In this case, “the internet” refers not to the imagined space created by websites, articles, bulletin board posts and various media, but rather the physical internet as it is piped into our home. “The tubes,” if you will.
Since we moved in to the new townhouse in August, we’ve been using a wireless router, hoping to get the ethernet ports that are in each room worked out by someone professional who knew what they were doing. After three attempts (the Comcast cable guy, a local IT support company, and Geek Squad) and much bitterness directed toward those three groups at their ineptitude, unwillingness or sheer laziness, the two of us in the house with the most experience in networking and electrician-type things pulled the magic internet box out of the wall and decided to do it ourselves.
The first step was quick: I hooked up the modem to the incoming cable and got the wireless and wired internet to work with my laptop. Step two was figuring out how to pipe that working wired internet through to the rest of the jacks in the house. This involved ripping the facade of an organized board out of the wall to realize there were simply ethernet cables running down the walls to this box from each room. More than that, each one was labeled. After staring at it, the two of us resolved that a trip to Lowe’s could make all of this happen.
We picked up a specialized wirecutter with a tool on the end that let you put heads on any ethernet cable. After stripping the outside of an ethernet cable, all one had to do was organize the colors so that they were correctly assigned and clamp the head onto the cable. Voila, one end of the cable was set up so that we could plug that into the router. Internet was sent to each room one by one as I meticulously and infuriatingly shoved tiny wires into each jack in their specific color orders. Six of those later (four internet lines, one phone line, and one that shifted when it was being clamped, thus trashing that head entirely) and internet was go. Everyone’s computer was plugged into their respective walls and the internet worked for everyone. It took around four hours, starting some time before eight o’clock and ending somewhere after midnight, but it was done.
The kind of satisfaction ensued that only a ridiculous DIY project that ends with the intended result can bring. I went to work tired, but I had an excuse–I was up late stripping wires and physically networking the house. It was kind of awesome.
I hope I don’t have to do it again. «»
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