This is a technology issue. Once again, this is not meant to be a fund-raising appeal, but a genuine request that you pray with me.
I continue studying the mechanics of networking and providing services to my readers and supporters. A recent trend has been the reduced costs and commoditizing of specialized networking hardware. At one time, having a machine that kept track of the various computers and networking links on a LAN was expensive and complicated. As the technology hardware got cheaper and faster, they came up with switches and routers, and then they started making them so small and cheap that they become common home user stuff. Then there was a new trend to give those home Internet routers more and more power and options. My current router can do some interesting stuff, just not a lot of it and certainly requiring some complicated set up.
The other day I saw the first commercial grade router offered at a home-office price range. Someone is putting those devices in the pricing space between cheap home routers and high-end business devices; this one was offered at Sam’s Club for about $200. The thing is a mini-computer in its own right. However, it’s highly specialized to do what routers do, and brings the high-end tasks down to home user price range — almost. That’s still pretty expensive for me. And I don’t need all the features right now. I have read a couple of tech articles about using or building similar specialized devices on the new “system on a chip” computer hardware, like the Raspberry Pi and similar things, but they still cost about that much or more once it was all done right. Meanwhile, all of them were roughly the same size as the cable modem my ISP issued me for access.
Sure, if you feel like buying it for me, it’s the Linksys WRT1900AC. The thing that really caught my eye is that they built it specifically so you can use Open Source software if you are so inclined. I don’t need that kind of wifi power for home use, so I would probably turn that off and just use the other router capabilities. But I’m still studying this stuff and hoping to see more of this kind of device, as it’s the best way to provide the services on our home server while protecting it better.
Pray with me as I learn more about this networking stuff that I am able to see the Lord’s path for bringing Him glory.
