Lawrence "The Dreamer" Chen's Blog

Yeah, NetFlix asked me about this.

I was looking around on NetFlix website trying to figure out how to report video problems of instant viewed material. But, couldn't find anything.

At one point during the play back the video broke up and was green...and somewhere after that the audio/video sync was off. Tried pause, ff, rev, stop and restart, but it stayed out of sync.

The only thing I didn't try was switching broadband service. I stayed on Cox for the 3 that I watched yesterday. Even though I have a TiVo HD on Cox and the other TiVo HD on DSL, so it would've been a simple move.

Though both TiVo HDs are direct attached to the cablemodem router...there are two gigabit switches between the cable modem router and the dslmodem router, but wouldn't expect that to have much impact.

Cox should be the faster...pretty I'm supposed to be getting 7Mbps with up to 12Mbps with PowerBoost....though speedtests seem to indicate I get faster speed with my 6MBps DSL service (a fairly consistent 5Mbps). Haven't watched an HD stream on NetFlix, but those had worked better on Cox than DSL. DSL on the other hand is much more reliable. Last lights storm, Cox was out for a few hours. DSL never went down, in fact I managed to stay online during it as well (though I had to make various network configuration tweaks, since most of my home network has Cox as the default gateway)...and had to work fast, since DHCP server has no redundancy and that machine's UPS has short life.

Probably next on my list to get a big UPS for...

Well, here I am sitting in the dark....had to make some reconfigurations of stuff so I can still be online for the moment....

But, this is like the 3 significant outage in the last couple of weeks. Didn't I get a letter earlier this year saying that there had been like 4 in the previous year, and that they were going to be working on improving reliability of the system? Forgot to talk to my doctor about what to do when the power is out, and I want to keep breathing while I'm sleeping....

Earlier I blogged on how I had pulled the trigger on buying a DPP-600HD to maybe have DC power backup for such things. Only problem was that UPS was supposed to deliver it today. Scheduled Delivery July 3rd. It last showed as out for delivery at 4:45am. Obviously they didn't show up at all, even though I canceled my plans for today to stay home and wait for it.

Not sure what has me more annoyed. Since my electric bill goes up every month, even though I'm on average pay plan....and I'm sure running CPAP and the associated others (like needing more AC because it gets warm and wet under the mask otherwise). isn't helping my costs.

Can't say that I'm using more power than I did when I lived in Ohio....and at first my bills seem to match what I used to pay back there. But now its like 60% more.... wonder what I'm getting for it.

Though still, I think I'm more annoyed at UPS still. Though as this power outage stretches on....that's changing.

While at work this morning, I tried to ssh into 'box'....mainly to make it see the changed ssh host keys. But, turned out it was a test to see that it was working correctly.

I couldn't get to the second ip on 'box'. All my linux servers have 2 IPs, so from the outside they can be hit by either gateway. Using ip route/ip rule, it makes the packets go back out to the correct default gateway for the IP.

Well, turns out the second IP doesn't show up after a boot. If I do '/etc/init.d/networking restart', it appears. But, reboot...and its gone.

After much fiddling, searching, trial and error....I eventually stumbled on it.

The configs were basically the same as my ubuntu 8.04LTS server. Three 'auto' lines for each of the 'iface's. I had tried combining the eth0 entries to 'auto eth0 eth0:0', but that didn't work.

On a whim, I finally tried having only a single 'auto' line -- 'auto lo eth0 eth0:0' in /etc/network/interfaces. That finally made it have both eth0 and eht0:0 after a reboot.

Now I can ssh into 'box' via either of my gateways.

I'm can't think any more....don't know what's missing that I didn't intend to leave off.

Sure there's stuff that I wouldn't mind having back, and stuff that isn't readily available for the distro I'm using...namely no mondorescue for 9.04 yet. I also couldn't get DHCP peering to work, evidently the rule that both servers be the same version is important. They would start up fine, but once they talk to each other....the second is over. Perhaps I'll sync the servers when the next LTS comes out.

But, I did get ddclient moved (or rather I moved my configs to the version with ubuntu)...and I updated the ip configs to be like my other strange linux boxes.

I suppose I'll slowly comb through the old 'box' HD and figure out the various strange and twisted thigns I've been doing on there. Such as discovering the strangeness of how I've been doing my IVS Status updates.

I suppose one last item would be to make sure I can burn cds with the burner I moved over....

I got the new-ish computer out and started looking at what I could change in it....while digging into it, I discovered it has a SATA drive. So, that meant no moving the old 'box' harddrive into the new 'box' hardware. So, that narrowed the return options to one.

I transplanted the CD burner in the old 'box' into the new 'box' and then set out to get ubuntu-9.04-server-i386.iso. First tried downloading via OSL....that was going slowly. Noticed there was a .torrent file available, so I decided to get it that way. That went much faster.

But, then I got distracted...ferret, supper...but eventually got around to burning the image and starting the install process.

After remembering the desired sequence of answers that would result in something that I would like (and having it set itself up with out DHCP)...I had ubuntu server with DNS-server, SSH-server, and Mail-server. I set out to work on being able to access the old drive on the 'box', after some thought, I decided to load on 'ubuntu-desktop' I like have lots of windows, and which a much faster system there's other things I'll probably be doing on here now/in future. 'box' started as a Pentium-75, and is now a Pentium 4 3.2Ghz w/HT. I also discovered that the machine has a GigE NIC (it didn't mention this on the website....)

I let 'ubuntu-desktop' install overnight, and found it didn't work in the morning. Had to introduce another 'sudo apt-get update' to get things along. I threw some other stuff I was starting to find that I wanted/needed like, binutils, ncftp, ntp, boinc... and then bounced the box.

Got a USB adapter for the old drive, but 'box' wouldn't see it automatically. It doesn't seem to load usb stuff on boot, looked around but decided that might be a good thing....for now. Doing 'lsusb' would make the drive appear....

I continued to setup the environment, decided to leave it using bash...even though my other home linux servers use tcsh. I also installed GKrellm and worked on getting postfix to talk to relay through my outbound.mailhop.org account. Found that I had to use smtp_tls_CAfile=/etc/ssl/certs/Equ....pem instead of smtp_tls_CApath=/etc/ssl/certs. And, then I messed up resolv.conf (I had installed and tested vpnc, its not quite working right...but its probably a K-State thing than the client....I knew it was working on my other ubuntu systems and I used the same config file, but didn't check if it still worked on those other systems). Then I discovered that my local DNS was kind of confused. Because 'box' was back on the network, but not configured as the master or knowing of my local domain....it was getting things wrong. Using my dyndns domain name is internal and external probably compounded things.

So, that moved up getting DNS configured. Continuing my environment setup, I remembered that I hadn't updated my border routers for IVS without 'box'.....since 'box' has cron jobs to check that I'm my IVS is working....so I went off and did that...and while I was on the computer that I also do my boinc managing from...I worked on getting BOINC running on 'box'.

I opted to use the apt-get install of it, and let it run a system service (instead of out of my local account and the keep it current to the latest stable version...which is newer than the ubuntu one?) Attached to a bunch of projects, discovered new 'box' is much noisier with its CPU running full tilt all the time....though P4-3.2GHz CPUs run hot...I forget what I had now in 'box'....Cele2.2??? Got all the usual projects attached, except Spinhenge...maybe it won't be bad if its not. Not all boxes run all projects that are available, aside from some projects not support Linux. There are differences based the resources of the minion. New 'box' being faster and doing HT, I have it doing more than what old 'box' did.

Now off to do morning stuff and run some errands before diving back into finishing new 'box'.

I think when I return, I'm going to work on dhcp server peering. So that should I ever lose 'box' again, I won't be with out DHCP.....though 'orac' is not the kind of box I hope to ever have to rebuild (another 'lhaven' )

This morning while I was at home waiting for the building owner to show up to see about some noises inside the wall behind kitchen sink/washer&dryer. UPS showed up with a box from TigerDirect.

That should be the off-lease IBM ThinkCenter S51 that I snapped up thinking I'd rebuild 'box' on a new machine.

The condo's quarterly pest control was going to be at 1:30pm today, so he was thinking of setting off some kind of pest control spray bomb in the utility room...which may or may not reach into the wet wall space of my condo. Or consult with the pest control company on what else to try. Later as I was listening closer to the noise, I wondered if it sounded like a feret...because there's a "Lost Ferret" sign out by the mailboxes. Turns out the "Lost Ferret" is from the unit above me.

I popped in to work for a bit, and then returned around 1:30pm for the pest control visit. I arrived to find that FedEx ground had been by and there was a box sitting by my front door. Meanwhile, the building owner said the neighbor upstairs wanted to take a look and see if he can get the ferret out, otherwise the ferret owner would pay to have an exterminator deal with it. There's no openings in the wall that I knew of, but I let him. Pest control guy later showed up to do some spraying.

Well, the box was the pulled/untested power supply that I had snagged off of ebay. All the power supplies that matched the part number online were of this 'untested/as-is' condition...or more than what I had original paid for the computer (and more than what the off-lease computer I just got). Alas, it didn't make 'box' work again. Either I got another dead power supply or there something else wrong with the system that is making the powersupply not turn on. Not have an ATX P/S tester handy, I can't tell if this is the case or not.

Anyways...that eliminates one option for getting 'box' back online.

I'm pretty much leaning towards installing the latest Ubuntu server....since it looks like the main things I'd require on the system are DNS (master), DHCP (wonder about setting up peering), NTP, ddclient x 2, and email relay to my outbound.mailhop.org account, vpnc. The ivs-status-sniff stuff will just go away. And, I'll gradually remove all evidence of it and simplify the configurations on my border routers (been close to running out of nvram on them).

Hmmm, just realized that I never changed the configs on the routers to account for the lack of the internal router 'box' to reach my ReplayTVs for IVS...not just they were (date) confused because they were doing NTP off of 'box'...and first DNS in the search list was 'box'....

Also not sure vpnc is needed now, since it won't be functioning as an internal router anymore. Someday I'll upgrade to a computer where it'll be safe to install a vpn client again. My windows boxes are both pretty dorked in the network config department. The W2K box is completely dorked...when 'lhaven' died...it became pretty usuable because I couldn't get into the configs to change my DNS server. I haven't found the install disk, so risking a repair install hasn't been an option. The other computer is also somewhat messed up, though not as bad.

Both messed up networking are connected to previous attempts to install VPN software (SecureRemote). It was largely flawed because they didn't support users with their own routers doing NAT. Largely because every IANA non-routeable ranges were being used somewhere within the worldwide network of the company, which was all NAT'd behind a single IP in Canada. Made location based (or restricted) services fun to use from work...because they would mistakenly set Canadian preferences or deny access because only US IPs were allowed.

It was particularly bad with Yahoo..which kept bouncing us over to yahoo.ca and then defaulting to only searching Canadian sites.

Anyways....wonder when I'll get cracking on trying to build the new 'box'. The off lease machine came with a 40G drive, but do I use it...or see if I have any other IDE drives around (probably too late to buy one).

On Monday before the rain, I had placed an order on Amazon.com. The large part of the order were the pieces to complete the upgrade to GigE.

The GigE project started when I replaced a 5-port switch that had a bad port. Which was causing me issues because it was either between wireless access point or wired connection for work laptop. Sure I could connect by wireless with the work laptop, but for transferring big files...wired is faster.

That upgrade made no improvement in speed (at least none that I'm aware of...I never did have cause to connect work laptop since that upgrade...so I don't know if the work laptop does GigE...but its a MacBook Pro, so it should, right?)

So, to complete things, I got a 2 more 5 port switches and an 8 port switch. Two of the switch hops are Linksys WRT54GS routers, and the far end is an 8-port 10/100 switch.

As I was plotting how to make the upgrade, it occurred to me that the 5 port switches aren't replacing the routers...so I'm going to need some patch cables. And, the other day I was thinking I needed to stock up on some, because I couldn't find any. Though I'm sure I had some pre-move that I probably haven't unpacked yet. As I was going around looking for cables...I came across some 7ft and 14ft cables, that I must've picked up the last time I was ordering parts (BuyExtras.com)....might be time to stock up again.

So I started the upgrade....first the living room router. I put the 5-port in place. Moved the cable that links router to the 16-port 10/100 switch up. Then ran cable from GigE switch to router. Moved other cable in router to GigE switch (the overhead Cat5 to where my main desktop is...and the first GigE switch.) Success, one port showing GigE link. The other two ports on the router go to TiVo's....they can stay....

I then moved on to moving stuff around at the other router. I first moved the one room cable that wasn't active to the GigE switch and connected GigE switch to that port. And, moved the other two room cables over. I also moved the wireless access point in this room onto the GigE switch (could've gone on the router...doesn't really matter). It was mainly so that it would be on the same UPS as my networking equipment...so some chance things would work in an extended outage. It would mainly be things that were already working before the outage, since DHCP server isn't on a long running UPS (yet). I checked for green light (to show GigE)....there weren't any....sad.... Seems to mean that building wiring can't support the speed?

Oh wait...I think I was short one cable move at the living room router. Sure that its...the room jack is connected to 16-port switch. Get a longer cable (14')...and connect it up. Presto now two green lights (at switch in living room).

Last but not least....upgrade the 8-port switch. First moved wall jack to it and connection from 'lhaven'. Trying not to lose my IRC sessions. And, then move the rest. 2 Green lights. 'orac' is now 1000BaseT full duplex.

Before I was able to get about ~99Mbps with iperf between 'orac' and 'tardis'. Now with iperf...I'm finding I can get ~190Mbps going 'tardis'->'orac'. And, ~300Mbps going 'orac'->'tardis'. Part is likely that Windows isn't tuned for the speed. I did do the tweaking to maximum broadband speed.... Linux is probably just better by default. There might also be the hardware differences. 'tardis' is a P4-3.2GHz w/HT box and 'orac' is a Core 2 Quad 2.4GHz. 'tardis' is Windows XP and a pretty busy machine....while 'orac' spends most of its time just running boinc WUs on all 4 cores. Etc.

Now what am I going to do?

The linux server known as 'box' died from the rain storm on Monday....well, the powersupply had been iffy for a while, and guess it toasted when things came back.

Sounds familiar....since its predecessor died in a similar manner....transformer blew....but that was fine, I was protected. And, then its UPS ran down...and all was quiet. It was also like 100 degrees that day....so it was pretty miserable. But, when power came back...it resumed like a good server, but the fans in it didn't. So it burned up.

Something like that probably happened to 'box'. Actually the predecessor was before 'lhaven'. The problem was I later learned that the replacement's BIOS had no disposition on what to do when power is cycled (no stay off, turn on or last state option). It always stayed off. The old 'lhaven' was a PC-AT system, while the new 'lhaven' is ATX. (post icepocalyse this problem was fixed).

So, after losing core services due to a power outage leaving 'lhaven' off....I decided I needed a new server to run these services on (DNS, DHCP, NTP). I didn't have to be much, so my then employer was having an auction of old computers....and I picked up a Pentium 75.

Wow, that's slower than the first PC I ever owned (before PC I was a Commodore person). I had acquired it with the plan to run ShareTheNet or some other Linux router thing...this was before Sveasoft and the other options became available for the WRT54GS....which is what I do now.

But, I installed SuSE on this P75 and was in business. Over the years, the hardware has changed. Actually it might have initially been RedHat, I did have a harddrive fail (they were 40G drives from ReplayTV upgrades). But, the current incarnation is SuSE 9.3 based.

Along the way there was a newer off-lease Dell that I acquired from eBay....move drive, let it rediscover hardware and make it go. Then that computer failed. So, I got an off-lease IBM NetVista from TigerDirect. Drive transplant, make it go.

By this time I was getting fancy with the stuff I was doing on it. At first it was be an internal router for my ReplayTVs, so I can sniff the progress of IVS transfers. Later it was run pulsed so that my Sprint 8703e could be bluetooth tethered. (something that I had taken for granted with my T-Mobile 7200....used tethering a lot during the first month I moved to Manhattan, KS...because I was having trouble getting Cox....missing the a few feet of coax between the pole and the box outside).

There are/were other things on here...aside the obvious of BOINC, there was ddclient and it was also the Linux box with a CD burner (for when I don't want to walk to my Windows computer and use the CD or DVD burner in there). 'orac' has a DVD burner, but I haven't used it yet.

Anyways...the question is will I get 'box' working again (either by fixing its hardware, or move the harddisk to a new machine and make it go again)....or make a new 'box' and recreate the core services. I no longer need pulsed (even though I don't have tethering ability with my iPhone, and I don't plan to pay for it....tethering is something I only do in a pinch, so I don't want to pay for something I hope to never need. At least with voice minutes those rollover, even though I hardly use them still.)

There's a certain temptation to load ubuntu and run these services, and then be able to keep the box current (more easily, it was fun building bind a couple of times....) Or hacking the system to support the new Daylight Saving Time.

OTOH, I kind of liked that the machine rather changed for something that was supposed to just be like an appliance.

Hmmm.... There is Ubuntu 8.04LTS, this is what 'orac' is running....ya, that's what I might do. Doesn't matter about the other versions of Ubuntu that I also run here and there. Having them all the same isn't an issue.

I guess it largely depends on whether I go with a different computer or fix the old computer. Both options are on the table now...since I have another IBM off lease computer on order (a ThinkCenter S51, IIRC and a powersupply [pull, untested] from eBay.) I think the 'new' computer will arrive first though. Though it'll probably be sometime before I get a new system up to the same level that 'box' was.

Oh yeah, 'box' was also an SMTP server....had moved that from 'lhaven' during its downtime following the icepocalyse. That reminds me....need to see which mail server 'tardis' and 'lunatic' are pointed at....'orac' was pointed at 'lhaven'....had found this morning that 'gumby' was stuck trying to send mail. (wallwatcher output to DShield)

Hmmm.....

That brings the number of units in my condo to 3.

I go this one to replace the UPS (a CyberPowerSystems 1500AVR-HO) that was backing up 'lhaven' and the 8 port switch.

After getting it set up, I moved my wireless access point (Belkin F5D7130) over to this. It had gotten left behind when I moved my DSL modem and router. So it was in a place that didn't really make sense anymore. Though originally it wasn't my wireless access point, it was one of a pair for NDS bridging. But, now that I strung a cable to the remote point...I did it to solve the apparent heavy shielding of the walls in the condo.

If I do a WiFi scan around this computer, I can only hear like 4 other APs. Move to the other end of the condo...and there are dozens of APs.

The UPS plan calls for at least one more UPS....still leaning towards another SmartUPS for that one...though who knows, might go with another PowerSource 400....

Last night I experienced another Kansas Weather Event. Starting to wonder if I had known about these things, would I have called Manhattan, Kansas home?

Last night it was rain, and lots of it. I may as well have been a solid water coming down everywhere....almost the instant it started....I could hear water pouring into my living room. I had towel handy, and the put empty trash containers along the patio door and that kept most of the water at bay.

Carpet was dry by morning.

But, then the inevitable next happened. The power flickered and then went away. I was watching TV at the time (L&O: Criminal Intent). Guess I'll have to pick up the ending later. Things were humming on the UPS. Though somethings bounced...I turned off the TV and the V880N. Seems my HDVI5 switcher isn't on a UPS. So, there was no using things while the UPSs beeped. I thought I had disabled the beeper in the UPS, but maybe it only disables if it knows there's a computer attached....there isn't so...hmmm.

The UPS handling 'lhaven' died immediately. So, no IRC. So, even though the cable modem was still working and lasted more than half an hour. And, the DSL modem never went down. I was quickly without Internet, as computers ran down. And, my wireless access points are connected to desktop UPSs. I think I should move the access point to the PowerSource 400 that was backing up my phone/VoIP/router/dsl.

I went around shutting down some other computers to help stretch the UPSs....

Seems the Lasko floor fan and the Kenmore Envirosense air purifier didn't like being on the UPS...probably the TRIAC to make low speed fan and the simulated sine wave of the UPS output not getting along. I turned these things off. And, then after pacing around for a while, and checking various light sources. And, finding it getting warm and stuffy indoors. I went out and listened on my HT to the weather spotters, and checked out the area.

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