The ShipleyNet Saga
Written: May 25, 2006
The car is ready, the clothes are packed, the computers waiting to be secured for a long hard ride.
The four-day odyssey to pick up my girls and bring them home starts as soon as I can weasel out of .... er, uh, finish, my work for the day here in Strasburg.
I'm headed to Tennessee to do some hard-core computer tinkering with Uncle Luke over the Memorial Day weekend, before leaving the greater Johnson City area for Lynchburg, where I might impose upon the Olive Garden's hospitality, before heading back to the greater wilds of Northern Virginia.
Some stats:
• Miles: Around 900... I'm too tired to do the math.
• Gallons of gas: About 25, or enough to sell on the black market to put Gracie through her freshman year of college.
• CDs: 6. That's all that will fit in the changer, and I'm too lazy to burn any more before I leave.
• Crossings of the Eastern Continental Divide: 4. Just trust me on this one. I'm going over a lot of mountains before Tuesday.
Technically, the trip started today. The Virginia General Assembly was in session today for the 9,000th days in a row (not really, but it sure seems like it) and I had to be in Richmond at 11 a.m. when they started. For those of you not well versed in Virginia geography, a trip to Richmond from Strasburg is about five hours in the car on some of the most insane, drag-strip like highways in the state.
The session lasted for 90 minutes. I was none too pleased, considering I had already popped for the $13 "all day" parking space in downtown.
Some thought occurred to me now that I'm home.
One, if anything bad ever happens to me in Richmond, it'll be at the hands (or bumper) of a Greater Richmond transit bus. Those guys are crazy. I didn't know a 30-foot bus could come down from 65 mph in less than 100 feet... I've got to find out where those guys get their brakes done.
Two, once we're all back safe and sound at la Fortaleza Norteña del Shipley , we're just gonna crash here for a while... there's only so many times you can listen to Eddie Rabbit's "Driving my Life Away" before it looses its '70s country charm and becomes a pitiable lamentation before God.
See you on the road....
-------
Written May 29, 2006:
Nothing Good Comes Easy
At least that's the way it looks at 2:06 a.m. here in the Shipley labs. One bad decision early Saturday has brought the nascent Shipleynet to its knees. For the tech savvy among us, I'm reformatting and doing a clean install of Windows XP Pro on the HP due to a massive virus infestation.
I was attempting to atone for past sins (taking out Barbara's pictures in 2002 when I upgraded from Windows ME to XP) by moving all Mom's files over from Windows 98 SE into the new operating system. Unfortunately, it came with a big ol' stack of viruses. That proceeded to crash the entire computer and almost cascaded the entire network.
So here I am, sitting with an unlit cigar in my mouth, watching the clock grind away while Luke plays NCAA Football 2005. I've got no fewer than six hours ahead of me in the car tomorrow, and sleep looks like it might come at 4 a.m. ... if I'm lucky.
Add in a near miss brought on by responsible driving today, and my nerves are almost gone.
I really, really hope this is worth all the effort.
-------------
Written May 31, 2006:
Shipleynet Update
Much has happened since my online lament of 2 a.m. Monday.
Luke and I managed to revive the HP from "brick" status to a solid, quiet Windows XP Server. It seems to be performing quite nicely. After a stopover in Lynchburg, all three of the local area networks we're aiming to combine seem to be functioning normally.
The problem is the gateway.
Note this well: I made a mistake. It doesn't happen often... :)
I though "VPN passthrough" meant the same thing as "VPN client server." My bad. The solution, is to replace the central router with a VPN specific model. Not too pricey, but to do that and keep the 802.11g functionality will cost about $150. I'm thinking about a double-NAT configuration... I'm just not sure right now.
In the meantime, everyone has enough bandwidth to share files via e-mail or IM. Once I figure out a way to replace the router and keep the (g) functionality, we'll be in business. Luke and I managed to come up with some fairly bullet-proof instructions to configure the client side of the system, so it'll be just a few clicks to get everyone sharing files once we've replaced the "keystone" router.
As for now, I'm really, really tired. Shipleynet will just have to wait until a) I get some sleep, b) someone who loves me hits the lottery or c) I find a Linksys WVR200 router laying beside the road.
Suggestions, VPN router donations welcome...
-------
Written June 3, 2006
Shipley Net Lives...
(Or, I for one welcome our new robot overlords).
It wasn't easy, but Luke and I have finally managed to link up the three computers we control and have now tested the system -- we have VPN! Not just VPN, but resiliant VPN that can survive every computer on the network going down, then coming back up.
Thank you, thank you, thank you, to my fellow geeks at Slashdot for their help. They, like me, have answered the question "Why network all these things together?" with "Because we can!"
We're wired together now, which gives us file sharing, chat and other LAN goodies, all encrypted to an NSA-proof standard. What does this mean to users? Instant access to everyone else's shared files, for one thing. No more clicking and saving attatchments. It just a few clicks away.
Remote storage, off-site back up and other such goodies are now available, as well. If you're vaugely associated with the Shipley clan, have a decent broadband connection, are virus and worm free and running Windows XP SP2, drop me a line and I'll get you hooked up. For now, it's just pictures and home movies, but I'm going to work on encrypted, secure storage in the not-too-distant future.
The more people we get online, the more fun it is for everyone.
The car is ready, the clothes are packed, the computers waiting to be secured for a long hard ride.
The four-day odyssey to pick up my girls and bring them home starts as soon as I can weasel out of .... er, uh, finish, my work for the day here in Strasburg.
I'm headed to Tennessee to do some hard-core computer tinkering with Uncle Luke over the Memorial Day weekend, before leaving the greater Johnson City area for Lynchburg, where I might impose upon the Olive Garden's hospitality, before heading back to the greater wilds of Northern Virginia.
Some stats:
• Miles: Around 900... I'm too tired to do the math.
• Gallons of gas: About 25, or enough to sell on the black market to put Gracie through her freshman year of college.
• CDs: 6. That's all that will fit in the changer, and I'm too lazy to burn any more before I leave.
• Crossings of the Eastern Continental Divide: 4. Just trust me on this one. I'm going over a lot of mountains before Tuesday.
Technically, the trip started today. The Virginia General Assembly was in session today for the 9,000th days in a row (not really, but it sure seems like it) and I had to be in Richmond at 11 a.m. when they started. For those of you not well versed in Virginia geography, a trip to Richmond from Strasburg is about five hours in the car on some of the most insane, drag-strip like highways in the state.
The session lasted for 90 minutes. I was none too pleased, considering I had already popped for the $13 "all day" parking space in downtown.
Some thought occurred to me now that I'm home.
One, if anything bad ever happens to me in Richmond, it'll be at the hands (or bumper) of a Greater Richmond transit bus. Those guys are crazy. I didn't know a 30-foot bus could come down from 65 mph in less than 100 feet... I've got to find out where those guys get their brakes done.
Two, once we're all back safe and sound at la Fortaleza Norteña del Shipley , we're just gonna crash here for a while... there's only so many times you can listen to Eddie Rabbit's "Driving my Life Away" before it looses its '70s country charm and becomes a pitiable lamentation before God.
See you on the road....
-------
Written May 29, 2006:
Nothing Good Comes Easy
At least that's the way it looks at 2:06 a.m. here in the Shipley labs. One bad decision early Saturday has brought the nascent Shipleynet to its knees. For the tech savvy among us, I'm reformatting and doing a clean install of Windows XP Pro on the HP due to a massive virus infestation.
I was attempting to atone for past sins (taking out Barbara's pictures in 2002 when I upgraded from Windows ME to XP) by moving all Mom's files over from Windows 98 SE into the new operating system. Unfortunately, it came with a big ol' stack of viruses. That proceeded to crash the entire computer and almost cascaded the entire network.
So here I am, sitting with an unlit cigar in my mouth, watching the clock grind away while Luke plays NCAA Football 2005. I've got no fewer than six hours ahead of me in the car tomorrow, and sleep looks like it might come at 4 a.m. ... if I'm lucky.
Add in a near miss brought on by responsible driving today, and my nerves are almost gone.
I really, really hope this is worth all the effort.
-------------
Written May 31, 2006:
Shipleynet Update
Much has happened since my online lament of 2 a.m. Monday.
Luke and I managed to revive the HP from "brick" status to a solid, quiet Windows XP Server. It seems to be performing quite nicely. After a stopover in Lynchburg, all three of the local area networks we're aiming to combine seem to be functioning normally.
The problem is the gateway.
Note this well: I made a mistake. It doesn't happen often... :)
I though "VPN passthrough" meant the same thing as "VPN client server." My bad. The solution, is to replace the central router with a VPN specific model. Not too pricey, but to do that and keep the 802.11g functionality will cost about $150. I'm thinking about a double-NAT configuration... I'm just not sure right now.
In the meantime, everyone has enough bandwidth to share files via e-mail or IM. Once I figure out a way to replace the router and keep the (g) functionality, we'll be in business. Luke and I managed to come up with some fairly bullet-proof instructions to configure the client side of the system, so it'll be just a few clicks to get everyone sharing files once we've replaced the "keystone" router.
As for now, I'm really, really tired. Shipleynet will just have to wait until a) I get some sleep, b) someone who loves me hits the lottery or c) I find a Linksys WVR200 router laying beside the road.
Suggestions, VPN router donations welcome...
-------
Written June 3, 2006
Shipley Net Lives...
(Or, I for one welcome our new robot overlords).
It wasn't easy, but Luke and I have finally managed to link up the three computers we control and have now tested the system -- we have VPN! Not just VPN, but resiliant VPN that can survive every computer on the network going down, then coming back up.
Thank you, thank you, thank you, to my fellow geeks at Slashdot for their help. They, like me, have answered the question "Why network all these things together?" with "Because we can!"
We're wired together now, which gives us file sharing, chat and other LAN goodies, all encrypted to an NSA-proof standard. What does this mean to users? Instant access to everyone else's shared files, for one thing. No more clicking and saving attatchments. It just a few clicks away.
Remote storage, off-site back up and other such goodies are now available, as well. If you're vaugely associated with the Shipley clan, have a decent broadband connection, are virus and worm free and running Windows XP SP2, drop me a line and I'll get you hooked up. For now, it's just pictures and home movies, but I'm going to work on encrypted, secure storage in the not-too-distant future.
The more people we get online, the more fun it is for everyone.
I have coffee, Napster, and Dr. Enuf... we here at the Southern Command Tech Division await your arrival with enough supplies to get us through Shipleynet's construction.
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