When I was a teenager, initially my interest for radio technologies, particularly for FM transmission developed from my interest in all technical and especially all electronical things. At about the age of 13, I was not only interested in the fact how analog radio broadcasting on electromagnetic waves works exactly, but I also looked for all transmitter sites in South-East Bavaria and neighboring Austria, informed myself which channels are broadcasted there at what frequency and explored how far each of them can be received. Also, at home I tried successfully with special antenna designs to receive stations, e.g. from Tyrol, whose signal were normally too weak to be found there.
An even more fascinating world of wireless technology opened up to me when I was 18 years with my first cell phone, a Nokia 6310, that I bought with a Vodafone contract. In the same year I bought SIM cards from the three other German networks and other GSM cell phones, on which I also partially succeeded in activating the network monitor, which is really not intended for private use, or could install such a network monitor on some phones. With this equipment I began to search the base stations of the networks. Just three months later, I had at least found most base stations of Vodafone in my area and had a good overview of how the Vodafone GSM network in my area, the Berchtesgadener Land, is built and how big the respective radio cells are. After I explored also the other three German mobile networks in this way, the Austrian networks in the northern province of Salzburg followed, and even in New Zealand, I was already looking for base stations... In addition to the structural design of the networks I also occupied myself with the functionality of the mobile communication standards GSM, UMTS and LTE. Moreover, I have been following since about 2002, the company policy and also particularly the network expansion policy of mobile network operators. Since I know the weaknesses of each mobile network in South-East Bavaria, and since I know that there is no best network, which provides coverage or even HSPA everywhere, I carry multiple smartphones with SIM cards of all German network operators with me. I think we can rightly say that I am a mobile communication freak ;-) Even until today I have kept my interest for the structural design, the functionality and capabilities of mobile networks and network standards, because even today I still collect data on the radio cells of the networks, I look at the network expansion and have even dedicated my diploma thesis to the question of how (good) car to car and car to infrastructure communication is realizable with LTE. I think I can rightly say that I have acquired much knowledge about mobile communication in the last years and possess great skills in this area. Thus I do not only know the technical details of the mobile phone standards GSM with EDGE, UMTS with HSPA and LTE or the structural design of cellular networks, but also the development of the German network operators, their outwardly visible or determinable strategies as well as the German, European and even New Zealand's mobile market in total. I think the future in mobile communication is very exciting, especially in view of the LTE development and the expiry of GSM licenses as well as the probably technologically neutral reallocation of these frequencies, which will presumably take place on the German market even in the year 2013...

Besides my passion for radio technologies, such as mobile networks, in 2004 I discovered my interest in the Internet and also especially in the fact to constitute a more active role in the Internet - namely, as an operator of his own web servers. After I had started already in February 2002 to operate my own websites, in February 2004 I rented my first v-server. This v-server should henceforth be used as a web server for my websites, which had been hosted by webspace providers until then. I even installed my own mail server on this v-server, which henceforth accepted all my emails from the other major mail servers of large providers and saved them for me. At that time the operating system I used was the then-current version of Debian "Woody" (3.0). My first mail server I was running at that time with "sendmail". Just one year later, I hired my first dedicated server in a data center in Karlsruhe. Thereafter other dedicated servers and v-servers followed and I started in 2005 to operate my own domain name servers, so that I became with my mail system and my web servers completely independent of the services of external providers. Meanwhile I operate under the domains and Enexas.net Net83.net several dedicated servers and v-servers in data centers in Germany (Nuremberg, Falkenstein and Frankfurt / Main), New Zealand (Auckland) and France (Paris and Roubaix), which provide my websites, my name servers and my mail systems. A small overview about this can be found in the section "SK-Network" in the subsection "Server".
But I am not only interested in distant or large networks such as the Internet, mobile radio or other access networks. I am even interested in the local networking at home. So I had even a first small home network consisting of a modem, a wireless router, two computers and a notebook when most people were still using a simple DSL modem or even ISDN and had to dial in before every online session with the - in the majority of the cases - only PC. But my interest in networks was really activated by the lecture "Computer Networks" in my media informatics studies. I had passed the corresponding exam, which some other students enjoyed as much as many people enjoy mathematics in school, with the mark 1.0, while some others even didn't get the admittance to the exam due to poor results in the corresponding midterm exams... Even during the semester in which I had the computer networks lecture, I started to build a proper home network. The result is a network of gigabit cables that supplies the rooms on three floors. Via these physical lines nine virtual networks are transported, divided by nine different VLAN tags. Four of these virtual networks are terminal VLANs for network components and servers in the home network, my own PCs and mobile computers, other computers in the house and finally another one for untrustworthy guest computers. Between these VLANs mediation is only possible via the central router and its firewall. This core router is located in the computer room on the first floor together with three multi-WAN routers, three VLAN switches, four PCs and a wireless access point, which radiates a own Wi-Fi network for each of the four terminal VLANs. From there, a cable leads to a VLAN switch at the attic, which connects the network outlets of the rooms of the first floor, and from there into the basement to another VLAN switch in this basement room, that connects the network outlets the garden, as well as in two rooms of the ground floor and a second wireless access point, which radiates the same networks as the first one to gain the wireless signal. But the Internet access was still a bottleneck: Because the phone line from the telephone switching center to the house is 2.4 km long, the German Telekom did not want to provide more data-speed than DSL3000 with 3000 kbit/s in the downlink and 384 kbit/s in the uplink. Other DSL providers also could not provide more data speed as the don't have own technology in the telephone switching center in the city of Laufen, and even "Kabel Deutschland" didn't offer internet access, because the TV-cable-network in Laufen does not have back channel capability (until summer 2012). After endless vainly attempts to encourage the German Telekom to move away from their very cautious approach in switching DSL connections, I had the idea to order several DSL connections and to spread the burden of all Internet connections from my rather complex home network using multi-WAN routers across these multiple connections. Quite quickly I had to recognize when I ordered the third DSL connection that the German Telekom refused all requests of alternative providers for a free line and I learned that usually only two of the usually six phone-line-pairs that lead into a single-family house are really connected to the cable fanout. The remaining wires lead in neighboring houses where they can be applied via jumpers on free trunks. In addition, I also learned what should be ordered in such a situation at the German Telekom in order to finaly receive via a neighboring property another multiplexer-free line, which I transferred directly to their competitor Arcor for a DSL connection. But after the fourth order of a line, they sent an excavator which opened the road and uncovered two sleeves (see photos), so that I got five direct trunks to the switching center that I all occupied for DSL connections. Two of the DSL-routers are in the basement, the other three are in the computer room on the first floor. They all share the data of the respective DSL upstreams with the multi-WAN routers via a separate VLAN and also provide even a private wireless network in which only the respective DSL connection is available. So, my small home network with five DSL lines, ten routers, five VLAN switches, a normal switch and nine wireless networks that are broadcasted from seven different access points is finished. The DSL routers are mostly of the brand AVM, a multi-WAN router is from Lancom and the rest is from Cisco... A nice hobby, right? Well, I really like building such networks... I also use my network knowledge and everything I've learned about broadband technology and the telephone network of the last mile willingly again and again, when I help others to build their home networks or their telephone wiring.

Shortly after I made my driving license for cars in 2002, I also began riding a small scooter. Then I liked riding on two wheels so much that I, as previously planned, also got my motorcycle license in the summer of 2003. Even at that time I planned to buy a decent bike some day and I already planned that it should of course not be a sports machine, but one of the now rather rare choppers. After I had moved to Munich at the end of 2004, because of my studies and invested much time for my studies in the following years, I thought only in spring 2010 again about the purchase of a motorcycle. At the end of May 2010 it was done: I bought a used but little driven chopper that I drove home at the same day from the Allgäu-area in south-west Bavaria: It has become a Yamaha XV 535 Virago! The previous owner had imported the motorcycle from the United States, which means that my Virago has a special feature: A mile speedometer! It also has brought-forward footpegs from Falcon and many parts are made of chrome, so that it shines beautifully! On the adjacent photos you can marvel at it :-)
With this beautiful chopper I like driving in the mountains and other beautiful landscapes. Also tours throughout Bavaria, such as the Franconian Switzerland or to the festival "Summer Breeze" I have already done with the Virago. Photos of some motorcycle tours can be found in the photo gallery. But I don't like driving particularly fast with the chopper or to rush through tight corners, I rather enjoy comfortably sliding on a beautiful machine on the streets and preferably in beautiful landscapes. This gives me a sense of freedom and it is a part of me, as many songs, that are closely related to my feelings, also do!