The Future of Simplify Media
So back around March of last year (2010), Simplify Media announced that it would be pulling it’s desktop and iPhone apps from the market and the company would be moving in a new direction (not yet disclosed at the time of the announcement). I recently came across the news that Simplify Media was purchased by none other than Google! Sounds like a dream come true right? Well, not for me! Although Google is a huge proponent for free/open source goodies, they have one huge strike against them in my book…….They don’t play well with Apple anymore! As excited as I am to hear Simplify Media gain the financial and marketing power of the great and powerful Google Machine, I also fear that the initial cross-platform direction Simplify Media had will go the wayside as far as mobile implementation goes. Since Google’s Android is now a direct competitor with Apple’s iOS, we may see cross platform at the desktop tier, but only the release of an official Android at in the mobile market. I guess we will see exactly how NICE Google can play in honor of keeping things open! Regardless, I can’t wait to see what Google does with a product that was already great!
-Phenix
Networking Upgrades: Part 1
This is Part 1 of the 2 part series on current network upgrades for my hosting setup. To start off, let me tell you a little about my current setup:
- Service
- My current service is a 20MB down/5MB up residential connection through Comcast. I have 1 static public IP for now ( I have have hopes to upgrade to business class service which includes 13 status public IP’s.
- Software
- DHCP and DNS services are currently hosted on Mac OS X 10.5 Server running on an Apple Xserve G4. DHCP is setup into 2 subnets, 1 for my “admin” network that houses all of my server infrastructure, and a second subnet for public traffic such as wireless clients and multimedia streaming.
- Port Forwarding is currently handled by a Netgear WNR3500 802.11 N wireless router. Since I have multiple services on multiple systems that need to be public facing, and only 1 public IP, Port Forwarding is essential to my setup.
- Hardware
- Core router/Wireless AP: Netgear WNR3500 802.11 N wireless router (5 port Gigabit Switch)
- As this device isn’t used for DHCP it acts as a Wireless AP and a 5 port Gigabit switch only.
- Dev Switch: HP ProCurve 2523 (J4813A)
- This is a 10/100MB switch with 2 Gigabit uplinks. I use this mainly for my dev systems that don’t really require a huge data throughput.
- Core router/Wireless AP: Netgear WNR3500 802.11 N wireless router (5 port Gigabit Switch)
All of that out of the way, let me start by describing my issues with the current setup. As I previously stated, because of my current setup I depend greatly on Port Forwarding, which is currently handled by the Netgear router. The service, “as-is,” works alright, but has a good bit of limitation. First of all, I am unable to forward an external port to a different internal port (ie. forward TCP Port xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:5902 on the WAN to xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:5900 on the LAN. This limitation just adds more difficulty when configuring internal services on multiple systems that listen on the same ports. It’s not impossible, but it is definitely cumbersome. The second major limitation is that the Netgear router only supports a maximum of 20 port forwards. As I host multiple services on mutliple systems behind one public IP, this gets messy! Think about it this way:
Assume I have 4 systems behind my router with 1 public IP. Here are potential services that would need to be forwarded:
- SSH/FTP (ports 21-23) for system 1
- VNC (port 5900) for system 1
- AFP (ports 548-549) for system 1
- MySQL (port 3306) for system 1
- HTTP (port 80) for system 1
- HTTPS (port 443) for system 1
- DNS (port 53) for system 1
- VPN (port 1723 for PPTP) for system 1
- VPN2 (port 1701 for L2TP) for system 1
- POP (port 110) for system 1
- SMTP (port 25) for system 1
- IMAP (port 143) for system 1
- iStat (port 5110) for system 1
- Zimbra HTTP (port 81) for system 2
- Zimbra HTTPS (port 89) for system 2
- Zimbra Admin HHTP (port 7071) for system 2
- Zimbra IMAP SSL (port 993) for system 2
Then if you need any of these ports/services available on another system, the number of needed port forwards multiplies. As you can see from this simple example, I very easily filled up the 20 available port forwards, and have been forced to switch port forwards on the fly as needed. In search of a solution I was looking for a product that wasn’t limited and offered a little more to meet my future needs. After much reading and deliberation I decided on the Netgear ProSafe FVS318G VPN Firewall (read more about it here). I’ve come to like Netgears SMB products over the years as I’ve used many of there switches, hubs, access point, and WiFi routers without any significant issues. Sadly I cant say the same for there regular home/consumer based products. In addition to being fairly inexpensive (always a plus!), it packs a few other nice features. Most notably:
- 1 x Gigabit WAN port
- 8 x Gigabit LAN ports
- NAT routing and Classic Routing
- 5 VPN tunnels for Secure Remote Access
- IPsec Secure Site-to-Site connectivity
- Denial-of-Service (DoS) protection
- Stateful Packet Inspection (SPI)
- Logging and Reporting
- Realtime Alerts
All of this, and more, packed into a sturdy little metal box that has a lifetime warranty!
I don’t expect that this product will solve all my network issues, but it will hopefully remedy some of my immediate needs. In the long run I know I need to move to a business class service and move away from only a single public IP setup. As this is more of a hobby than a necessity I can’t currently justify the added monthly expense of business class service, no matter how much I’d like to! I guess I could always save a ton of time/money by going back to a completely flat network setup with no servers and only a wireless router, but where’s the fun in that?! This raps up Part 1 of the 2 part series. In part 2 I will cover the unboxing of the Netgear FVS318G and talk a little about it’s installation, configuration, and the aftermath of it finding it’s home on my network.
-Phenix
Status Update!
Hello all, I know it’s been a while! I’m up on my feet here in Atlanta, and life is good! So much has been going on lately I almost don’t know where to start. Here’s a few big highlights:
- Hosting news
- Server was successfully migrated from Valdosta to Atlanta
- After a Hard Drive failure the server was successfully restored to new hardware (no data loss occurred)
- New Hardware:
- The WebRoot sites are running on a single Apple Xserve G4 with plans to extend to 2 nodes once I procure another license for OS X Server 10.5 and a decent NAS for shared storage (2nd Xserve already on hand!).
- New Hardware:
- The WebRoot mail services have been migrated off of OS X Mail Server and onto an Ubuntu Server running Zimbra. I will hopefully make a 3 part series on the implementation and migration, but for now just know that it’s running a lot smoother and is more easily managed!
- Site News
- I am closer to being finished with the new custom theme ( a few set backs with some of my code and the release of WP 3.x)
- I have decided to drop the WPMU setup in favor of a standard WP single player site.
- I will permanently move the site to http://thephenixblue.com once the new theme is ready.
- I am in the process of procuring additional writers so we have new posts all the time!
- Other News
- I have decommissioned a few sites I used to have (vsumug.com and vsumug.org) due to lack of interest.
- I have a new site planned (domain purchased), and I am in search of someone to do the graphics work for it. More details will come soon.
That’s about it for now! I will try to be better about churning out new content.
-Phenix
Again from the Ashes…
Let me start off by apologizing for the outright disregard to produce any content at all on this site in the past months! I follow hat up by saying….There’s a great reason why! Once again the Phenix will be rising from the ashes and spreading it’s new wings, this time in the form of a relocation and a change in occupation. Yes….you heard me correct, I am moving this weekend to the wonderful city of Dunwoody, GA to begin a new career as a Unix SME (Subject Matter Expert) with Global Payments, Inc. I won’t bore all of you with the details of why this move came about, but rest assured it something that myself and my career desperately needed. This move also means that sometime in the near future I will need to migrate “The WebRoot” (the server which hosts all of my wonderful sites). It will more than likely be a weekend between now and April 18th and hopefully will only be down for 48 hours max. As I do not yet have Internet Service at my new place, I will not be quite as “connected” as I have been in the past several years. I will be reachable via my cell, GV, and e-mail. I will probably be searching for a Starbucks or McDonalds with free WiFi to satiate my need for the internetz in the meantime, but access will be limited. For any of you in the Atlanta area, please give me a call and hang out, as I am sure I will be extremely lonely! That’s it for now, I’ll try to post an update once I am settled in Dunwoody!
Theatrical Limitations
Over the years I’ve seen too many movies for my own good. I started movie going at the ripe age of 3 or 4. My Mothers first job after my prents divorce was at the local theater in Moultrie. She was blessed with the ability to take me to work with her, place me in a seat in the back of the theater, and leave me be (coming in often to check on me of course!). Over the years, the “Moultrie Twin,” as it was called, became a second home to me. I watched virtually every movie that came through there (many multiple times) until I went off to college. Even now, I enjoy spending a lazy day doing nothing but watching movies. Netflix has been the bane of my productivity!
Anyways, the point of this is……I’ve seen a lot of movies! Through watching so many movies, I’ve become quite desensitized to violence, vulgarity, and outright debauchery. From rude and lude comedies, gory and gruesome horror flicks, and over the top violent action films, I’ve seen it all. I found myself in the last 4-5 years honing in on a specific niche of films that would make most folks vomit! I used the general terminology, “Fucked Up!” to describe such films. Most fall into the genre of Psychological Thrillers, but many also wiggle themselves into movies that cover other genres, sometimes feigning the appearance of a “NORMAL” movie! I’m not some ethically vacant, demoralized, sadistic, psychotic, heathen (I know that’s what you were thinking!), I enjoy these movies for one main reason. I believe the cinema of today has sold out.
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