A lot of progress has been made since the last update almost a month ago.
- The iMac (Ayn) hasn’t had any changes. When I’m at home it is my main interface with the PII server via SSH and a Browser
- I broke XGL/Compiz on the, Celeron (Cate). The packages updated and I decided to experiment with different installation methods. They were not successful and I didn’t bother working on it enough to get it back to a working state. I’m glad I did get the chance to play with it for a while; I’m looking forward to it’s official debut. Hopefully also the support for Kubuntu will get better; it is pretty bad currently.
The major work has been done on the PII Ubuntu Server (Laurie). The command line has been going very well. i have not yet felt frustrated not being able to complete something with it. It is also nice to see the same interface when using SSH as when using a monitor. For being such an old machine it is really performing quite well. I was originally considering replacing it with a PIII machine I could get for reletively cheap, but i’m glad I stuck with it. I’ve been working with that box for a few years, struggling with non-productiveness, so i like the idea that it is now being used for something worthwhile.
My home starts with a DSL line from the wall to a Modem. The modem is a 2Wire that I bought with the DSL service a few years ago. I have been pleased with them and every year or so have doubled my speeds (currently at about 6Mbs down and 1Mbs up). The modem also is a router that serves DNS, DHCP, and has a decent Firewall. My original idea for my home system was using this modem as just a modem, connecting it to the PII with 2 NIC cards installed and connecting the PII to the switch that connects the rest of the machines together. I began buildling a router on Laurie but it struck me that this may not be the best plan in the world. I’m glad I researched it and now have that knowledge, but i decided to take best advantage of all the hardware I own.
The 2Wire now goes to the switch and the switch to the rest of the network. I punched the requisite holes in the firewall on the modem and began setting up my server. So far I’ve had great success and it’s gone smoother and faster than I ever could have hoped. I installed a LAMP(hp) configuration, rails, subversion, ssh, webmin, phpmyadmin, and others i’m sure; currently I have the software almost complete configured how I want.
If that wasn’t enough, I’ve also got a domain name registered and Dynamic DNS set up and running with ZoneEdit. I recommend them. I’m using DDClient which is a perl script that boots with the system and runs in the background to update Zone Edit when my IP address changes. It was easy to install (sudo apt-get install ddclient), but it was a little tricky to set up. I used the irc.freenode.com #ddclient channel for a few questions which was very helpful.
I am struggling a little with Apache’s virtual servers and with Zone Edit’s IP assignments. Hopefully I’ll have some insight to share with this seemingly simple yet disarmingly complicated process.
Future Plans
The first step in the server project is to create an enviroment to begin developing a web app with my buddy David. This is just about complete and the work will begin soon on it. I’m sure I’ll be writing more about this in the future.
The second part of the plan is to move some of the websites I have hosted with services to this local machine. I have been wanting for a while now to have a single interface to control and present everything i’m working on. I am going to develop and host this site (and any necessary new subsites) locally and move it to a hosting service if bandwidth becomes and issue. I’m looking to bring some organization to my web experiences and some convenience for me and others who may be interested in what exactly I do online.
The next steps I’d say will be moving some content from other hosting services to my server, and starting the framework for the new site. also, after i’m satisfied with my webserver configurations, I will start adding other servers and features to the server. One plan is mounting my music with nfs and using a music streaming server to enable me to listen to my music collection where ever i can find an internet connection. There are a few more things I’m interested in trying out as well; the projects never stop!
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