It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything too technical, so I thought I’d write a post about my plans to upgrade my network and also my thoughts on operating systems and which ones I use and why.

First of all, networking. If you’re a reader of my blog, you’ll know that some time earlier this year, I completely re-designed and implemented my entire network infrastructure. This has been running fine, however the 100Mbps segment is what most of the computers are connected to, with things like my netbook, phone, tablet and parents’ laptop connected to the wireless. So I thought, now that I have over 2TB of storage on my file server, it’d be a good time to upgrade from 100Mbps to 1Gbps. Since I have all of the infrastructure and cabling implemented, its just a case of replacing several switches and a few network cards. Most things already have 1Gbps network cards, but I just need to replace the ones in my file server and desktop PC. Since the megabytes per second is one eighth of the megabits per second, that means 100Mbps is capable of a theoretical maximum transfer rate of 12.5Mb/s which is okay, but I am forever copying files in excess of 2Gb between the file server and other computers, so 1Gbps would give me a theoretical maximum transfer rate of 125Mb/s that will lead to much faster file transfers. I shall post again when this is all implemented.

Now onto operating systems. Until November last year, I had always used Windows. It was then when I got my Mac. Personally I love OS X and use it as my main operating system. It always seems to work, and I feel that I get more done without fighting with it. One thing I’d prefer was better support for Samba, but thats just me being picky, OS X has sufficient support for me to work with my files on the local web server, or the file server. I then got my rackmount servers, which I decided to install Debian on. Of course I’d used linux in depth before, testing as many distros as I could in VirtualBox. For desktops I prefer Ubuntu and for servers I prefer Debian. So thats two alternatives to Windows that I use. On my desktop PC, I’m going to start to use more of Ubuntu, because I love the open source software, and the simplicity of installing applications from the command line, even if one has to compile it.

It was after this that I have decided that I am going to replace my web servers current installation of Windows Server 2008 R2 with Debian linux. It has 3GB of RAM and a dual core Intel processor, and even when its idle, Windows still never uses less than 45% of my RAM. I also have a VPS that runs Ubuntu server edition. I will post again when I have installed it and got it all running. If it all goes well, then I may switch my file server over to Debian, as that is currently running Windows Server 2008. If you haven’t quite got the message yet, my plan is to slowly use less and less of Windows on my computers, and move entirely to OS X and linux. Of course, I’d still keep small Windows partitions, and some virtual machines, just in case I needed to run the odd bit of software.

You may be wondering why I’m doing this; one reason would be security. By default these linux and OS X are more secure than Windows. There are less viruses for OS X and linux than Windows, some say its because they aren’t used as much. Its easy to get too complacent however, since we’re forever told that there are no viruses for OS X, well what if someone creates one? There are anti-virus suites for the Mac, but not many people, including myself run them. I find that common sense is the best anti-virus. That can easily be applied to Windows, but most people are less computer literate and may get fooled by some of the clever social-engineered scams. Another reason is because they are standardised. What I mean is that OS X being Darwin based and UNIX-like, some of the commands are the same as their linux counterparts, like top, cd, ls, and many more. With cmd in Windows, one has to use completely different commands, and there is also no hope of performing as many in depth tasks as one could with linux. Microsoft are well known for not complying to standards. If you’ve ever made a website, then the chances are it’ll work brilliantly in Gecko browsers (Firefox, Flock, etc) and WebKit (Safari, Chrome, etc), but not work as intended in Internet Explorer. IE9 preview was actually pretty impressive, but the past cannot be erased.

In a nutshell; I’m moving on from Windows. I had used it for a decade, and a decade is enough for me.

I do ask you to respect my opinions in my choices of operating systems if you’re going to comment.

I was watching the game on ITV1 and not ITV1HD, so it all went smoothly, and we actually saw England’s goal in the third minute.

However it was a different story for those watching on ITV1HD, where at 3 minutes and 26 seconds into the game, they cut to an Hyundai advertisement, with the caption “BRA 1 ARG 1″ which shows that it was intended for broadcasting during a different game. Unlucky for ITV this was when England scored. How I can imagine how those people watching on ITV1HD were annoyed.

I didn’t find this out until I watched a HDTV cap of the game, so was quite lucky. The shocking thing was though that after this incident, it seemed like ITV1HD were just upscaling ITV1′s standard definition feed, rather than broadcasting a proper 720p HD feed, because the quality significantly drops, whereas it was acceptably high (for ITV) before they cut to the advert. I would have thought that ITV would have liked the opportunity for high-quality broadcasts, because on standard DVB-T they get significantly less bandwidth than other channels, ultimately requiring them to lower the bitrate of the MPEG II encoding, resulting in a lower quality image.

Anyway here’s a video of it happening, including the quality before and after;

Let’s hope that ITV don’t get it wrong again! Finally, Robert ‘Butterfingers’ Green, sort it out mate!

Just a quick update to tell you that I recently purchased two brand new 2U rack mount servers. They are pictured to the right.

The manufacturer is Rackable Systems (now SGI as per the labels), and I have installed a new 250GB Samsung F1 SATA drive in each. I have also installed 1GB of Samsung ECC RAM into each. When I need more, then I will install more, as they can take up to 16GB of RAM each. I tried sticking in a spare stick of Non-ECC RAM of the same type, but it wouldn’t accept it. They both feature two dual core AMD Opteron processors, for a total of 8 cores between them.

When it came to installing an OS on them, I was a little unsure of which linux OS to install. First of all I tried Ubuntu Server 10.4 but that did not include drivers for the two onboard Broadcom NetXtreme gigabit LAN cards, so then I tried Debian Live, booting from USB. Everything seemed to work how I wanted it so I installed Debian 5 onto the hard disk. I then repeated this for the second machine.

The fans are very loud, each one has 4 of them! Theres 1 per CPU and another 2 at the back. So thats 8 fans when they’re both running – but at least it keeps them extremely cool.

Finally to easily overview these machines I picked up a 15″ Fujitsu Siemens LCD panel for £20, and a Belkin PS/2 KMV switch. The keyboard and mouse are just old ones from another machine that isn’t used anymore. In the future my plan is to possibly get more of them and build a Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud, based upon Eucalyptus (which I plan on testing out soon too), but I definitely plan on getting some sort of rack cabinet to house them in.

As of Apple’s Snow Leopard release, it has broken Orange Mobile Partner, the application for the E160e dongle from Huawei that Orange supply to their mobile broadband customers. I mainly used the built-in Huawei 3G modem on my Windows/Linux netbook, but I wanted to use it on my Macbook. So I was searching around for a solution, and it’s actually pretty simple to get it working;

1. Insert the dongle into your Mac.
2. When the window opens, copy “Orange Mobile Partner” to the desktop.
3. Right click it, choose ‘Show Package Contents’.
4. Browse to ‘Contents/Resources’
5. Run ‘MobilePartner.mpkg’
6. Follow the installation wizard.
7. Reboot your Mac when done.

Now you should be able to get Orange Mobile Partner running, and the appropriate drivers installed, so you can use the internet on the go!

You don’t have to do this every time you wish to use it, just go to Applications > Orange Mobile Partner > Orange Mobile Partner then insert the dongle. It should say ‘Detecting SIM…’ or something similar.

I have been using TVersity Media Server for well over a year now, and to be completely honest it has served my needs well. I have over 250GB of television shows and films stored on my file server, most of which my PS3 can play flawlessly over my 100Mbps network.

However I emphasise “most”. TVersity has always failed me when it comes to *.MKV (Matroska Video) files. Perhaps it is because they are 1080p or 720p, I don’t know.

It doesn’t matter though. I’ve switched to PS3 Media Server. Not only is it open source, it plays my *.MKV files! With my file servers aging 2.0GHz Pentium processor, it stuggled with subtitles, so I turned them off – I’m not hard of hearing as such.

Not only this, but streaming of other file types like my XviD or DivX encoded video files is much smoother. I would only recommend, if possible, to use a wired network, because the throughput on wireless is only sufficient by a small margin for video streaming. So if you’re a TVersity user, why not give PS3 Media Server a try?

I have now recieved both of my hardware firewalls. Just on a side note, they came in monumentally huge boxes, which were packed full of either paper shreddings or those polystyrene packaging “peanuts”, I later found out they’re called.

I have recieved my serial cable for the WatchGuard and am planning to run m0n0wall on it. I have found out that it is possible, so that should be useful. It all boots up fine, albeit the CPU fan is rather loud. I have temporarily unplugged it, but when it is running properly then it is obviously paramount to have sufficient ventilation, so I’ll plug it back in. Here’s a picture of the device;

Now onto my next firewall, the NetScreen. It too powers up fine, but it has no fans, hence its really quiet. I am waiting for my serial cable to arrive in the post so I can do a factory reset on the device because it cannot currently be seen on the network. Once it works, I shall be using it as my main firewall. The ‘untrused’ port will be a RJ45 cable directly from the router via the upstairs-downstairs link, then ‘DMZ’ will go to a switch which will connect the servers and the ‘trusted’ port will connect to another switch which connects to the wireless access point and other wired machines. Here is a picture of it;

I will update you again when I have had the opportunity to use them both properly.

I posted recently about me planning on upgrading my home network, which I am now pleased to say I successfully have.

I have not had the chance to test/install either the WatchGuard Firebox or NetScreen firewall appliances I have purchased, as such I will post about them at a later date. However stating that, due to ample planning, everything went as expected, as no nasty configuration issues or anything. The connectivity between machines is much faster now, and when syncing my 1TB data drive on my PC with the data on my file server, I have been able to achieve 99% network utilization, according to Task Manager.

Due to the configuration I have created, when I get my WatchGuard Firebox and NetScreen appliances, I will be able to test them and deploy them in such a way that client computers require no configuration in order to use them, because they will sit between the central switch and the router – with the central switch being the only thing actually connected to the router directly. This means that should I choose to filter out specific known websites, such as malware or ad servers, the changes will be network wide without having to fuss with proxy servers.

The only problem I can possibly foresee is if we experience a powercut (and we’ve been having them too often just recently), of course this would have knocked everything offline before the upgrade, but it seems like an even more of an annoyance, to make sure the links, firewall and servers all come back up, as opposed to just the servers before. Without any of these critical components, the network will be non-functional. However the switches and wireless access point should hopefully come back up immediately.

I have taken some images of my equipment;

You can click on them to view bigger versions. You’ll notice that I have annotated the bigger versions with information.

P.S. The equipment is sitting on a HP printer. This is connected to SERVER2 (file server) and is accessible over the network.

EDIT (6/5/10): The wireless access point is no longer the Belkin one. It was too unstable for me (i.e. web interface kept dropping until reboot). I now use a rock solid Netgear router set to AP mode. It has never failed on me, ever. The Belkin is used, when it works, as a wireless repeater downstairs to boost the signal to those laptops. Finally I have installed a 30cm tall antenna, as opposed to the small ones that usually come with routers. It has improved coverage significantly.

For the past couple of years I’ve been using wireless for everything on my network, and to be fair until a few months ago it was an acceptable solution. However the more data that I put on my file servers, the more computers connecting, etc, means that its performance hasn’t been its best. I do a lot of media streaming, some of which is 720p or 1080p HD, and over wireless the playback is choppy and inconsistent.

I came to the conclusion that in order to improve the performance of the interconnectivity between my machines, I would have to completely reimplement my network.

Earlier today I purchased approximately £140 worth of networking equipment in order for me to do that. The equipment I purchased:

• 1x WatchGuard Firebox – firewall appliance
• 1x Belkin wireless access point
• 5x CAT5e ethernet cables
• 1x 8-port unmanaged switch
• 1x 200Mbps homeplug twin pack

Currently my ADSL2+ line comes in through through the wall straight into the router. This is located downstairs in the central room. I plan on isolating wireless connectivity from the router its self. One of the homeplugs will be connected to the router. The other will be connected beside my server cabinet in my room. Connected directly to that will be the Firebox appliance, which will then be connected to the switch. From there both of my servers will be connected, my PlayStation 3, the wireless access point, and the currently installed switch on the other side of my room, in order to connect my desktop PC, my MacBook and my laptop.

That might sound a little complicated to visualise, so I have drawn a diagram of exactly how it will be connected. Click it to see a bigger version.

Please note that no IP addresses are published on the diagram.

I will update when I have installed the equipment and configured everything, posting any problems I came across, and the solutions I used to remedy them.

Today I took the opportunity to redesign my website. As you can see, it is more of a web 2.0 look, as opposed to the previous minimalist look. It is the first time I have created a WordPress theme for my blog that matches the theme of the main site. All graphics were created from scratch and all code rewritten. I hope you enjoy it as I have put a lot of effort into making it.

No, I didn’t think so. Well, not if you know about computers.

Firstly, their adverts. “It has a 4GB memory” – which is incorrect. It should simply be “It has 4GB of memory” because memory is a measurement, not a plain object. Then, the annoying “My world is…” theme that revolves around their current marketing efforts. Its simply so annoying. I’m writing this at 30th of December 2009, in two days VAT will increase in the UK, and all the adverts are shouting “My world is beating the VAT increase”; by saving a small amount of money on an already overpriced laptop? Hmm. Not for me, thanks.

Secondly, their staff. I was looking at the Macs, and someone came up and asked whether I needed any help, this is good, shows that they care… but it doesn’t last long, after politely explaining that I already have one, they asked “do you like it?”, and I agreed, of course I do, best laptop I’ve got, and they simply said “Oh right”, blankly, and walked off. Moving on, I heard some poor person being told by a salesman “I actually have this machine at home”, for goodness sakes, we all know that is something sales people just say. Of course, maybe he did, but I think judging by the amount of, overpriced, machines in their stores, he probably didn’t. Call me assumptious but thats how I am. I’m sure if you’re like me, you are pretty knowledgeable with the whole computer thing, you’d agree.

Thirdly, their extended warranties. When I went down to our local store to purchase my Macbook last month, I was forced to take out an extended warranty. First month was free. All seemed okay, I was planning on cancelling a few days before the next month as to not be billed for it. However, they managed to bill me for the second month before the first month was up. My mum was not too happy, she phoned them up and in the end we cancelled and got a cheque for the amount they’d taken out. All ended okay, but it was the hassle we went through. Unacceptable.

Fourthly, their laptop chargers. I’m talking specifically about DSGi’s own brand of machines, Advent. They seem to be made out incredibly cheap plastic and the joints that connect the adapter that goes in the laptop to the wire seem extremely weak. I know countless people who have had this problem, and the charger rendered useless. Thing is, PC World seem to know about this, and price their ‘universal’ chargers above the £50 barrier, sometimes even £60, and in some cases, £70. Totally unacceptable, when you can get a just as good one online for maybe £10 to £20, excluding postage (not usually much however).

All in all, as far as retailers go, they are avoidable as per my suggestions. You can probably tell this has been quite a rant. PC World; thanks, but no thanks.