We're moving!

Information, problems and conversation on anything and everything to do with Aura and these here boards.
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Chewi
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We're moving!

Post by Chewi » Thu Sep 26, 2013 3:44 pm

But don't update your bookmarks! The domain isn't changing but we're moving house and as you may recall, I host Aura here on my own desktop. We're moving from Perth to South Queensferry (Edinburgh), which is a fair distance, and selling a house is a lot more stressful than simply moving from one rented place to another. We'll probably be without internet for about 2-3 weeks but the new connection will be 40/10 meg fibre (FTTC). :D Our current connection is 20/2 meg cable, which is quite nice but more doesn't hurt. :wink:

There may be some more downtime involved though. I don't work from home any more and don't want to leave my desktop on 24/7. I also don't want everything in the house being so reliant on it so I'm planning to offload many of its responsibilities, including Aura, onto a few embedded devices. Aura will probably live on something ARM-based, but not a Raspberry Pi because I want it to have gigabit ethernet.

Gotta finish packing now. Hopefully some of you will see this before I switch off tonight. See you on the other side.
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Chewi
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Re: We're moving!

Post by Chewi » Mon Nov 11, 2013 12:28 am

Aaaand we're back. Much later than planned. More info soon.
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Shane
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Re: We're moving!

Post by Shane » Mon Nov 11, 2013 10:46 pm

hooray!
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Mik
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Re: We're moving!

Post by Mik » Tue Nov 12, 2013 6:56 pm

more info soon, that's sounds troubling :(

If anyone is getting raped I vote Will, he'd like the attention.
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Chewi
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Re: We're moving!

Post by Chewi » Wed Nov 13, 2013 1:40 pm

Okay so the main reason for the delay was the phone socket wasn't where I wanted it to be. There was another socket but by the time I got around to wiring everything up, I'd forgotten that it wasn't active. I then had to wire up on my own slave socket, which was new territory for me, and getting the wire safely across the hall was a challenge.

The crappy news is that fibre in this area has been postponed till March so we're on 10/1 meg ADSL for now and I'll have to pay another setup fee when the time comes. The good news is my ISP rocks. As well as having a static IPv4 address, I also have native IPv6. I hope to get Aura served up on IPv6 eventually. No doubt precisely 0% of you will be able to use that.

I've chosen the hardware for the new server and I should have it around the end of the month. Meet the Utilite Pro.

http://utilite-computer.com/web/utilite ... ifications
http://utilite-computer.com/web/utilite-gallery

The downtime should be minimal as I won't switch off here until the new box is ready. You may just have enough time to rape Will though, if that's your thing.
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Matt
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Re: We're moving!

Post by Matt » Wed Dec 04, 2013 4:39 pm

If you used Windows, this wouldn't have happened.
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Chewi
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Re: We're moving!

Post by Chewi » Thu Dec 05, 2013 10:09 am

Matt wrote:If you used Windows, this wouldn't have happened.
Riiight. Joke or otherwise, I'm really not sure where you were going with that one.

Still don't have the Utilite yet but it should be here this time next week. We've been plagued with random disconnects but strangely only when it's dark, usually between around 7pm and 7am. I've not been able to find the cause yet. I think they started before I wired in the extension but I'll have to move the modem back again for a little while just to be sure. I'm really looking forward to ruling that out and having a good old moan at BT.
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Matt
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Re: We're moving!

Post by Matt » Thu Dec 05, 2013 2:51 pm

Sorry, was a "first post in months, let's take a stab at James and Linux" thing. It wasn't very good :/

I'd be interested in hearing what you are going to use to host the site on. You said some sort of ARM device? Sounds fun :D If my connection was better I'd be up for doing something like this myself, so I can access my shit from Uni.

When I lived in Huddersfield I used to leave my computer on and RDP into it to get stuff. Now they block that port (and literally everything except port 80 :/ I can't even use FTP, IMAP, SMTP or SSL.). My router has a USB port and basic SAMBA for sharing either an external HDD or USB drive. I could totally use that, if my connection wasn't 2MBit :(

What do you use for a web server, btw? I'm quite keen on NGNIX on my VPS.
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Chewi
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Re: We're moving!

Post by Chewi » Thu Dec 05, 2013 11:41 pm

Matt wrote:I'd be interested in hearing what you are going to use to host the site on. You said some sort of ARM device? Sounds fun :D If my connection was better I'd be up for doing something like this myself, so I can access my shit from Uni.
I posted the links above. It's quad core with 2GB. Pretty beefy as ARM goes and uses between just 4W and 8W. I can't wait to get it. I've also got my hands on some other kit...

I plan to run XBMC on the Utilite and wanted to record satellite TV like I used to but I couldn't find a decent dual USB DVB-S2 tuner. In the end, I plumped for this network-based tuner. There's nothing quite like it because it's actually another ARM box in itself and totally hackable! :D

In my last job, I acquired a Blackfin-based Linux box. The Blackfin CPU is very limited and it only has 64MB RAM but the box's key feature is two analogue phone ports. Analogue phone hardware is generally quite expensive so I'd like to put this to use again. I'm building a new system for it as we speak.

I also forked out on a Yamaha RX-V773 and a set of Wharfedale DX-1 HCP speakers. I've never had an A/V unit before so that's been quite exciting. I have both my existing TV and a new(ish) TV for the kitchen plugged into it. Both of them are LGs, which is great because that means they both have RS-232 ports and can be programatically controlled by the serial ports on the Utilite. Combine that with the ethernet control on the Yamaha and I've got a recipe for some rather cool tricks.
Matt wrote:When I lived in Huddersfield I used to leave my computer on and RDP into it to get stuff. Now they block that port (and literally everything except port 80 :/ I can't even use FTP, IMAP, SMTP or SSL.). My router has a USB port and basic SAMBA for sharing either an external HDD or USB drive. I could totally use that, if my connection wasn't 2MBit :(
That sucks. Even SSL? I would go as far as calling that irresponsible. The Durham network was fairly locked down but it wasn't quite that bad. They ran a HTTP proxy that you could pipe a lot of stuff through. What you should do is set up SSH or even OpenVPN to listen on port 80. From there, you could do just about anything.
Matt wrote:What do you use for a web server, btw? I'm quite keen on NGNIX on my VPS.
nginx FTW! Aura runs on nginx and I've favoured it over Apache for many years now. Before nginx became popular, I did dabble with lighttpd but it has nothing over nginx any more. Unfortunately we still use Apache heavily at work.
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Matt
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Re: We're moving!

Post by Matt » Thu Dec 05, 2013 11:48 pm

Chewi wrote:
Matt wrote:I'd be interested in hearing what you are going to use to host the site on. You said some sort of ARM device? Sounds fun :D If my connection was better I'd be up for doing something like this myself, so I can access my shit from Uni.
I posted the links above. It's quad core with 2GB. Pretty beefy as ARM goes and uses between just 4W and 8W. I can't wait to get it. I've also got my hands on some other kit...

I plan to run XBMC on the Utilite and wanted to record satellite TV like I used to but I couldn't find a decent dual USB DVB-S2 tuner. In the end, I plumped for this network-based tuner. There's nothing quite like it because it's actually another ARM box in itself and totally hackable! :D

In my last job, I acquired a Blackfin-based Linux box. The Blackfin CPU is very limited and it only has 64MB RAM but the box's key feature is two analogue phone ports. Analogue phone hardware is generally quite expensive so I'd like to put this to use again. I'm building a new system for it as we speak.

I also forked out on a Yamaha RX-V773 and a set of Wharfedale DX-1 HCP speakers. I've never had an A/V unit before so that's been quite exciting. I have both my existing TV and a new(ish) TV for the kitchen plugged into it. Both of them are LGs, which is great because that means they both have RS-232 ports and can be programatically controlled by the serial ports on the Utilite. Combine that with the ethernet control on the Yamaha and I've got a recipe for some rather cool tricks.
Matt wrote:When I lived in Huddersfield I used to leave my computer on and RDP into it to get stuff. Now they block that port (and literally everything except port 80 :/ I can't even use FTP, IMAP, SMTP or SSL.). My router has a USB port and basic SAMBA for sharing either an external HDD or USB drive. I could totally use that, if my connection wasn't 2MBit :(
That sucks. Even SSL? I would go as far as calling that irresponsible. The Durham network was fairly locked down but it wasn't quite that bad. They ran a HTTP proxy that you could pipe a lot of stuff through. What you should do is set up SSH or even OpenVPN to listen on port 80. From there, you could do just about anything.
Matt wrote:What do you use for a web server, btw? I'm quite keen on NGNIX on my VPS.
nginx FTW! Aura runs on nginx and I've favoured it over Apache for many years now. Before nginx became popular, I did dabble with lighttpd but it has nothing over nginx any more. Unfortunately we still use Apache heavily at work.
The most expensive A/V equipment I have are my AKG headphones. £120 they were! That first lot has just blown me away. I wouldn't have a clue where to start at all!

Yep, even SSL. I can't use anything to log into my VPS. I can't leave tightvnc running (which is negligent anyway) to even use some sort of Chrome extension to jump in and do stuff.

I'm still doing my Android ROM a lot so I wanted to abuse the network there and use it for uploading the ROM to my server for distribution :(

Which brings me to ngnix:D I was reading about Apache, lightppd and ngnix, and basically ngnix was better for file transferring, which I do a lot of. I measured CPU use with apache and ngnix and ngnix pretty much unregisterable. I stopped there and decided to dive in. I really like the way you set up "sites" in the conf files. Though, admittedly I had some help there.
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Chewi
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Re: We're moving!

Post by Chewi » Sat Dec 21, 2013 11:13 pm

May have made some progress on the disconnection front. I moved the router back to the master socket and the disconnections continued as I had kinda hoped. Changing the cable didn't help either.

My ISP won't bother BT until I've ruled out the router as well, which I can understand because BT will charge them or me if it turns out to be something inside the house. I do have a spare ADSL router but I've flashed OpenWRT onto it and it's now missing ADSL drivers. I could flash it back to stock but I'd rather not.

There was another option though. My ISP said it was quite likely to be a faulty street light as this is quite a common problem. I'd suspected as much even though I'd never heard of this before. Despite it being common, they are one of the only ISPs in this country that acknowledge the existence of this problem. This is why they rock. They said I could possibly detect it using an AM radio tuned to 612KHz. I was dubious but also curious so I bought a radio off eBay for £3. Funny, I swear I had more AM radios than I knew what to do with when I was growing up but now they seem to be a rarity. The radio arrived today. It doesn't have a very accurate tuning dial but I set it to roughly 612KHz and walked over to the first street light, just a few yards from my front door. I was still a few feet away when the radio started buzzing like crazy. As I said, I had been dubious and although it was unlikely, it could have been a problem anywhere between here and the exchange a mile away, so to discover this on the very first one was quite exciting. I checked about 6 other street lights in all directions for comparison and none of them made any sound at all.

I'm hoping I won't need to contact my ISP or BT about this. Usually street lights are the responsibility of the council and apparently getting them to acknowledge and deal with this problem can be a struggle but I noticed that every street light I looked at had a code and a phone number to call in the event of a defect. This probably isn't the kind of defect they usually deal with but I think they may just listen. Let's hope so.
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Matt
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Re: We're moving!

Post by Matt » Sun Dec 22, 2013 9:05 pm

Every night at 5pm my internet connection craps out, like god damn clockwork :/ I have no street lights though.
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Chewi
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Re: We're moving!

Post by Chewi » Tue Dec 31, 2013 12:10 pm

Well the good news is they came and replaced the light. The bad news is they didn't replace the one part that is causing the problem. It's called the ballast. Sounds more like something you'd find on a ship. I've made another call. Second time lucky?
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Mik
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Re: We're moving!

Post by Mik » Tue Dec 31, 2013 1:30 pm

Isn't it third time the charm, though ?


I've never heard of a street light causing so much shit but then a fucking tree was causing a problem with our wireless bridge before so guess it's not much weirder.
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Matt
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Re: We're moving!

Post by Matt » Tue Dec 31, 2013 10:30 pm

Time to get creative about removing the light, James.

Can you commit acts of terrorism against a street light? Let's find out!

Plus, hasn't any Scottishness rubbed off on you yet? You ought to get outside and bash a big hole in the light and electrocute yourself trying to kill it!
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