AndrewRLynch.com » apartment

Straightening Up

Andrew Lynch — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 21:47:14 +0000

Being that this is my first weekend in a long time to get some stuff done around the house, I decided to finally move my server/home networking equipment to a new arrangement. About a month ago, I went down to the IKEA store in Minneapolis and picked up 3 of these LACK end tables. They were on sale for $8 each. They're nothing really that special looking, and are constructed of particle board. The kicker? They are actually the exact width to mount 19" network hardware in. I thought this would be great! Problem though: I don't own any 19" hardware. Dang. Well, I bought them anyway, and simply mounted all of my non-19" rackmount equipment onto it. And by mount, I mean set..

Here is a list of the hardware that I have here. And yes, they are all named after scientists.

Volta - This is the WRT54Gv2 running DD-WRT (of course). It is acting as my router for the network. I was using a smaller HP with pfSense, but that starting having major issues, so I dumped it for the ol' hardware router. It is also my wifi access point.
Coulomb - This is the large HP Compaq desktop that is acting as a server. It is running Debian 5.0 (Lenny) and serves file sharing, print sharing, VPN, and Teamspeak. Specs are a P4 @ 2.8GHz, 1GB DDR SDRAM, 2x 120GB IDE Hard Drives (7200RPM), Gigabit LAN.
Marconi - This is the tall device in the back. It is a Cisco Network Media Hub (NMH410) with 1TB of network attached storage. I use this for all of my media storage at home. I plan on purchasing another 1TB drive to create redundancy.
Trendnet TEG-S5g - It's not in the picture, because it's hiding underneath (as it's supposed to). It's a simple 5-port Gigabit switch that I got on sale at Newegg. Though I just noticed...I never got the gift card they said they mailed to me in May for the rebate. Crap.

I hope to eventually recable my desk and associated work area so that it looks like this. No wires showing, mounted power strips, and the like. I also want to create a spare set of cables, so that if I wanted to go to a LAN party, all I would need to do is disconnect the big components (monitor, PC, mouse, keyboard) and take them with, and I would have a fresh set of cables waiting for deployment.

New Apartment

Andrew Lynch — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 00:24:26 +0000

Alright, I know it's been a long time since I've posted, but I have a good reason. I've now moved into a new apartment. It is a luxurious 1-bedroom unit located in North Fargo. It's pretty close to campus, and is a convenient distance to walk to work. I have posted some pictures on Picasa. I'm hoping to put them up here soon.

As far as the site design goes, I'm going to redo it soon. I'm not really happy with the new template, but I wanted a change from the old one. I may just have to give up and write a new one from scratch. That'll be a weekend project when I have a free weekend. Lately I've been shopping for supplies or getting food. Or cleaning. Cleaning is good.

Also, in total nerd form, I do have a fully functional corporate network running at my apartment, complete with DNS (fully qualified) and an Active Directory domain. I am hosting Teamspeak and Jabber chat, and have local network storage on two different servers.

Yes, nerdy.

New Apartment

Andrew Lynch — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 11:57:01 +0000

If you haven't heard the news, or don't stalk me as much as you'd like to, I finally got an apartment for the summer. I didn't do the best job searching as I could have. I kinda went with the first one I saw. But it is obnoxiously close to campus, just one block away. It's a 1-bedroom, on the third floor of a nice building. They just replaced all the windows, and fixed up the hallways so that it looks quite nice. The ceilings are sloped, but I can live with that.

I hope to post more this weekend. It's been a rough week, with a speech due tomorrow, a test yesterday, and a full complement of homework.