English: Intel Pro/1000 GT Gigabit Ethernet PCI Network card (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

If you’re on a Gigabit LAN (Local Area Network), then you can do so many things that sometimes the extra efforts seem to be so redundant, but that is the whole idea!!!  For an instance, on my Gigabit LAN, I had installed Fedora 16 virtual machine (VirtualBox type) onto FreeNAS box (my home Network Attached Storage server), but accessing this virtual machine from my other home computers.  This way, I can centralize whatever virtual machines I have had in one location, and yet I’m able to access these virtual machines anywhere (i.e., any local computer which has VirtualBox installed).  To run a virtual machine on FreeNAS box, I set up iSCSI and installed a virtual machine (using VirtualBox) on iSCSI drive (iSCSI ZFS dataset volume).

I wonder… what happen if two local computers access the same virtual machine at the same time?  Probably something bad might happen.  I don’t think there will be a problem for two local computers access the same virtual machine at different time.  Nonetheless, why don’t you try this out and let me know, OK?

Other examples of how I have used a Gigabit LAN are doing backups for Windows 7, Macs, and other computers to FreeNAS box (e.g., CIFS, AFP).  Without a Gigabit LAN, doing the many things I had mentioned previously would be tedious and slow.  A Gigabit LAN pushes data ten to 40 times faster (at least that is how I feel) than slower types of LAN.

Getting Gigabit LAN going for your home isn’t hard at all!  The requirements are, CAT6 cable, a Gigabit NIC (Network Interface Card), and a Gigabit router.  That’s all you really need for having a Gigabit LAN going.  I wish I can say more as if I’m very sophisticated, but there isn’t much more to say of how getting a Gigabit LAN going.

Nowadays, CAT6 cable isn’t expensive anymore.  For an example, I looked on Amazon and saw a 50 feet CAT6 cable costed only $3.45.  The same inexpensive story goes for Gigabit NIC.  I saw a PCI-E Gigabit NIC priced around $32 on Amazon.  Gigabit router is probably the most expensive item you have to get before you can have a Gigabit LAN going.  I saw a Gigabit wireless router priced around $72 on Amazon, but few reviewers said this router had overheating problem.  You definitely need to get a good Gigabit router which has few problems or else you might not get even close to the advertised Gigabit speed.

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