I am planning a major network upgrade on my house consisting of two separate flats. I've rented the other flat recently to a friend of mine who's also a computer enthusiast. We have decided to pool our resources together for a (hopefully) killer setup. As we live in Southern Europe, there are no residential T1's, in fact, the 2048K ADSL is the fastest service here, costing around 150$ a month and often goes (or crawls) down, but cable is a little better.
Here's our internet connection all together at present:
1 ADSL - 1024/128 line
1 ADSL - 2048/256 line
2 Cable lines at 512/128
1 SkyRunner Satellite two-way setup at 4096/512K (often achieves around 7Mb's but no news, POP or SMTP services)
Here's our aim:
1. Establish a gigabit ethernet structure, connecting all PC's (around 12) incl. cabling.
2. Build the necessary servers for an efficient setup with the shared resources, for the kids to play games, and to distribute MPEG2 streams around the house.
3. Put in a couple of wireless access points for the visitors, laptops, phones, etc.
4. Establish a VPN
5. Remain future proof for at least a few years.
I must say right off that finances will not be a problem, and I will welcome any brand names along with a graceful, high-quality architecture of this situation.
Now for the major questions:
1. Is there any way we can pool these internet resources together so we have:
a) a redundant connection ?
b) a load-distributed system for the peak hours?
c) a combined throughput of all incoming/outgoing connections ?
(I've know Cisco makes such routers, but none accomodates a sat receiver)
2. Is there a manufacturer for a turn-key security system for the house benefitting from internet technology ? (my net searches have not been fruitful - too many 'bandits' around..)
3. Is a centralized mail pool (like an intranet mail server) with virus & spam protection a viable venture? (Servers on cable & ADSL banned by the ISP)
4. We have DVB receivers which record data at 10-12Mbits. Will such a network be saturated when there are simultaneous recordings around the house to a NAS?
5. How good can fiber-optic cabling be when it's mixed with CAT6 cable? (Is an all-fiber solution at all possible?)
6. Is it feasible to have one main server to control the central A/C, heating, security and the such?
7. Integrate VoIP into this system
Any further suggestions will be very much appreciated.
I'm thanking you all for your time and trouble, cheers...
