House Internet Problems?
 

I am the newly elected internet/computer chair for my chapter, mostly due to the fact that I am the only girl in our house with any knowledge about computers/networking.

For those who have houses, what do you do for your internet? If you have wireless, how much bandwidth do you have, how is it set up, etc.?
Feel free to PM me :)

Our house's internet is currently not so great (only 15 girls can get on at a time) so I am in the process of revamping the whole network.

Here's the nerdy computer girl coming out in me. (By no means am I embarassed by this, I embrace it, which is why I signed up to be on the computer committee for recruitment! :D)

In our house, girls pay extra to have ethernet access in their rooms for their computers. (I believe it's $40 or something, not really sure...) Wireless wouldn't be logical... it's not useful for everyone and our house is home to more than 80 people.

For those who don't have computers or don't want to pay for ethernet access, there is internet access on the computers in our computer room... which any member can use...

The Alpha Phi house at Texas has multiple high-speed connections in every room, although I am not sure of the bandwidth. You can also use it anywhere in the house as long of you have your own wireless card. http://www.texasalphaphi.org/omega/house/

One of our alumnae members made it possible - read more about her and how she did it here -
Omega Authors: Texas Alpha Phi's Authors' Bookshelf - by clicking on 'omega authors'

Excerpt:
Lena "Buster" Quist Homburg '37 was a high school English teacher who encouraged lifelong learning. Buster was active in Alpha Phi most of her life, serving various chapters' House Corporation Boards. In addition, she served in the Austin Area Alpha Phi Mothers' Club and the Membership Committee. She was president of the Houston Area Alpha Phi Alumnae chapter and an International Convention speaker. The Executive Office foyer is named in her honor because of her strong support of the Alpha Phi Foundation. She was credited with spearheading an effort to help our chapter house go high-tech. She and our sisters from the 30s and 40s raised enough money to make Alpha Phi the first sorority at UT with high-speed network connections. In 2002 she won the Michaelanean Award Winner at Convention for her efforts.




Here are the Computer/Ethernet Rules, they may help you out:

Omega has adopted the University of Texas' computer policy. You can find it at: http://www.utexas.edu/cc/policies/trouble.html Please review the computer policy and sign the attached page and return to the VP of Chapter Operations (page basically says - "I have read the House Manual and agree to abide by these rules.")

Since the list serve has received several viruses, we are asking that all members perform virus checks frequently. E-mails and attachments sent to the list serve that contain a virus have a possibility of being sent to the entire chapter. Use common sense and avoid opening e-mails from people you don't know and also don't open attachments in short e-mails that don't really relate to you.

House Girls need to perform a virus scan weekly because we are on the same connection in the House. One option is to begin your virus scan before going to bed, and then you can see if you have any viruses in the morning. Whatever your choice for running the scan is, be sure it is done. It would also be useful to yourselves to keep your computer up-to-date on the various new viruses. Your computer should have a virus protection program already installed. If not, virus detection and removal programs, like McAfee Virus Scan and Norton Antivirus, can be purchased online or at local stores. Please protect your computer, yourself, and Alpha Phi by keeping up-to-date on virus protection.

Re: House Internet Problems?
 

I know nothing about computers but I just wanted to say I like your user name, it has a cool number in it. :D

I'm in a house with 35 guys, and we have an ethernet network in the house connected to a high speed dsl connection.

Basically we have ethernet jacks in every room. Ethernet cable is run to a central location and connected with a couple switches. We have an router that lets everyone access the dsl connection and uses dhcp to automatically assign ip addresses. We also have a couple wireless-g gateways connected to the network so people can connect wirelessly.

Our network is a few years old but was done with cat5e cabling and we have 100mbit switches so the internal network is very fast.

The DSL connection we have is a 7mbit business class line that runs 200/month from verizon. Residential service is 1.5-3 mbits dsl or about 5mbits on cable about 50/month.

Better options are verizon's FIOS (fiber service - not widely available but runs up to 30mbits) or sometimes the university will hook you in to their network and you can get 100mbit or more connection from them.

If you have an internal ethernet network routed to a broadband connection, the biggest problem is going to be when people are using filesharing applications. These will make the internet slow for the entire house. Try and limit the use of p2p apps in the house or get people to turn off uploading as that is really what slows things down.