Steve Holdoway wrote:
Dunno about you, but I've got all the work I need, thanks.
That's ok... I've got 5 Linux students that would love some paid work so
they can buy some of their own equipment.
However, the fact that I ( and a number of others )pointed you to two *proven*
alternate solutions that are both far cheaper, more reliable and instantly
available than yours, and you totally ignore them does really hack me off.
I'm sorry Steve, so far I didn't see a single proven alternate solution.
Perhaps I got side tracked by the rants about Amway, using this list
to ask questions that weren't 100% "I'm having trouble with this Linux
program", "south sore is sinking at a rate of 15mm per 10 years", and
the help I actually wanted... Thanks Nick, Ben, Yourself, Dave and Andrew.
However I have reviewed both solutions and discussed them with other
people today.
I've discounted both as not viable.
http://www.trademe.co.nz/Computers/Networking-modems/Wireless-networking/auction-64027324.htm
These things are designed to push wifi some distance. This would lead
to a range of problems with conflicts.
WiFi (802.11b) was designed to be used in short ranges at high speed.
You don't want the antenna to be to sensitive or is will start picking
up nodes that are on the same channel but further away.
Same theory as was put on cordless phones and the reason why you weren't
meant to put big antenna on the things.
Woosh also use equipment like this on their network. It drops the db
down quite a bit, which impacts on speed. In their network it actually
seems to cause problems from my 6 months of experience. I spent some
time talking to their head RND guy about it, he was extreamly helpful.
http://www.trademe.co.nz/Computers/Networking-modems/Wireless-networking/auction-64362848.htm
There is a place for these units. I spent an hour talking to Ben about
them tonight. Users who want low power use and have a space issue this
is a good start...
However they don't have enough capacity to be a server. One of the
single biggest factors that face us in the Internet world is digital
cameras.
As I explained to Ben this afternoon, I went out last night to a family
function and took a card an a half of photos. No really issue there...
execpt each shot is 4.5mb. To see them, all I have to do is plug my
camera into my laptop and it transfers the photos to my web server over
my local network. The web server then re-renders them automatically in
to thumb nails. I don't have to do a thing. I know my family will only
really want to look at one or two each, which ones of the 150 pics I
took will be based on who they are.
However I am going to look at them further. They need to be able to be
wired together as well. Which I suspect they can't as they're no
routers but are in fact switch which means on a 300 node system you'd
quickly run out of mac space in their cache.
TELSTRA CLEAR
Then there was the Telstra Clear suggestion. I understand that some of
you have it and love it. I can't get them to use common sense when
considering the installation of service to my flat. I have a green box
at the front of my block of units. It's less than 15 meters.
Given this experience alone, what chance do you think I'm going to have
at getting them to install 2.15km of cable down RHR?
SOEKRIS borads...
Now someone mentioned these babies again some where... Don't know if
that was you?
However, I've been following the list on these things and the one thing
I'm hearing time and time again from a number of places is issues with
their heart beat (or what ever you call it that allows them to be
rebooted automatically if they die).
I checked out the pricing and they're not cheep at all. I don't have the
money to even purchase samples at present. If you would care to lend me
some samples to play with and learn on then I'm happy to put in the time.
I checked out the configurations on them and found they're not even that
flexiable based on my requirements.
I want USB * 3 , Eth * 3 and a truck load of disk (3gb's a good start
but will have to expand).
Finally, if we're going to use hardware like this then I'd prefer to
design it locally and then have it build in our own local community. I
spent half an hour on the phone to a major manufacture of such equipment
earlier in the week. The guys was really helpful!
Your thinking is like Microsoft Visual Basic - instant visible results that
skip the (rather important) analysis phase.
Steve as I've spent 10 years as a Microsoft Visual Basic programmer from
version 1 to version 6, I'm sure my approach won't take you by any supprise.
I'm currently in my third or forth year in the Linux world and am still
not half as productive as I was in my second year in MS. However I keep
on trying and I'm not going back no matter what insults you choose to
throw at me.
Cheers Don
--
Don Gould
www.thinkdesignprint.co.nz - www.tcn.bowenvale.co.nz -
www.bowenvale.co.nz - www.hearingbooks.co.nz - SkypeMe: ThinkDesignPrint
