Messages

1

Users / Re: Questions

« on: April 09, 2007, 02:35:46 pm »

hehe. Another couple of great responses.

I think a router is probably a good idea.  Reduces a lot of complication.  There's a router I've spotted that has a whole host of things running on it like a print server, QoS, VPN, DNS.  It's just a bit pricey, but it would mean if I created a proper home server it could focus exclusively on serving rather than network stuff.  It would also be a lot easier to maintain, and it would mean there would be virtually no down time while I set it up.  If something doesn't work in this house its immediately my fault, and if it can't be fixed within 10 minutes I'm really in the shit. ;D
I've heard about replacing firmware on routers to get more functionality from them.  Is this a possible route to take/a good idea?  Advice?

If the LinuxMCE thing totally bombs for you, you just wipe the core and install a MythTV back-end, so you haven't wasted any money.

That's reassuring.  I've only got into linux less than a year ago and although my knowledge and confidence is expanding rapidly, it's still kinda scary to spend someone else's money on something that might not work, and making promises you aren't sure you can keep.

On PVR - I'd love to get it working, but my windows loving dad (?) bought a Pinnacle TV card.  It's a good piece of hardware on paper, but Linux support is non existent.  In fact it barely works on Windows.  It can't go back now, so it was really an expensive mistake.

Thanks again guys.

2

Users / Re: Questions

« on: April 06, 2007, 04:12:08 pm »

Thank you greatly for that reply.  It was very informative and has provide me with lots to think about.  I suppose I've been wanting to cram too much into one box and just hope it can do it all.  However I don't really have the money or time to do everything I'd like to and a lot of what you have suggested, and so I just need to weigh things up.  This has all stemmed from the quite horrible setup I am currently living with which is a windows pc connected to the internet and serving files over the network.  Horrible because its insecure and hugely unreliable.  I suppose If I could replicate the features I currently have in one low cost and power (I'm a bit of a tree hugger) unit then I'd be fairly happy.  And I'm currently not exceeding 400gb of storage and havn't been for a few months, although I don't record tv etc.  It is steadily rising though.

To answer a couple of things you said:
I can get a dual PCI riser for the mini-itx motherboard I was looking at.
I wanted a fanless mini-itx mainly as a psychological thing I think - I wanted to have a silent black box that didn't seem like a PC and wasn't noticeable just quietly doing its job.  And again, its low power.

One thing I will ask - If I was to create a dedicated firewall, have you any recommendations for hardware?

I should probably just add that I'm actually a student and this is something I want to do mainly for my family's use as I don't see the current setup being sustainable.  I think my imagination has got a bit too carried away and I'm hoping for too much - especially since I'm not controlling the budget.
Experimentation is therefore pretty difficult as I only have one PC to really play around with and I also have to try and make sure that it works all the time.

I'll think seriously about my options and you may be hearing from me again in the future!
Thanks again for your time.

3

Feature requests & roadmap / Device support

« on: April 05, 2007, 11:22:33 am »

I've recently installed a Pyronix PCX-12 security system which has a RS485 data line.  I'm not sure how it can be used or if linuxMCE supports it yet, but I know I would like it to.  Unfortunately information is pretty scarce on this product, even the user manual doesn't give much away with respect to the rs485 connectivity.  Is there a chance it is/will be supported in future?

I'm about to install a heating system from heatmiser with which I can add a netmonitor that is basically a web server with an ethernet port that interfaces with the heating system.  Will it be/is this compatible with LinuxMCE?

Thanks.

4

Users / Re: Questions

« on: April 05, 2007, 10:47:41 am »

Can anyone else help me?

5

Users / Re: Questions

« on: April 03, 2007, 01:37:43 pm »

I have considered a firewalled router.  The main problems with it are extra cost, extra power consumption, an extra switch port in use, and (to an extent) an unconfigurable firewall.  I already have a usb modem which when setup works fine.  But maybe I am wrong to get this box to do everything; does anyone have any advice for or against using a server as a firewall?

Thanks for your help.

6

Users / Questions

« on: April 02, 2007, 11:38:54 pm »

First, let me start by saying I am amazed at this project.  It has seemingly appeared out of nowhere and the feature set of linuxMCE is unparalleled.  Although I have yet to see 99% of the features work for myself, I am optimistic.

I have been thinking about a home server for a while now.  LinuxMCE has coincided nicely with this thinking and has opened up more potential for this server than I ever thought possible.  However I have some questions that are concerning me.

My intention is to build a mini-itx fanless pc (gigabit, SATA II), and put it in the garage along with a network switch.  I currently have the whole house wired with a gigabit network.  Originally I intended following the guide at http://www.cyberdogtech.com/firewalls/ to create a pretty decent home server.  I have already tried following this guide to some extent using an old computer I have, however it is difficult to properly test and it seems like a waste of time setting up properly.  I would really like to include many of the features in linuxMCE, but I can see some problems that may arise.

Security - This is probably the most major concern for me.  I intend this server to hold all data (documents media etc) for the whole house - and so it is vitally important that this computer is secure.  While using the guide at cyberdogtech I could set up the firewall myself and make sure it was configured properly, I see linuxmce uses its own firewall which it configures itself.  Would this firewall need further configuration to provide a fuller protection?  Could I use my own firewall instead?

Static IPs - I currently assign all network devices static ips.  While I could use linuxMCE as a dhcp server, I prefer using static IPs so I know which address each computer is and so when troubleshooting etc I know the numbers to enter to test/ping/whatever a particular machine.  Would using static IPs a) be possible with network booting b) work with other network devices?
In some preliminary testing when I setup linuxmce I chose not to use a dhcp server, but I have noticed that the server starts anyway when i run linuxmce.  Why is this?

Dual monitors etc - I have a computer in the lounge which contains a matrox p650 dual head graphics card, and has an lcd monitor and an lcd tv connected via hdmi.  This dual monitor setup does not work out the box, and so I doubt I could network boot this computer.  If I installed linuxMCE on this computer, could I use it as a client and not a core?

Internet dilemna - I have an adsl connection which currently I connect to through a usb modem.  The difficulty I am having is that this modem is not easy to get working under linux (speedtouch 330).  I have managed to get it working under ubuntu desktop but not server.  I would much rather use an ethernet modem due to the ease of setup aspect, but the problems with that are the mini-itx board I am looking at has 1 ethernet port (internal), and 2 pci slots - both of which I intend to use for other purposes, and also it drains a little more power and takes up another power socket.  How this relates to linuxmce - if i managed to get the usb modem working, would it be easy to configure the firewall etc to use a ppp connection as external instead of an ethernet connection?

Distro choice - obviously I don't want a gui on the core, but i understand and are prepared to install gnome-core to install linuxmce.  should I use Ubuntu server or Ubuntu desktop?  And will linuxmce startup with the server (as opposed to running it in a gui) so its ready to go when the server hits the console login prompt?

System space - I was hoping to run the operating system from a compact flash card, seperating it from the large hard drives so that they are solely for media documents etc.  How much space does a normal linuxmce core installation consume?  To put it more simply, would I need a 2gb, 4gb or greater card?

Web server - linuxMCE installs its own web interface.  I am new to web serving, so can I also set up an external website?

Updates - Will it be easy to update the distribution and linuxmce without breaking everything?

mythtv - If I install a tv card in this server, will linuxmce core work as a mythtv backend and serve livetv, allow scheduling etc to mythtv clients?

Climate control - I am about to install a heatmiser heating system in my home, for which I can buy this product which links the heating system to the network.  It appears to have a web interface but I have no idea if it follows any other protocols.  Is there any chance this could integrate with linuxMCE?

I probably have many more questions but this is all I can recall right now.  Thanks for your time in reading this and thank you even more for replying.