Sun. Apr 03, 2005
A Tale of Two 'Puters
Four months ago yesterday, I wrote in a comment:
Shhhh. I’m trying to convince my wife she really needs a laptop, rather than replace her old desktop with another.
Of course, “her” laptop will have to have Photoshop and Dreamweaver installed on it, though she doesn’t know how to use either of them, and it will have to have a large hard drive to hold all the photos she doesn’t take.
WiFi for the couch, too. She’s really going to like it.
I’m such a prophet. At least, on this very local and low level scale. Because last week the above came true, when a Big Brown Elf delivered a surprisingly small box containing said unit. Susan is so pleased with it that I haven’t yet been allowed to install Photoshop and Dreamweaver on it, as it’s been … occupied. But that’s OK, I’ve got a new ‘puter of my own.
That’s right, you can’t buy just one.
It was really a very rational process. Really. You see, we’re dinosaurs here at Bunker PD, with a small network run over a basic Netgear router and about 60 feet of Cat-5 cable. With the Coming Of The Laptop, it was clearly time for us to become late entrants in the World of WiFi. And though the laptop has a DVD burner, it would be best to also get an external USB drive for backup (the one for my system isn’t big enough for two).
So, that’s another three bills or so to be spent. But I discovered that for a bit more, I could get something called a Net-Box, that offered a lot more. And as I read more about it, I became convinced that it was definitely worth doing. However, I also became convinced that rather than the version that was “a bit more” than a wireless router and USB drive, I needed to spring for the “twice as much” version. So be it.
So far, it has been well worth it. In addition to sharing our DSL connection and providing the wireless access for the laptop (which was a no-brainer to set-up both on the server and the laptop), this Linux based server has a 160 GB hard drive which can be mounted as a Network drive on the laptop. As well as on my desktop. Drag and drop your files with ease.
By providing this server with a silly domain name and dynamic DNS (something included in the price), you can now securely access those files from any Net connected computer either as a network drive via WebDAV, or via the server’s web-based interface. A web based interface that also includes a calendar (Axentra’s code was the original base for the Mozilla calendar app), an address book, a portal builder, a bookmarks collector, a tasks/notes function, a crude web publisher (with “advanced” access to the raw HTML), an app for manipulating stored files on the server, and even a weblog app.
Oh, yeah, and a web-mail interface for the e-mail server on the NetBox. And a place for me put files for clients and others to download without a password … and even a simple folder than will convert any photos placed in it into a web gallery with thumbnails and enlargements. Plus things I haven’t even set up yet, like a print server and a Jabber server.
In short, it’s pretty dang cool. Shortcomings? Well, even though it’s got a full Apache web server (and MySQL), the reason I haven’t told you what my silly domain name is that it is limited by the asynchronous nature of broadband today; I can download files 6 times as fast as I can upload them, and this server is “uploading.” A dozen people visiting at one time could max out my upstream bandwidth. So it functions best as a private server, not a full fledged web server.
Another shortcoming is fan noise. I thought my old Micron PIII was loud, but this NetBox definitely lets you know it’s workin’. So I built a Gatorboard baffle around it with proper venting, and it’s now at an acceptable noise level (it’s placed about three feet from my left elbow).
I also haven’t been able to get sub-domains to work as they should, and the Axentra Sync client has been a source of great frustration. But both issues are easily worked around, in fact, they are “niceties of access” that fail, not core functionality. And I may simply be doing something stupid to cause the failure, as I’ve only had it up a few days.
And, yes, I know I could have bought similar hardware for half the price, and allegedly put it all together myself. At the hourly rate I charge my clients, it might have become the most expensive network server ever made. I simply don’t have the time or patience. The appeal of the Net-Box is that it’s a relatively plug-n-play experience to set up, and then offers great flexibility in usage. But if you want to “roll your own,” Axentra “will release a software only edition of its award-winning Net-Box Home Server to power virtually any PC and Mac Minis [...] The Net-Box Software Edition for PCs and Mac Minis will be shipping in Q3 of 2005 and will retail for $199 US.”
And speaking of Mac Minis, that was another factor in this decision. In a month or so, I hope to have one, and it will instantly connect wirelessly to the Net-Box, plus allow access to all my PC files stored on it (making that 7 GB of MP3’s a breeze to transfer). Then, we’ll have the Unholy Trinity (WinXP, Linux, and OS X), all accessing the Internet and sharing files seamlessly.
And someday, perhaps doctors will trace my downfall to this day; “he was just fine until the day he had three operating systems to learn, update, and upgrade … it wasn’t long after that they caught him running naked down Peachtree Street, crazy as a loon.”
But for now, it’s great fun!
Published 03:59PM, Sun, Apr 03 2005
Category: My Life Computers
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Peanut Gallery
I’ve been using a now ancient 500mhz K6-2 PC as a private web/mail server for over two years now. It’s been running Gentoo Linux (started with Slackware, but soon changed it) and has the usual cruft-Apache, Postfix, Samba, Mailman for a listserv, etc. The problem is that it’s like owning a pickup-once you have one you’ll never go without. Plus if you’re like me you’re going to keep finding new ways to use it, and new reasons to add to it. Like webmail-I could use that.
Unholy is right. Linux is … sigh, never mind.
I suppose the Net-Box is cute enough. A bit pricey though. I do not believe for a New York minute that it is or ever will be very secure. It is loud because it uses an AMD processor, devices that can be used to heat small rooms in the winter. Check out Quiet PC. If the motherboard and case allow, you may be able to reduce the noise a little.
I do most of what a Net-Box can do with an ancient PII, FreeBSD and the ports collection. I say most because the rest does not interest me. True, it requires more effort but if you don’t understand how all this stuff works you cannot fix it when it breaks. I suppose it is a Geek thing.
“Unholy is right. Linux is … sigh, never mind.”
OS Elitist. You sound like a MacFanatic.
“I do most of what a Net-Box can do with an ancient PII, FreeBSD and the ports collection”
And about a decade of experience as a system administrator. That’s a vital ingredient you left out of your recipe.
Listen, let’s assume Reid is a rocket scientist who could invest a mere ten hours to learn FreeBSD from scratch, and apply that knowledge to set up what I need (even minimally) on about $300 of hardware.
That’s about a $1000 computer (billable hours expended plus hardware). If Reid is a rocket scientist who could accomplish that task from scratch in ten hours … and who are we kidding here?
As for security … compared to what, the 95% of the machines connected to the InnerNut with Windows, many of them over unsecured wireless connections? And judging from the logs, every hacker on the rim of the West Pacific has knocked on my Net-Box door over the past week … without success.
Heh,if the average hacker had Jan’s knowledge and experience, I’d probably unplug my cable modem immediately. As it is, I went for about a year running qmail watching Korean and Chinese hackers bounce into frustration off a paltry linux box. Not to say that I wouldn’t rather learn how to set up BSD.
It’s on my list. I think it’s scheduled for Two Weeks from Tuesday. Before that I’ve got to finish setting up a shopping cart version of Mambo. Then I have to figure out how to convert around 2000 static web pages to a database without doing about a year’s worth of typing.
I’ve not been compromised yet on my way uncool Linux server, probably because I don’t trust it to be secure out of the box. I only run the services that I actually need, I keep the software up to date, and I have a tightly defined set of rules as to what and who can access the server. I also keep my entire LAN (everything-that’s Windows and Linux PC’s) as secure as possible behind a decent hardware firewall-not just a NAT router. Could a knowledgable system cracker break in? Sure-but most of the script kiddies out there are just that. They knock on the open ports, try running the usual Netbus or Back Orifice attack, and then go away. FreeBSD is cool all right, but I am not a sysadmin and I don’t have time to learn a new OS all over again. In the meantime I already have a good working knowledge of Linux plus had all the surplus hardware anyone would ever need to set up a small home server. Any OS running on the Internet can be compromised-using one of the BSD’s may be better for this particular job than using Linux but it’s not a panacea.
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I’m glad to see that you’ve got some new hardware too because something tells me that notebook might be extremely hard to pry out of your wife’s hands.
The ez Axentra software looks interesting. I’m getting an idea here. We happen to have an 800 mhz computer around here. It’s Elaine’s “upstairs” computer. (My Dell is her “downstairs” computer). She doesn’t like the 800 mhz because it’s “so slow”, but she doesn’t want to spend anything to upgrade it.
I could upgrade an old box I have in my room and switch it with her 800 mhz. But I’ll have to figure out a good excuse. I’ve used up the “we need it for the voip” excuse. “That new phone system was supposed to save us money, not provide a new outlet for your hardware problem…”