Messages

1

Users / Re: Using an External Firewall with linux mce.

« on: September 21, 2008, 10:24:17 pm »

Hey,

ISA ain't bad to be honest. It's not a hardware firewall but the combination of a reverse proxy makes it nice.

Do your rules allow all traffic from the Internal --> External networks?

2

Users / Re: Overview/Design question - Frontend Mac Mini, Backend Linux

« on: July 03, 2008, 07:05:39 pm »

Thom -

Thanks for your response! I imagine plenty of people argue the Router/Firewall point. I can see the rationale though and it does eliminate 9/10 of the potential problems associated with networking issues. I'm assuming there's some type of IPTables integration with either a GUI or config files that can be used from the command line (IE: Shorewall).

(1) How would hardware RAID be a bottleneck? I believe the OS wouldn't see anything past the single RAID drive on the array... The RAID provided by the OS would be software RAID. This solution wouldn't require any software overhead in managing a RAID array which should improve performance there as well. It'd be a RAID 5/10 setup.

(2) I assume that the Linux-MCE box would detect this device type and know how to use/manage it after the HDHomeRun grabbed a DHCP address from the system?

(4) The MSI Media Live box looks great. What would you recommend for locations where you don't have the amount of space to be able to install something that large? IE: A kitchen with a small TV. I suppose a problem that I might run into here would be a TV that doesn't have a VGA/DVI input but traditional RCA... Any Thin Client that you'd recommend that either supports RCA or perhaps a converter box that works  well in that setup?

Do you guys support Windows Mobile 6.0/1 yet?

Thanks again for your help!
Ryan

3

Users / Overview/Design question - Frontend Mac Mini, Backend Linux

« on: July 03, 2008, 06:26:22 pm »

Hey All,

I just saw the video and was quite impressed with the features of Linux-MCE! Looks like a really slick product. I started thinking about possible design scenarios and wanted to get thoughts on whether or not this seems worthwhile or not. I primarily work with Gentoo Linux and I'm pretty comfortable with Linux overall.

One of the things I thought was real neat was the use of thin clients mounted onto the back of TVs/Media centers. I got to thinking, what's the possibility of building a backend system with hardware RAID (3-ware card + 6 HDDs of 320gigs or more each - ~$1,000-$1,200 total not including PC hardware), 4 HD TV Tuner cards and gigabit Ethernet, and than using Mac Minis for front end systems? The Mac Minis would have the DVI output to plug into an HDTV and the optical output to plug into the entertainment system with maximum audio quality. All that would need to be run is an Ethernet line to the TV area along with Power. Perhaps do surge protection in the power box room so as to reduce the need for any other pieces save the Mac Mini and the TV/Media setup.

Using a setup like this, would I be able to access all the content and tuner cards on the backend server? Would I need to install Linux-MCE on both the backend and the MacMini? I believe I would than put an IR blaster dongle on the MacMini to be able to talk to IR boxes nearby, along with the backend server...

Thanks for your thoughts!