Month: May 2006

New home network storage

So, here I am thinking that it’s time to update my home network’s file server. My antique Pentium 1 box is starting to show it’s age. Sure, it’s OK and is managing when it’s only me accessing it but put a few more people on it and it dies. It’s got a great, old mega-tower case with heaps of space for hard drives, but it’s power supply is running *really* noisy. This plus the slow-down when transferring huge files or supporting multiple clients and, well, sure, it’s time to kill it.

Talk about serendipity, I stumble over FreeNAS, a FreeBSD based network storage system. Awesome system. You download a 30Mb ISO, burn it onto CD, boot from it and (with a few checks of the manual :) set up your server. Once you’ve got the network card selected and IP address specified, you can start managing it via the web based interface.

Wow – talk about easy – want to add new hard drives? Piece of cake. Want some of them in a RAID structure? Hell yeah – sure, it’s software based, but with a Pentium III and 256Mb of RAM, who cares ‘cos damn it’s fast. Plus, it’s a breeze to add support for Windows, Apple, FTP, etc. Litterally just clicking and configuring and it’s done.

So so so happy with this. Definitely a recommended way of converting an older machine into a useful network file server.

General Update

Still here, still ticking along. The work as crew chief with Balloon Sunrise is going well and I’m working my way towards a commercial balloon pilot license. I’m no longer with the AWU but am still doing some tech support for Crumpler.

I had applied to become an Air Traffic Controller and made it right through to the end. After a number of all-day exam sessions, I wound up getting rejected due to not having the right personality match for the position. Basically, they figured I’d not be comfortable being shoved into their mould and would get bored and want to leave. It was a bit of a shame but well worth doing. I’ve logged the experience and am in the process of revamping my Fly Me Friendly section so it’ll show up there eventually.

Nykolai is with his mom in Buenos Aires (Argentina) visiting family for a month. Kinda wierd not having him around.

The car is running well after a recent tune up – still got lots to go on it – new exhaust, new suspension, probably new brakes then fix up the body work. Slowly getting there with it as funds permit.