazing time. So many different types of products and variety of build techniques needed to meet the customer’s needs. But my background extends into a variety of other DIY hobbies – engine rebuilding/car maintenance, building kitchen cabinets (and marching band props), routing 220V feeds, creating 3-way switch wiring, welding car frames, home plumbing, framing and sheetrock, building fences and decks, and so on. I was raised with the encouragement to research and try a project myself before looking for external help. And the projects always gave me new discoveries and the courage to try something more difficult. One example I have from my childhood – when I was 12, I replaced all the switches and outlets in the house my parents had bought when we first moved in. I never thought twice about this. That is until I was a dad with 12 year olds and couldn’t imaging them doing the same task.  I suppose it helped that my family was very middle class. We had to do work ourselves because paying someone else to do it wasn’t really an option most of the time. This mindset has continued throughout my life as I always tackle new challenges without being intimidated by the project. One summer when I was home from college, I remodeled my mom’s kitchen out of the blue because we had imagined it over the years. And my first car was a hand me down that I had to fix if I wanted a car.

Fast forward to today. I have worked for many technical companies, climbed the corporate ladder several times, and built design teams from scratch. In the end, the successes were always short lived because the companies made stupid decisions or just plain self-destructed. Big companies always trip over themselves, and their goals always outweigh the needs of the individuals. The idea of job security at a company is a dinosaur that disappeared years ago just like company paid pensions. And any process improvements or my professional growth only happens if it fits their agenda.

Meanwhile in my community, I see friends and neighbors struggling to understand how to deal with all these electronics in our lives and in our homes. The advice and knowledge out in the wild is often flawed and doesn’t fix the problem, it just band-aides it. WiFi routers like this one pictured are like the old "boom boxes". They do several things, but none of them great. 

I have spent my whole life helping people where I can. Coming to the rescue if a computer crashes or some other problem arises. I have also sat at my various jobs for many years never quite feeling complete. The old adage of “you should do what makes you happy and then it’s not work!” never seemed to apply for me. Instead, I have a knack of finding companies with promises of growth, teams to build, and varieties of products, but only to instead discover they are drowning in closed thinking and redundant products. I watched as they made dumb decisions and disappeared into history. 

I have so much experience bottled up to just sit here and rot in an old school corporate office.

So….

I first took notice of the new domain extension “.tech”. This got me thinking. Why don’t I start by grabbing a domain – and Blomstrom.Tech was born. But so what? What can I do with this?

I thought that this can become a very personal brand – of me! By putting my name front and center, it is not a clever company name that I can hide behind if I give bad service. It make me accountable and from there I can build trust from the services I provide.  

To begin that process, I resurrected an old server and built the website (Blomstrom.Tech) as my means of organizing my thoughts. As of this article, I’ve grouped together 4 general categories of services I can help others with.

I envision the first 3 to be targeted towards my community.

• Network Design will help people get their houses and businesses wired for the 21st century.
• PC Support will include helping people with their crashed PC’s, adding upgrades, and building the custom machine of their dreams.
• Web Sites will help folks who want more than the DIY online tools like Wix can offer.

The 4th category I see being useful to anyone across the country.

• PCB Design is something that I can help startups or big companies get their jobs done.

What’s the game plan? Well, here’s where I am going against conventional thinking. (no surprise – right?) Unlike the usual plan of saving $ to launch a startup, I intend this business to be like a self priming pump.

I refuse to take away resources from my family to build my idea.

There is no savings or slush fund to tap into. So then what – pray for money? Well, in a sense, yes. If this business is ever going to be a success, then it has to be alignment with HIS plans. And IF that is true, then the right doors and contacts will open. Some of those contacts have already started connecting. My first goals are pretty simple. Provide a service to someone that will yield me enough to file my LLC. Next will be my insurance and EIN. But then there is my BIG hurdle. In order to do PCB design, I need to either use an opensource (a.k.a. free) software tool or I need to spend some heavy cash to purchase licenses of the tool I’ve used my whole career. I am currently researching ways to raise that cash. One idea it to seek out an angel investor who would be willing to front the startup costs in exchange for some percentage of profits later. Another idea I am researching is this… perhaps as a kickstarter campaign, I could offer personal tutoring to a local young adult in PCB design (using said tool), and maybe even treat it as an internship to give them a “reference”. My industry has a distinct need of young talent and I know from my own family that not everyone is the right fit for college. For this, or several, young adult this would be the training needed to start their career into a very exciting world. I see opportunities constantly that require relocation to a different state. That is not the path I wish to take today at this point in my life, but is perfect for a young designer starting their career!

Perhaps you know someone willing to be an angel investor or a parent of a young adult who would benefit from an apprenticeship?

For some perspective of these CAD tools, they fall in the mid 5-figure range per user. So for an angel, that would be the target. But for an apprenticeship - compare that number versus a 4-year college. Except I would be teaching the skills, and presumably the industry contacts, to a young adult to begin a career! 

Contact me at: https://blomstrom.tech/pages/contact.php