DIY-IT

David Gewirtz

How many IP devices do you have at home?

By David Gewirtz | November 7, 2011, 5:00am PST

Summary: So, how many IP devices do you have? I can’t be the only geek with too many.

This weekend kind of sucked. After putting together the Skype Studio and doing the first few programs, I realized I really should get all the bandwidth I can here into Camp David.

So, I called my local cable company and asked for what they call “Lightning” service. Bandwidth is 40 down, 5 up (and it’s really the upload bandwidth I crave). The installer came yesterday (Lightning requires a new cable modem) with a router (I’d specified a bridge) and proceeded to spend the next few hours completely without a clue.

This is a guy who didn’t know how to find the command line in Windows, didn’t know how to type a parameter to a command line (he thought the minus was separated by a space, followed by the letter) and — he was the cable installer! — didn’t know how to do a ping, let alone a traceroute.

In any case, after power cycling and banging my router enough, he killed it.

So ran out last night, subjected my wife to Best Buy, and bought a new Cisco/Linksys router. I spent eight hours today going around the house, gathering MAC addresses, assigning IP addresses, etc.

The final total of IP-enabled devices (not addresses, just devices): 34.

But I have to say, after having a nice 5-hour nap on the couch on a Sunday afternoon (yes, I’m training for geezerhood), and waking to homemade enchiladas lovingly crafted by my wife, it hasn’t really been that sucky a weekend, after all. In fact, as weekends go, it’s been just right.

So, how many do you have? I can’t be the only geek with too many IP devices.

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Topics

Bandwidth, Router, IP, Network Technology, Cable, Netflow, Routers & Switches, Networking, Telecommunications, Personal Technology, David Gewirtz

David Gewirtz, Distinguished Lecturer at CBS Interactive, is an author, U.S. policy advisor, and computer scientist. He is featured in The History Channel special The President's Book of Secrets.

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David Gewirtz

At various times during his adult life, David has voted for both Democrats and Republicans, and has been disappointed by both. He is deeply disturbed by how partisanship has come before patriotism in America, which gives him the freedom to pick on both sides.

David is a frequent guest on TV and radio stations across America and can usually be heard or seen on-the-air at least once a week. He writes weekly commentary and analysis for CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360 and has been interviewed by Fox News, CNN, various ABC and NBC affiliates, and Canada’s Global TV. He has been a featured guest on National Public Radio and has also been featured on Voice of America, Radio Free Europe, and Radio Liberty where his commentaries on technology, industry, and emerging nations have been broadcast into 46 countries (all in their own unique translations).

David is the executive director of U.S. Strategic Perspective Institute, a nonprofit research and policy organization. He is the Cyberterrorism Advisor for the International Association for Counterterrorism & Security Professionals, a columnist for The Journal of Counterterrorism and Homeland Security and a special contributor to Frontline Security Magazine. He is a member of the FBI’s InfraGard program, the security partnership between the FBI and industry. David is also a member of the U.S. Naval Institute and the National Defense Industrial Association, the leading defense industry association promoting national security.

David is an advisory board member for the Technical Communications and Management Certificate program at the University of California, Berkeley extension. He is also a member of the instructional faculty at the University of California, Berkeley extension.

David’s “day job” is as publisher and editor-in-chief of ZATZ publishing, an online publisher of technical magazines. Other than than his ownership stake in Component Enterprises, Inc. (the parent company of ZATZ), David has no additional industry investments.

ZATZ has many advertisers who do, in part, provide for David’s lush income and extravagant lifestyle. Most of them are IBM and Lotus aftermarket suppliers, some of them make goodies for Microsoft Outlook, and a few make all sorts of strange mobile devices and add-on products. David has been a regular judge of the IBM Awards, but has no formal financial interest in or with IBM.

Because the ZATZ online magazines often review products, David and ZATZ are sent an overwhelming stream of unsolicited, silly, and often useless products to review. Because they’re such a pain to track and ship back, these products often wind up in a dumpster or fill up the corner of a large closet. Although David has no plans to review products in connection to his ZDNet blog, if he does do a product review, he will disclose any relationship completely in that posting.

Both through ZATZ and independently, David derives a small income through various advertising and sales relationships with Amazon.com and Google. These are minor relationships and they will not impede his willingness or ability to chastise either company should they deserve it.

David has many other business relationships, but none of them relate to anything he covers in his ZDNet blog. David does have a bit of the sales-guy bug and if he’s not doing a sales deal with someone at least once a month, he goes through withdrawal. He has a number of consulting clients, but none of them relate to anything he covers for ZDNet (and if they ever do, he will either disclose that fact, or decline to write about them).

Back in the 1980s, David held the unusual title of “Godfather” at Apple. He has written and published 40 incredibly simplistic applications for Apple’s iPhone.

Although David is forbidden to disclose the terms of his iPhone developer agreement, he isn’t drinking the Apple Kool Aid, will never be confused with a metrosexual, and feels free to mock Apple, and Apple users, any time the occasion permits, on alternate Tuesdays, or if he’s bored.

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chomeioy61-24379035612819871733104816818082 23rd Nov

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0 Votes

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An interesting observation about life post-2000...

JonathonDoe 7th Nov

I have 22 IP devices here, with some having multiple IPs, but I doubt very much if you and I are representative. In fact, I rather doubt if any of us who frequent ZDN are representative. So I checked on my sister's house. She's a bond underwriter -- a non-technical person who simply 'uses' the technology instead of supporting it. She still had a dozen.

I guess they're just about everywhere now, so we shouldn't be too surprised to find the counts climbing as the years move on.

Regards,
Jon

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RE: How many IP devices do you have at home?

terry flores 7th Nov

@JonathonDoe - Leave it to the geeks to know which devices actually have more than one IP! Very geeky indeed.

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RE: How many IP devices do you have at home?

Hasam1991 7th Nov

@JonathonDoe
Should it worry me that the very experienced ZD NET writer "spent eight hours today going around the house, gathering MAC addresses, assigning IP addresses, etc"

EVER HEARD OF DHCP?!!!!!!!!! I have close to 20 devices but if I ever get a new router, I just set it to auto DHCP...... Config time 2 mins...

SERIOUSLY 8 HOURS?!!!

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16 devices

RiskyRob 7th Nov

2 tvs, xbox, ps3, bluray player, 3 phones, ipad2, galaxy tab, 2 laptops, 2 desktops, 2 printers.

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RE: How many IP devices do you have at home?

Bodazapha 7th Nov

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Only 10 for me

Michael Kelly 7th Nov

And that's if you include the router. I also have a second WiFi for the upstairs, plus a PC, laptop, netbook, tablet, phone, xbox, bluray, and wii.

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RE: How many IP devices do you have at home?

olddogv 7th Nov

Total = 9, wife & self. normally in daily use, 6.
I see no need for more, normal product improvement/up-grade cycle should fill all future needs.

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RE: How many IP devices do you have at home?

HotHeadP 7th Nov

8, but I'm the broke geek. there would be more if we had more spare cash...

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I only have 12 (active)

John L. Ries Updated - 7th Nov

3 cell phones, 4 laptop computers, 3 desktop computers, one wireless router, and one cable modem.

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I have...

Daniel Breslauer 7th Nov

* 4 laptops
* 2 phones
* 2 modem/router/APs (networking devices)
* 1 printer/scanner/copier

Now the question is: do VMs count? If so, I have around 20-25. If not, just 11 as above.

And I pretty much second HotHeadP. If we had more cash....

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Contributr

RE: How many IP devices do you have at home?

David Gewirtz 7th Nov

@Daniel Breslauer I didn't count VMs and I only counted devices like laptops (which have both wireless and wired MAC addresses) as one. I was astonished that just actual devices (and yeah, that included things like phones, TV devices, etc), I got all the way to 34. Sheesh!

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Seems like everything is IP now

crazydanr@... 7th Nov

1 Nas
1 Tablet
1 Netbook
5 Notebooks
3 Desktops
2 Phones
1 TV
1 Blue Ray Player
2 Routers
1 WAP
1 Embedded controller
2 Network Printers
1 PS3
1 XBox
1 Firewall
1 Robot
-------------
25 IP devices, not including my VMs. but to answer your question, we are all off the charts in terms of home networking. Most people have 5-10 IP devices, although it's growing with the advent of TV, Blue rays, consoles, phones, tablets, etc.

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Contributr

RE: How many IP devices do you have at home?

David Gewirtz 7th Nov

@crazydanr@... Oh, crap, thanks for reminding me! I didn't put the network printer on that list -- and I didn't assign an IP address to its MAC. Gotta go find that now.

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RE: How many IP devices do you have at home?

keepitsimpleengineer@... 7th Nov

12, and windows has a command line?

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RE: How many IP devices do you have at home?

moberlander 7th Nov

@keepitsimpleengineer@...

I know it's weird.

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Try 14

moberlander 7th Nov

14 dev's, it's good to know I'm not the only one a little IP crazy.

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RE: How many IP devices do you have at home?

ssaha 7th Nov

3 desktops, 2 notebooks, 2 network printers, 5 iDevices, 2 TiVos, a NAS, X-box 360, Wii, PS3, wireless router,and cable modem. That's not counting the 3 dumb Gigabit Ethernet switches. I retired the PS2 earlier this year, and the two TiVos have three Cable Cards, which have their own IP addresses. So that's 20 devices now, with up to 23 IP addresses. Since I control access to my wireless router by MAC address rather than encryption, it does make it difficult when setting up a new router (though only the notebooks, the iDevices, and one of the desktops require WiFi- the others are cabled in). If my parents upgrade to iPhones next year, the device count will go up by 2.

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Colour me surprised!

Digger_z 7th Nov

17 in use at my household of three.

I would have guessed 8-10 at most when I started counting, but the list keeps growing.

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RE: How many IP devices do you have at home?

ssaha 7th Nov

I found out long ago that the average telephone or cable company field tech knows next to nothing about how their stuff works. Mostly they just come out, see if the lights are blinking, and call home when they aren't. I get more mileage calling tech support, wading through the telephone tree and the frontline support person who knows nothing, and getting to an engineer, with whom I can usually have a good conversation and get my problem resolved with a minimum of fuss. If I never get to that level, I usually get stuck with the ignorant field tech. Though sometimes I get to talk with the engineers on the other end when the field tech fails the first test of swapping out cards. The biggest problem I've had is getting Cable Cards to work with my TiVos.

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IP capable, or actual use?

William Farrell Updated - 7th Nov

2 servers, 4 PC's (2 desktops, 2 laptops), 2 Media PC's, and 1 home automation/security

And 2 printers.

The router and modem would be 2 more if we're counting them.

My surround sound is capable, but not used, as well as one of the Cable boxes, same thing.

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Oh, my

grant@... 7th Nov

He killed a router by trying to get your new connection set up?? That seems unlikely. I could see mangling the settings to the point where it needed a reset, but killing it?

As for the devices:
1 Touchpad
2 Tivo
1 Blueray
3 desktops
1 server
2 normal laptops
1 laptop playing media streamer
1 Wii
4 Nintendo DS
2 Smart phones that run on WiFi
2 routers
1 VOIP phone system
1 wireless printer
12 laptops in the middle of being rebuilt for charity.

34 devices, and I am pretty sure I missed something.

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Contributr

RE: How many IP devices do you have at home?

David Gewirtz 7th Nov

@grant@... Dude plugged and unplugged, lifted and dropped. Not exactly gentle treatment of customer equipment (which, honestly, peeved me greatly). On the other hand, he was dealing with an increasingly cranky customer, so paybacks are a *****, I guess.

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RE: How many IP devices do you have at home?

Jim from Indy 7th Nov

@David Gewirtz I have a policy that Comcast may not touch any device that doesn't have their name on it. My network center is much bigger and less organized than yours, and includes video backfeeds and amplifiers, not to mention HDMI over CAT5 extenders. Comcast does not go unescorted in my home.

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RE: How many IP devices do you have at home?

wellcraft19 7th Nov

@Jim from Indy
So true. If Comcast comes home (happens rarely since we have a very stable network) they do not have free reign, and the ONLY thing I want is for them to deliver an IP address at their point of demarcation (my cable modem). And some speed, low latency of course.

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RE: How many IP devices do you have at home?

tkejlboom 7th Nov

@David Gewirtz

I hide all the computers when Comcast comes over. They may touch my modem, because they insist on reading the MAC address off of the sticker on it. They can leave when I can surf on my Xoom. They may not install their crapware on my PCs. It's bad enough that they get to control the software on my modem. If there was ANY other option in my area, I would switch.

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RE: How many IP devices do you have at home?

rshol 7th Nov

Server, Desktop, 2 laptops, 2 phones, 1 TV, Satellite Box, Sling Box, Revue, Printer. So I guess 11.

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Contributr

RE: How many IP devices do you have at home?

David Gewirtz Updated - 7th Nov

@rshol How do you like your Revue? See, right there. I can't stop!

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"You're going to need a bigger switch."

William Farrell 7th Nov

@David Gewirtz
to paraphrase a movie line wink

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RE: How many IP devices do you have at home?

terry flores 7th Nov

I didn't use me, it wouldn't have been fair considering all the hardware in my home office alone. But my sister the accountant manages to breeze along with only 10 in her house. But she's thinking of buying an Xbox for her son's Christmas present ...

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RE: How many IP devices do you have at home?

Jim from Indy 7th Nov

I haven't counted, but I realized limiting my DHCP router to only 25 addresses was perhaps a bit hasty, especially since I'm running near the limit despite assigning (above the 25...) fixed IP addresses to half a dozen devices.... Timely observation.

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RE: How many IP devices do you have at home?

vahnx 7th Nov

3 laptops 3 desktops, ipod and ipad, xbox 1 and 360

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RE: How many IP devices do you have at home?

gregebert 7th Nov

When my toilet has an IP address, then I *KNOW* I have too many....

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RE: How many IP devices do you have at home?

DAS01 7th Nov

@gregebert
Get back to reading the newspaper there (or imprinted toilet paper)!

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RE: How many IP devices do you have at home?

kfortner51 7th Nov

20 - 1 bluray, 2 iPod, 9 desktop, 3 laptop, 1 usb 1watt antenna

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25, if I remembered to count everything

Jim Johnson 7th Nov

...and only two devices routinely connect via Wi-Fi. The rest, while many have Wi-Fi capabilities, are wired to a gigabit LAN.

I would classify 3-4 as home security, about 10 as home entertainment, and the rest as general computing. It's an amazing collection.

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RE: How many IP devices do you have at home?

mheartwood 7th Nov

Wii; Home Media Server in the front parlour; Spouses' computer; ALIX which thinks it's a web and email server. Router; the computer in the back parlour; Spouse's blackberry; My android; Spouses ePad; the rack of 8 computers in my home office. That makes 17. Have I forgotten any?

Coming soon, an Azkozia box to replace the answering machine. Another ALIX to tie into the home-built, Arduino-based automation system.

And I'm a broke geek too.

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RE: How many IP devices do you have at home?

DAS01 7th Nov

As digger_z said "I would have guessed 8-10 at most when I started counting, but the list keeps growing. " Also Jim Johnson expressed surprise at how many there are...

This entertaining little exercise led me to realise that we also have more at home than one thinks one has, even though we are at the bottom end of all the lists hitherto.

When I am at home we just have
3x laptops (incl one by Gigabit LAN)
1 Nintendo Wii (also used for TV catch-up services on the main TV set) (the DS Lite is more or less out of use; can't recall if it connects via the router; should do)
1x printer (wireless)
1x external HDD plugged into the router which sometimes does not connect because it is not supposed to have NAS capability).

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RE: How many IP devices do you have at home?

mheartwood 7th Nov

Oh! I forgot my 3 netbooks! That brings me to 20 at this time.

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RE: How many IP devices do you have at home?

tradergeorge 7th Nov

You have a tech oriented household. I am retired and am only a dabbler these days. I turned on everything in the house and used "Overlook Fing" on my tablet to see how many connections I had there were 16 wireless connections. Then I went to the router and added the 4 that were directly plugged in with ethernet cables. Subtracting 10 of these which were mine personally (I will recuse myself, being the techie of the house), that leaves 10 connections for two other people in the house, both "tech oblivious". So even in a conpletely "non-techie" house, there can be a lot of IP devices.

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20

ibjermel 7th Nov

I have the following devices which total 20 which 8 are always connected. I have never actually sat down to think about how many devices are connected. Good article and I hope that new router works well for you. I went with the Netgear N750 Gigabit Router and it is really fast.

XBox360
Wii
PS3
Apple TV 1G
Wireless Access Point (Ethernet Switch)
Palm Pre
IPhone
IPad
NAS
Roku Box
Dell Desktop
HP Printer
Macbook Pro Laptop
IBM Laptop
Mac Mini
HP Desktop (Server 2008)
PSP (2X)
IPod Touch (2X)

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Just

Grolaw 7th Nov

22 - oops, forgot three other printers (two still on Jet Direct boxes) so, 25.

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RE: How many IP devices do you have at home?

jamesaxton 7th Nov

This is scary....
3 laptops
2 desk tops
1
4G Mifi
2 iTouch
1 Nook Color
1 Roku
1 BluRay (LG)
4 Gaming Consoles (includes DS)
1 HTC Cell
1 VOIP Home phone system
1 Sirius portable
2 Directv DVRs
1 Sharp Aquos with Aquos Net
1 HP multifunctional
1 Onkyo AV
Not including wireless gateway
TOO MANY...

Jimu

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RE: How many IP devices do you have at home?

pjskeleton 7th Nov

Your story is precisely why I tell cable technicians to screw off and let me install everything myself.

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RE: How many IP devices do you have at home?

Carlos Alvarez 7th Nov

Two thermostats, five cameras, alarm system, four laptops, two desktops, two iPads, three iPhones, Roku, Apple TV, Android tablet, Android phone, environmental monitoring system, two Chumbys...I'm sure I'm forgetting a few. We have a 16 port GB switch and 8 port PoE switch, and not a lot of free ports.

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RE: How many IP devices do you have at home?

caalvarez 7th Nov

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RE: How many IP devices do you have at home?

caalvarez 7th Nov

Two thermostats, five cameras, alarm system, four laptops, two desktops, two iPads, three iPhones, Roku, Apple TV, Android tablet, Android phone, environmental monitoring system, Airport Express, two Chumbys...I'm sure I'm forgetting a few. We have a 16 port GB switch and 8 port PoE switch, and not a lot of free ports.

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RE: How many IP devices do you have at home?

Grolaw 7th Nov

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RE: How many IP devices do you have at home?

wonder202 7th Nov

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RE: How many IP devices do you have at home?

jgm@... 7th Nov

2 people = 1 router, 1 cable modem, 1 desktop, 2 laptops.

The rest of you sound like you handled shuttle launches for NASA. happy

TVs and phones and blueray players and printers have IP addresses now? That's crazy.

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RE: How many IP devices do you have at home?

sporkfighter 9th Nov

@jgm@... It doesn't take much to get quite a few . . . my house of two adults, one high school junior and one middle schooler has two adult notebooks, two kid netbooks, two desktops, a Macbook, a Wii, a printer, and a smartphone. If I counted the router and cable modem, I'd be up to twelve without any exotic hardware, not even a DVR!