Ethernet Ports

One of the things that I wanted to do as I was setting up the home theater was to activate some of the ethernet ports around the house.  When our cable was installed, Verizon only activated one of the ports, so many of the ports (including the one in the theater) did not work.  I didn't take any pictures during the project, but I have some pictures of the end result.

Step One - Junction Box

Find the junction box in your home.  Most of the time, the box is located in your master closet or garage.  The picture above is our junction box in our master closet.  Sometimes the box will be installed onto the wall so it will look like an actual box.  Sometimes the box will be installed into the wall so it will look like a metal panel (as pictured above).

Step Two - Input Signal

Open the box or remove the metal panel.  This is what the inside of our junction box looked like after I was done hooking everything up.  The black/red thing at the bottom was the modem/router that Verizon provided.  Our junction box included an A/C outlet to power the modem/router.  I had to use an extension cord because the A/C adapter for the modem/router would not fit into the junction box if I plugged it directly into the A/C outlet.

The white wires running down the right side are the coax cables that run to the different coax ports throughout the house.  One of the coaxes is a line to the exterior cable box.  That coax is fed into a splitter that splits the cable signal into a TV cable signal and an Internet signal.  

The Internet signal is fed into the modem/router.

Step Three - Output Signal

The last step is to connect the ethernet ports throughout the house to the modem/router.  The junction box contains a box where all the ethernet ports connect to.  As you can see in the picture, the yellow CAT5 cables run from the various ethernet ports in the house to jumpers on the box.  These jumpers then connect to ethernet ports on the bottom of the box.  To activate the ports, I run CAT5 cables from these ethernet ports to the modem/router.

Notes

If your cable company provided only a modem rather than a modem/router combo, do not purchase a router to stick in the junction box with the modem.  That would take up a lot of space and cost more than you really should be paying.  Instead of buying the router, buy a switch or a repeater.  Switches are typically a much smaller form factor and cost much less than a router.  Connect the switch to the modem and then connect the ethernet ports on the switch to the ethernet ports on the box.  

You will probably need another router to establish a WiFi network throughout your house.  Luckily, I had one lying around.  It's a bit outdated, so I ordered a new router, which should come in the next few days.  In the meantime, my speeds are capped by the old router.

Clogged Tubs

At some point, the drain on your bathtub may get clogged.  Usually, it's just hair and other small debris that's easy to remove.  No need for Drain-o or some contraption made from a wire hanger.  Drain-o is especially bad on your pipes, so do not use it on your own pipes ever.



Here is the offending drain.  Looks normal, but drains very slowly.  A sure sign that hair is clogging it up.



Lock down the drain plug and twist off the center cap.  Underneath is a metal rod.



Unscrew and remove the metal rod.  The plug will now completely remove from the drain.

No pictures showing the hair or how it was unclogged.  It's not a pretty sight, so I'll save your eyes.  If you don't want to use your hands to remove the hair, try using a pair of needle-nose pliers.

NOTE 1: There is a metal ring that slides along the metal rod.  Do not make the silly mistake I did and lose it down the drain.  That ring is what keeps the plug from always being in the ON position.

NOTE 2: Some plugs do not follow this assembly.  They will attach to the metal rod with a screw.  The screw is located underneath the plug.  You'll have to use a flashlight and a screwdriver to locate and remove the screw.  Do not unscrew the screw all the way or you risk losing it down the drain.

Guest Post - Humidifier

We've been busy unpacking and setting up our office, so no posts lately.  However, our good buddy Airiq has provided a guest post about cleaning humidifiers.

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After winter has ended, it’s time to put away those humidifiers that helped you through the dry and cold months.  If you’re like me, your humidifier needs a thorough cleaning before storage.  Below are some tips on cleaning the Crane Drop Shape Ultrasonic Humidifiers. 

Cleaning the base of the humidifier is fairly straightforward.  You can soak the dirty parts in white vinegar/water as instructed by Crane’s staff in their instruction manual.  Use only a capful of white vinegar at most.  Let the base soak for about 15-30 minutes then rinse with water and use a paper towel to remove residual mold. 

Mold also grows in the water storage container and this is probably the most difficult part to clean.  While you can soak the storage container in white vinegar/water, it won’t remove the mold particles.  Something I read online is that by using rice, you can remove most of the mold growing on the walls.

Mix about ½ cup white rice with about 1 cup of water in the storage container.  Cap the container and shake vigorously.  As the rice swashes around, it knocks the mold around and cleans the walls.  After about a minute or two, empty the container and start again.  After 3 or 4 ‘cleanings’, your container should be clean.

Don’t forget to remove all the rice before storing the humidifier away for the summer!

Man v. Plant Part 4

I decided to give some sprays a chance after realizing that pulling weeds would be a losing battle.  After spraying Bayer and Ortho branded sprays, most of the weeds have withered away.  However, the really annoying weed is standing strong.  I've been looking around online and can't seem to figure out what this weed is called.  One person suggested it was Cylindrica Imperata.  I see the resemblance, but it doesn't look exactly like it.

Any clue what this is?

Man v. Plant Part 3

We saw some ads about a weed pulling tool and decided to give it a try.  I'll give my impressions of the tool at the end.

Introducing the Fiskar Weed Puller.  It's the strange, orange contraption on the ground next to the hand shovel.  It has an orange handle, metal teeth, and a black lever.  It ran for about $25 at Lowe's so it's relatively inexpensive as far as tools go.  A suggestion to improve the tool would be to lengthen the handle as I do find that it is pretty short for a person my height.

To operate, you stick the metal teeth into the heart of a weed brush, like so.  You can step on the black lever to push the teeth deeper into the ground.  After the teeth are lodged into the ground, you pull the handle in the direction of the black lever.  The teeth will clamp around the root system of the weed (in theory) and your pulling motion will pull the entire root system out of the ground. 

Here is the end result.  You'll notice that it pulls up a lot of dirt along with the roots.  This will leave a noticeable hole in the ground, but you can always shake off the roots and replace the dirt if you want to.  Also, the orange portion of the handle in the bottom right corner of the picture is actually a mechanism that you an use to push the weeds out of the teeth after they have been pulled.  Just like a pump shotty.  Pump and you're ready to go again.

Final impressions: The tool is good for pulling weeds that grow in patches or bushes.  It is not so good at pulling weeds that grow in stalks.  The reason is because it is harder to target the teeth to pull out a stalky weed than it is to target a bushy or patchy weed. 

Another problem occurs if you have a sprinkler or drip system installed in your lawn.  Weeds often congregate around your sprinkler or drip pipes because that is where the most moisture is.  If you find that to be the case, be careful while using the weed puller.  The teeth aren't sharp so they won't cut your pipe, but they are strong enough to latch on and pull up your sprinkler pipe if you're not careful.  

Overall, the weed puller would be great if my weeds were more patchy or bushy rather than stalky, and if I didn't have a sprinkler system.  Definitely check out the type of weeds you have and their locations before deciding whether to buy this tool.  

Man v. Plant Part 2

Today, I decided to tackle the monstrous weed that had been growing at the corner of our greenbelt.  This *thing* had grown to my knee and it was thick.  I still haven't figured out what it is.  Maybe a quick trip to Lowes will help.  This was the before picture before getting to work.

This is the after picture.  It took about 2.5 hours, but the time flew by.  Now the corner is clean!

A pile of fun times.  In part 3, I'll move onto the next part of the greenbelt.

Man v. Plant Part 1

We didn't move into our house until three weeks after closing.  Not surprisingly, the spring weather caused a lot of weed growth in those three weeks.  It didn't help that our sprinkler system was running regularly during that time (our grass thanks us).  

This weed looks bad, but isn't hard to deal with.  The root system goes straight down into the ground so a quick tug will remove the entire weed.  

These weeds are ferocious (click pic above).  They can quickly grow to about knee high.  They're not a problem if you pull them when they're small,but when they grow big, the stalk hardens.  After it hardens, the weed will break off at the stalk if you pull at it.  The only way to remove it is to dig it up with a hand shovel.  Unfortunately, the root system goes deep and spreads out.  Even after digging up what seems like roots, it may not get rid of the weed.

Some people call it a wildflower.  I call it a weed.

Check back on the next post to see the results of hard work.