Ok... Ok... you thought this would be posting about retreat items and summer camp, but you are trumped on this one. The IT guy of Camp Tejas is coming out and taking over. The last post was about controlling Lights and A/C units from computers (which is really cool). This post is about the use of DD-WRT, updating our wired network infrastructure and installing an internet filter.
First off, DD-WRT is a way to have more control over our wireless access points around the camp. I have been playing with a couple of test routers over the last year, and now I am starting to "revamp" our wireless boxes around the camp. Since we have been adding wireless access points over the last several years, each box has its own settings and web pages. With DD-WRT I am able to have a common interface for all (or at least most) of our wireless access points. Today I finished revamping our Dining Hall and Tejas Home boxes, I also got ready to install one for the Office, Tejas Inn and SMT Office. Hopefully with this open source product, administration of our wireless network will be a little easier.
Second, I have been playing around in attics this week. Since getting here, I have been using non-kosher methods of getting network access faster between buildings at the camp. In the early 2000's we used wireless bridges between our main buildings. This helped a whole lot, but with the advance of technology, our solution was not keeping up. Applications, shared files, Internet, VOIP phones and printers needed more bandwidth. My "cheap" solution was to start using old 4 pair phone lines that were run back before I was born (not really, but a while ago) as network cable. Today's standard speed is 100 megabits, but on some connections I am lucky to have 10 megabits. With all that said, I have started to replace old lines with new ones and have installed 1000 megabits switches to help speed up our network. In the near future I plan on replacing the lines between buildings with Fiber Optic cables. This should really speed things up and hopefully be a versatile solution for the future of technology at the camp.
Lastly, the newest addition to our family of network products is an Internet filter. This solution by Intgerity Online will help safeguard our staff and guests with the waywardness of the internet. It helps to filter internet content and blocks bandwidth consuming games and applications. In the future we plan to add an email component to this solution to help with spam.
These are the happenings of the IT guy.
Paul Biles
Retreat Director