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The Myriad Ways of Wiring Your Home?
Wired, or Wireless? RickMuller asks: "I have a cable modem feeding into an ethernet hub in my house, of off which I string anywhere from 2-5 different computers. Currently these are all clustered near the cable modem itself. I would like to be able to spread the computers through my house, and particularly to be able to bring my laptop to other parts of the house and still be able to work online. I'm considering either hiring an electrician to wire the walls, or finding some wireless format. Wireless is definitely cooler, but I'm a little bit scared off by the 'tower of babel' of different formats. Plus the expense is a consideration. Can anyone else offer an opinion on wireless vs. wired at home, and if wireless, which wireless format?"
Sticking with the open solution is always the best, so I would go with an IEEE 802.11 based network for the wireless segment. Are there any wireless cards that do not grok 802.11? If so, then I'd stay well away from these unless the cost savings are really huge, which I doubt.
Building the Home of the 21st Century! Cactii submits: "My wife and I are thinkng about buying a home soon. We both have our own ideas about what the place is going to be like and the immediate improvements we will make to the existing structure of the house. My ideas involve electronic interfaces to different areas of the house. Wiring the house for a network and using the computer for almost everything that it can be used for.
First off - I'm going to wire the living room or family room into a total entertainment center. It'll have the usual stereo, TV, DVD, VCR, etc... However there'll also be a computer connected to a proxy server that allows instant internet access. The computer will allow us to surf the net and download MP3's to be played right off the computer hard drive through the stereo and other things as well.
I've been looking around for other 'Wired Home' solutions and all I've found were some programs and electronic gizmos that offer only a piece of the solution. X10.com is about as close to a solution as anything but I don't want all these little boxes hanging off of the wall plugs.
Has anybody found anything more integral? More of a total solution?"
Wiring A Home With an Eye on the Future? Oroborus asks: "My parents are building a new house from ground up, and want to try to be as 'forward compatible' as possible. They've asked for my help in incorporating as much technology as possible, and in preparing it for any future technology that we can forsee. The problem is that though they're excited by technology, they're not all that conversant with it, and anything they include will have to be extremely user friendly. My initial thought is to wire the house with shielded ethernet cable with all the drops in the basement, to be wired to a hub/router later. But they've got high hopes for a 'smart home', how else can they prepare for the future?"
A tough job, but maybe with a bit of thought, such things can be prepared for. How would you wire a home with an eye on making it so that future capabilities can be added in without painful construction bills?
Wiring Hostile Home Environments? Old Man Kensey issues the following query: "I've been annoying my roommate by populating every possible room in our apartment with a terminal of some kind (X over the Ethernet, null-modem PPP, or serial). There are two rooms I have not yet found suitable equipment for, though -- the kitchen and the bathroom. The bathroom has the obvious hazards, besides being pretty small, but the kitchen is even more hostile an environment. Besides water, you have various kinds of food and food-related goo, microwave radiation, heat, high humidity, and general cramped space.
Has anybody out there found cheap, readily-available equipment (serial terminals, etc.) that will withstand the worst hazards of a typical American home? How about cheap modifications like enclosures that fit in small spaces and might protect, say, a PowerBook-Duo-size laptop? I'm willing to deal with having to power up and down, but I'd like to have something that doesn't compromise the actual operation of the equipment (enclosures that block cooling fan vents, for example)."
You Can Wire in More Than a LAN, You Know... Cosimo Leipold asks: "I've recently purchased a house that is still under construction. The developer asked me what I wanted wired. Has anyone expiremented with what you can wire in a home sucesfully? The developer has no 'computer experience' of course, so beyond RJ-45 he didn't know what was feasible. He tells me that the cost of wiring is pretty minimal since the house has little more than the frame up at this point. I'm looking to the slashdot community for cool ideas as to what I can wire. (RJ-45, sound, s-video, intercom, etc). I'm thinking this might be a great chance to get X10 in. Ideas?"
It seems that a lot of people have discovered X10 for home automation, but is that the only game in town? Sure, it might be the most affordable, but for those people with larger pocket books, are there other alternatives that might offer more features for a larger pricetag?
...and Along the Same Vein, Why Not Wire for Sound? Last, but most certainly not least, wiremonkey puts this question on the table: "I hear a lot of talk about wiring homes, but very few people are thinking about anything except network/telephone wiring. I'm interested in how fellow geeks have wired their houses for audio. Right now, I have a system built around a Samson 24 channel mixer and two amplifiers. My audio sources include computers, CD players, ham radios, a tape deck, DVD, VCR, and TV. The current system lets me listen to different things in two 'zones' - the computer room vs. the rest of the house (I like my computers to beep in the computer room, but not the bedroom - yet I like my CD player to play music in both rooms). Note that I always have one compter's audio playing throughout the house, as it announces my telephone calls.
I'm looking at ways of distributing the control of the audio 'mix' to two locations (right now, you have to be at the main mixer to adjust something). I would locate the video equipment and an additional CD player in the living room, while I would locate the computer equipment and auxilary audio gear (tape deck, ham radio, another CD player) in the computer room. I'd like to be able to hear any audio source from any room. I'm a serious listener, and I hate 60hz hum (the current unbalanced audio lines I use cause nothing but problems with hum)! In addition, I live in a high RF environment, with HF, VHF, and UHF transmitters and 100 watts of power per band. I get sick of hearing my automated packet station while listening to Bach! At the same time, I would prefer not to run 20+ balanced lines between the two locations. What have you done in your house? What were the 'professional touches' that you added? What did you wish you did differently?
(Yes, I know there are turn-key systems that do this - however, I don't feel like spending $2000+ for a system which won't let me listen to my computer and CDs at the same time!)"
I've found this to be ideal. We've ended up primarily using our laptops with the wireless net (even when we're on the couch and could easily plug in). My poor desktop rarely sees non-Quake action anymore. Since our primary applications involve internet access, and since the wireless is faster than our DSL, we simply almost never need the 100bT speeds.
Now, if only Tessla were alive to advise me about wireless juice, I'd be golden.
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Every year during my review, I just pray the words "slashdot.org" aren't mentioned.
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Every year during my review, I just pray the words "slashdot.org" aren't mentioned.
My goal is to make my home the perfect place for a LAN party. :-)
Some people might think about fiber also. I'm not sure as to the costs/benefits. I think fiber is a pain to run (it can't be bent to much, can't be pulled to hard, ...)
Oooh! Myth debunking time! =) I'm an installer and I work for a fiber optic distributor, so I'll throw in my few cents.
Benefits? Security is first. Fiber is very difficult to tap. Even if someone wanted to do it right, fusion splicers are expensive. $30,000 - $40,000 man, and yes, they are quite portable.
Next would be interference. Lack thereof. Fiber isn't affected by EMI or ESD at all. Run it wherever you want and it doesn't care about environmental factors.
Distance. Typically you can run several kilometers before repeating a signal. Granted your house isn't that big, but if your cable assembly was well done, you don't hafta worry about signal loss (just different modes combining after a while on multimode, but no one has a house that big).
Price. Fiber, in the long run, isn't expensive. You can get some multimode fiber and run 10Base-FL, 100Base-FX, 1000Base-SX or 1000Base-LX, or whatever on it (up to about a gigabit). Just change the devices on the end (and possibly use a different adapter) and that's it. Don't need to run new cable. Want more power? Single mode is pricier, but I think Lucent is pumping 40Gbps over it nowadays (PER fiber), and it'll keep getting better.
Bending? Well, not because of breakage, but to minimize loss. Even indoor rated riser/plenum jumper cables can take a BEATING. Typically you'll have an outer jacket, then strength members (kevlar usually for indoors), a coating, the cladding, and then the core itself. You just don't want true KINKS or 50,000,000 loops in how you're running it, to minimize loss. But at work we've done some REAL hack jobs in the office (we run fiber to EVERYTHING we can) when we've had to, and we've never had a problem.
NICs are about $150 nowadays for top name 100Mbps Ethernet topology (like 3Com's 100Base-FX cards). Hubs can be a bit pricey, but hey, fiber can be well worth it if you're willing to invest in it.
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Why not just pull a length of pull twine that's 2x as long as the conduit? That way you can reuse the same length every time.
The even simpler solution, albeit mildly destructive, is to use an existing run of cable *as* pull cord. Pull 2x the required cable so you can return the line you've used as a pull line. The excess line returned can just be recoiled. I've done this with existing electrical runs where there was no string used and the pipe was too full and serpantine to run my fishtape through.
Which reminds me of my other gripe, I wish the 1000' pull-paks of cat5 were actually dual 500' spools. I've never pulled a single line and always find myself having to handcrank the line onto multiple spools so I can pull more than one run at the same time.
I know, I could buy multiple packs, but I'm cheap, and the plywood, conduit and empty spools were available to make my multispool rig for free..
Re: hum in a fairly complex, dual-zone enviroment:
:)
The first step in creating a successful system like this seems to be consolidation of equipment. Put as much of the electronics as possible in the same place (same rack, pile, shelf, whatever). This keeps cables short, and minimizes the chance of ground loops. Plug everything into a single outlet if possible, or the same circuit, or (at the very least) the same transformer leg.
Second, keep things as simple as possible. You don't need to hear the TV in the bedroom, while using the computer at the other end of the house, and so you don't need cabling (or more to the point, antennae) for that. Ideally, the only long lines present would be for speakers, and in this situation those should probably have at least a ferrite bead clamped on, or maybe a small coil in series, to keep induced RF from pissing off the electronics.
Probably also, it does not serve you to listen to two different CDs in the same house at the same time. Throw a couple of hundred bucks at a changer that will contain your entire collection, if it suits you, and invest in some stuff from Xantech (http://www.xantech.com) or Channel Plus (mostly the same stuff) to repeat IR commands from a one place to equipment located elsewhere. This can also be used with VCRs, DVD players, and probably an LIRC-using MP3-playing Linux box.
Don't use a huge, burdensome mixer to negotiate different sources. Samson isn't particularly well-known for the quality of their gear, and that combined with long, unbalanced lines is probably the root of your whole-house AM reciever symptom. A dual-zone preamp or stereo reciever, or two normal stereo preamps/recievers (and a mess of Y cables) will serve well to differentiate sources for different zones, particularly when combined with a minimalistic Xantech system and a learning remote (or several, depending on needs). And, you get to remove lots of rather hideous electronics from the loop - no mixer is as transparent as a minimalist preamp.
I can hear you whine "But, then I wouldn't see the display on my CD player from the bedroom!" Realistically, when is the last time you actually used it? It's not as if you'll be doing cueing for post-production while laying in bed, watching TV.
I can also hear you whine "But, then I wouldn't be able to listen to the TV in stereo while in the bedroom!", which is similarly untrue. Forget about the tuner in the TV, and use the VCR, cable box, satellite reciever, or whatever you have in the computer room. Run 1 (one) drop of RG-whatever to provide video from this point to the remote TV. Control it with Xantech. If you choose a dual-zone A/V preamp, it will facilitate the switching of video sources.
And for the final whine: "But, with this configuration, I won't be able to hear my computer beep at me while I'm listening to a CD!" Well, if you eliminate all the present complexity and the 24-channel console, you won't be hearing your packet station whenever someone checks their email, either. At any rate, Midiman (http://www.midiman.com) sells a few small, minimalist stereo mixers. Use one in the computer room to combine the output of the zoned switching machine (whatever that may end up being) and the computer, again using the shortest cables possible. If that's not hi-fi enough for your tastes, scope out Ashly (http://www.ashly.com). Ashly equipment is not inexpensive, but the trouble it saves is invaluable.
Sorry to rain on your parade, but the problems you experience using a mix board as the heart of your audio system are precisely the reasons why they're best avoided if at all possible, and also a firm demonstration of the "less is more" phenominon.
I'd write more, but the power just went out, and I have no idea when it might be back. The UPS is howling.
Kid-proof tablet..
Hi, In reference to the small home network and metal shelves that fjordboy talked about above. Here are some pictures of the stuff:
Our Server and such
Our UPSes on the rack">
All that this is is a metal shelf, but it works great to keep the batteries off the floor (wetness is bad for batteries), and it's all good!
This is total and complete bunk. Common Cat 5 wiring is also know as UTP, or Unshielded Twisted Pair. There's no shield, and nothing to ground.
;-)
And yes, I used to design premises wiring systems. This was so blatant an error, I thought it should be stomped out now before someone believes this BS.
If you really want to understand how to do wiring right, spend a little time at the Siemon or Leviton web sites. This stuff is not that hard, so long as you listen to people who know what they're talking about.
My recommendations for homes in a nutshell:
1) dont' fall for expensive wiring centers (On-Q and their ilk)
2) use cat 5 wiring, jacks, punch-down blocks, and patch cables - that's plenty adequate. Run 2 jackets (16 wires or 8 pairs total) to each location you think you'll want a phone or computer device in the next five years. (Don't go overboard - I see a lot of new houses here in Austin with a ridiculous amount of wiring. I have only what I need, and I'm quite happy with it. Remember wireless is an option, too...
3) I like the little Leviton modular outlets.
4) The same little Leviton modules can be snapped into a very inexpensive 8-hole metal bracket they sell to provide the equivalent of a small patch panel at much lower cost.
5) Stick to well-known wiring standards: Use EIA/TIA 568A (general stds) and 606 (labeling).
6) There are also pair-to-pin standards. I prefer T-568A, although T-568B is also a good alternative. (Note the "T", which spcifies the "termination" spec, not the generic 568A spec mentioned above.) Avoid RBOC and other schemes as they're less common and will confuse other people.
7) Spend some time at web sites devoted to cabling before diving in. You'll be glad you did.
8) Look around for tools, too: There are a number of special drill bits, wire retrievers, string throwers, etc, that can make the job easier. Some are worth the money even for a home job.
9)There's just no subsitute for a 3-foot long drill bit when you really need one, and despite what someone said elsewhere in this discussion, don't open up the drywall if you can help it. It's not usually necessary, the repairs always show, and doing so represents a substantial failure of creativity and imagination.
"The future's good and the present is nothing to sneeze at." - Roblimo's last
I've got some experience with setting up a wireless home network, and here are some of the things that I discovered. First of all, my general setup: I've got a ZyXEL Prestige 642 DSL router that I wanted to share between several machines, most notably a Dell laptop that I wanted to network wirelessly. The first thing that I did was buy a 5-port Linksys 10/100-BaseT autosensing Ethernet hub; I had been running the DSL router straight into my main desktop PC's NIC with a crossover cable. Now there's a hub, so the ground work is done.
.. the access point needs to be plugged into either a 10BaseT or an autosensing 10/100BaseT hub! It will not work with a 100BaseT-only hub!
.. anything above that is frosting on the cake. 802.11b offers a theoretical maximum bandwidth of 11Mbps, but in practice you'll probably get half that, even if you're in the immediate vicinity of the access point. If all you're looking to do is be able to sit out in your backyard and read Slashdot, that's probably more than sufficient. If you need 100Mbps+ speeds to your local machines, you need to drill some holes and run some cable. Personally, I think the wireless cards are just plain fun. I can read Slashdot from the neighbor's yard, for Christ's sake. :-)
The first thing you'll need is (obviously) a wireless access point. For this, I would recommend the Linksys WAP 11 wireless NAP. This is an inexpensive (~$240) piece of equipment that has worked flawlessly for me thus far. There are more expensive and more capable access points, but IMHO you can't go wrong with this one, at least for a home setup. Note that this access point is a straight pass-through; it does not do DHCP or anything like that. For me, this isn't an issue because my DSL router acts as a DHCP server.
Some more notes about the WAP11: it comes "out of the box" configured with an IP address of 192.168.1.250. Again, this was fine for me since my home network is 192.168.*.* based. Obviously, this can be changed, but the provided configuration software is Windows-only. You can configure the unit either by plugging in the provided USB cable and running the USB-based configuration program, or you can do it via a SNMP-based configuration client. Oh, and before I forget
Okay, so now you've got an access point plugged into your network hub. The next thing you need is a wireless card. If you're networking a laptop, grab a Lucent ORiNOCO 802.11 Silver PC card. Linksys makes its own wireless PC card, and if you're buying the Linksys access point, you may be tempted to buy the same brand for the PC card. Don't. Linksys's card works fine, but its range is limited; it is far less than what they advertise. The radio that the Lucent cards use is far, far better. Many people have reported tripling their ranges when switching from the Linksys to the Lucent card.
I've had no problems with the Lucent card. Hell, they even include the source code for Linux drivers on the installation CD! The Linux driver you're looking for is "wavelan2_cs", and it supports 64-bit WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy) (40-bit, actually) encryption. For the sake of full disclosure, however, it should be pointed out that WEP's security is under fire (expanded PDF version)
In general, if you're looking for raw speed, you're not going to get it with 802.11b (or, at least, you aren't going to get wired speeds.) For me, I mainly use my network to surf the Internet, and my DSL downstream bandwidth maxes out at 1 Mbps or so
We're going down, in a spiral to the ground
First some background, my home is totally wired. We have some 30 ethernet drops spread throughout the house, all terminating in a central wiring/server closet. Based on this experience, I have a few peices of advice to offer.
:)
1) Always do it right.
By this, I mean don't do anything half-assed just because it's a home installation. This is a mistake I see a lot of people making. Network cable is rather fragile (if you want to maintain 100BaseT capability). This means that running it over the floor, through heating ducts, and what not is generally not a good idea. Plus, running the cable that way is just ugly, and a potential danger. And besides, drywall is easy to patch.
Also, it's incredibly important to document which cable is which. There is nothing more frustrating then trying to figure out which jack/end in one room matches up with which cable down in another room. The easiest way to do this is to come up with a numbering convention for your home, and then mark these numbers on both ends of the cable with some sort of label (Masking tape/pen works fine).
All the cable in our network terminates is laid to cat-5 specifications, and terminates in a proper wall plate on one end, and a patch pannel (see Ours) on the other. This has saved us hours of trying to track down problems, and allows us to quickly bypass problems should one occur. If I were to do our network again, the only change I would make would be to use a 50 pair horizontal cross connect cable to go from our second floor to the wiring closet.
2) Don't underestimate how much cable you need.
The other mistake I see people making is that they underestimate how much cable they need to run to their bedroom, or any other room. Invariably, this leads to chaining hubs, and all sorts of other problems. It's best to pull lots of cable, and if you don't need it right now, just leave it in the walls for future use.
In our place, we pulled 4 lines to each of the bedrooms, and that's barely enough. As it stands, the three of us that live in our home are all using all four drops in each bedroom.
3) Always pull a string.
Whenever you pull cable through floors/ceilings/walls always pull a string along with the cable, and do your best to keep it from getting tangled or twisted around the cable. This string can then be used, in turn, to pull the next cable. When you're done, leave a string in place, in case you suddenly realise you need a nother cable. Your cheap Polyester twine that can be had from Home Depot will be more then adequate.
4) Don't go totally overboard.
Don't spend too much on stuff that you don't need. Cat-5e isn't really worth it, since gigabit can go over properly laid Cat-5, don't lay fiber unless you intend to actually use it, don't buy plenum cable unless your fire code requires it, ect.. Really, always just keep an eye out for the best price/reliability values out there.
This is more important for things like jacks and connectors then for hubs/switches. With a good quality jack, the wires will not come loose. We've been bitten by this more then a few times, and have had to punch things down more often then we'd like.
Hubs and switches, in general, are pretty reliable no matter who makes them. For home use, there really isn't much point in purchasing the latest and greatest 3Com switch, when something less expensive will do the trick. It's highly unlikely that you will need to use all the bells and whistles an expensive one would provide you with.
5) Think Safety.
When opening up walls to pull cable and/or drilling exploratory holes, always be weary of hitting electrical cabling. 120V is not something that you want to hit with a hand saw. Also, be careful if you're up on a ladder. It's very easy to come un-ballanced while doing a hard pull.
6) Add Toys.
The last thing to do, once you have a stable platform to work on is to add toys. 802.11 is fun, and incredibly cool, but still much more expensive then a wired solution (as long as you're handy, and can do a reasonable job yourself).
Anyway, I hope this information helps people out with their plans. If there is enough interest, I can put together a list of materials that we used, to give an idea of what works. (Most of our equipment comes from Lin Haw).
...si hoc legere nimium eruditionis habes...
Not true at all. First, there are no ground wires in ethernet cabling. In fact, the spec *specifically* states that no conductors are to be grounded. This is because ground potential can vary in large installations, and you would get ground loops with potentially large currents flowing through your cat5 if you tried it.
Instead of grounding, ethernet uses differential signals. Each direction (send and receive) has a pair of wires. If the wires are at the same voltage, it is a physical "0", if the + pin is 5V higher, it is a physical "1". (I belive it is 5V logic, but am not actually sure). Since the pairs are twisted, any "line noise" will affect both wires the same, and the difference will be the same at the other end. This is also the way differential SCSI, and most multi-drop physical protocols work)
10BaseTx and 100BaseTx require two pairs. Many premade cables don't even have the other two pairs, and the spec allows you to use one or both of the unused pairs as phone or other connections (that is why the wiring diagram skips the center two pins -- those are reserved for phone use). I wired my parents house, and most of the cables are split so one run of Cat5 gives two 100BaseTx ports.
100BaseT4 (a competing 100 Mbit ethernet standard that never took off) requires all 4 pairs, but works with only Cat3 cables, instead of Cat5.
One word of warning: If you run ethernet along exterior walls, consider adding surge supressors to the ethernet. We has a near lightning strike that as near as we can tell grounded through the chimney, inducing large currents in the ethernet cable running right next to it. No physical damage to our house, but it destoyed or damaged 4 motherboards, CPUs, and ethernet cards, a laser printer, and the hub.
-p.
I think the best thing is to have everything run in conduits. That way, you can easily add new wires / remove old ones.
...)
:), maybe even wires for cameras so you can see the pizza guy at your door from your TV :)
The problem with running everything in conduit is the price (much more $$$), and you have to do it while the house is being built (unless you want to tear down walls..)
I think the 2nd best thing to do is run 2 or 3 Cat5 (or better, cat 6?) wires everywhere, even for the phone jacks. That way you have spares incase you want to add a network jack somewhere.
Some people might think about fiber also. I'm not sure as to the costs/benefits. I think fiber is a pain to run (it can't be bent to much, can't be pulled to hard,
Also, don't forget the coax for cable TV, and speaker wires for the cool surround sound system
Conduit. Lots and lots of big, easy to access conduit. There is no better way to prepare for future cabling needs.
"Prefiero morir de pie que vivir siempre arrodillado!"
I started out with a BAN (Basement Area Network)
This worked for all the 1st floor rooms, but I scratched my head for a long time about how to extend my network to the kids' bedrooms upstairs. I discovered a TV antenna mounted in the attic, with the coax going down to the basement through a conduit.
I tied a string, pulled the cable through, then pulled a length of cat5. I bought another hub and wired the length going to the attic as a cross-over to connect the two hubs. Then I ran cat5 to each room, dropping through small holes drilled in the closets. Again I used surface-mount boxes, installed this time on the inside of each closet near the door. Both the kids' computers are sitting along the walls near the closets, so the patch cable is slipped under the door.
For my server room, I bought some of that wire shelving from Office depot and put it in the small study off in the back of the house to prop up my web server and file server. I got one of those cheapo data transfer switches so I could hook up the monitor and kbd.
I got a cheap rolling cart and set up a print server in the kitchen closet. My company waits about 5 years before they throw out old computers, I happened to be there when they were throwing an old compaq laptop and its docking station out. The display was fried, but the docking station has 2 ISA slots, it was pretty easy to get a $10 ne2000 card to work in there and to get samba running so kids could print from their win boxes.
Problem is, I keep coming up with ideas for stuff I want to do and it usually involves getting an old PC from someone, installing Linux or BSD and running some wires somewhere. A few weeks ago I got really pissed because my ISP's DNS servers were down for the 3rd time that week. A woman I work with had given me an old Packard Bell 486 sh*tbox with a <100 Mb drive, I decided to set it up as a name server.
I have a real problem. Looking around the room here, I have 7 boxes (actually, only 4 of them are on and doing anything right now). Well, guy's gotta have a hobby, right?
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There is much cruelty in the universe, John.
Yeah, we seem to have the tour map.
We have a small in house network in my house, which all goes through a small hub. It is all using cat 5..and it works really well. A tip to anyone interested...a set of metal shelves makes a GREAT cheap computer rack. :) Also...sending cable through ductwork saves a lot of time and drilling.
The anti-salmon
Get your electrician to lay the cable if you want it neat and haven't got the time (or skill).
Choose decent cable UTP Cat 5 or higher is fine.
Best avoid laying cables in parallel to power.
Use switches not hubs whenever possible - they are cheap these days
Set aside some space to serve as a central place for your server(s)
You can mix media, so Wireless extensions to a wired network might make sense in your building (especially if you'd like to share with the neighbours)
Find your local nerd to help secure your computer if you plan to share an internet connection (especially if it's broadband!)
Keep at least one network game (remember the locations of valuable items on the maps) and a few bottles of coke handy just in case friends drop by
there is probably countless other tips =) ..
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Jon - TheSpork