Monday, May 07, 2007

Grumpy home networker

I wanted to hook up my TiVO to the house network today, so I swung by local shops looking for supplies. The plan is to throw an Ethernet cable through the attic and down the walls, for about 11m or 33' of cable. My house is a very typical for Tracy, wood-frame, slab foundation, 1-story affair. It seems that nobody sells bulk Cat5 though.

I went to Ace, Best Buy, and Radio Shack (I understand now that I should've given Home Depot a chance, but I was getting irritated). Neither Ace nor Best Buy were selling a decent crimping tool. How odd! In Radio Shack, I found something approximating one, but then they only sell RJ-45 plugs in packs of 5 (FIVE) for $6.99 (SEVEN BUCKS!). Best Buy offers a kit of their Dextel tool, 100' cable, and a packet of plugs, for low, low price of $129.

We need Fry's in Tracy, like NOW.

At current prices, driving to Fremont in my 24..28mpg car puts about $8 on top of every purchase. This is noticeable for cheap things like a crimping tool.

3 Comments:

Blogger Tammy said...

Did you try True Value downtown on 10th? My dad works there so I always try there first. I get a discount. But seriously they surprise me sometimes with what I am able to find there that I cannot find at other places.

11:29 AM  
Blogger Dave Parker said...

I'm still too lame to make my own cables maybe I just need a good tool!

Hey, give the new "n" wireless a try supposed to really be fast and no wires! (It's only money ;-))

-dp

8:59 PM  
Blogger ザイツェヴ said...

I'm not putting my TiVo on wireless, considering how bad the security traditionally was there.

10:14 AM  

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