So...you're a geek. We knew that already.

Yes, but did you know how _much_ of a geek? Well, i wrote a letter to my friend Jimmy a few months back, and pretty much just core-dumped in a stream-of-consciousness style (hrm, i think that's redundant, but i'm trying to make it understandable to techs and non-techs alike) everything i had hooked up at home and what it did. Anyways, it ended up going pretty long. (Mainly because i'm not particuluarly succinct. Ever.) But in case you were wondering...here's the whole sordid story.

Oh, be sure to check out the notes at the end.


Subject: Re: discover commercial
To: j2yu@juno.com (James Yu)
Date: Tue, 18 Feb 1997 18:11:29 -0800 (PST)
Bcc: lee [at] darryl.com
From: "Darryl Lee" <lee [at] darryl.com>

James Yu wrote:
> hi darryl,

[deletia]

> are you still the mac.... er... that is, the mac-man or have you moved on
> towards pc's? or have you abandoned it all and stuck with linux?

Let's see...i've been waiting for a chance to brag about my incredible
mess of a network:

First off, i've got a Linux box running on a little old P75 with 48MB
of RAM.  It's connected pretty much full time via a 33.6K modem (but
never gets _that_ fast of a rate, usually 26.4-28.8) to the net.  Its
IP address and name are static:  darryl.com.  (However the mail for
darryl.com goes to my ISP, because i haven't started backing up my box
here, and well, there's a few other issues.)

On the same desk is a PowerMac 7100/80, and on a couple of filing 
cabinets to the left of that, i have an old 486/50 ThinkPad just for 
running the random Win95 app.  These were all pretty much "inherited"
from my dad, lucky me.  But most of the peripherals--modems, ethernet
cards, hard drives, etc, were bought by me.

Anyways, they're all ethernetted together via thinnet coax (they're
close together, so it works fine.)

The cool part is that Linux is running Netatalk, which lets it speak
the Appletalk protocol, and on top of that, act as a file server for
my Macs.  (i also have my own PowerBook 520, upgraded to a PowerPC,
which i bought on my own.  Oh, and also, a PowerBook 145B that my aunt
gave to me broken, and which is still kind of broken, but works just
barely.)  ANYWAYS, this means i can mount Unix directories on the Mac
desktop as networked drives.  It's very very cool.

Cooler still, i'm also running SAMBA on my Linux box, which lets it
speak Windows File Sharing (also known as SMB).  This means that my
Win95 ThinkPad can also mount Unix directories as networked drives.
Even things in the CD-ROM drive in the Linux box, which is very handy
considering the ThinkPad doesn't have a CD-ROM drive.

Let's see...what else.  Well, i've also got an Ascend ISDN box from
work, which i use to call in when necessary.  It's on $20/mo1 flat rate
if i don't use it during M-F 8-5, which i don't, cause i'm usually at
work.  Anyways, it provides me with two extra phone lines as well, so
it's worth it to pay for it on my own, since work paid for the
installation.  (Or well...they will, if i ever fill out an expense
report.)

Other ugliness:  When i have my PowerBook 520 around, it has built-in
Ethernet.  i was just plugging it into the thinnet segment near the
other computers, but what if i wanted to use it in my room?  Long
thinnet cables across the dining room are kind of ugly, so i used two
spare pairs that were going from the kitchen to my bedroom, and installed
jacks for 10BaseT.  Then i borrowed a 24-port hub from work (it was a
spare...all i really need is a minihub), connected the back to thinnet
and one of the ports to the jack from the kitchen to my room.
Voila...ethernet in my room.

What else...oh, found a SCSI-Ethernet adapter at work that nobody was
using, so right now it's plugged into the 145B,2 while my 520 is being
borrowed by Berkeley Systems (the After Dark people) so they can debug 
their new You Don't Know Jack NetShow.  (Very cool stuff that you 
should check out.

They're sending it back with free software and stuff, so i think it was 
worth it.  And i get to be on their beta test for their new You Don't
Know Jack--Movies beta, which i wasn't chosen for initially!  :}

(The story on that was, there were sign-ups to be on their beta test
list for various products.  i signed up, got chosen for the NetShow
beta, and then tried it on my PowerBook, where it crashed.  After
sending them bug reports, log files, etc etc, they asked if they could
just pay to have me ship it to them, which i did.)

You Don't Know Jack, in case you don't know, is one of the hottest
non-arcade games for PCs, Macs, whatever.  It's trivia, but with a
sarcastic host and _great_ production values as far as graphics,
music, etc etc.  You really should check out the Net version or the
demo of the regular game to see what i'm talking about.

ANYWAYS...uh...that was sort of long.  Hehe...but suffice to say, i'm
still _very_ much into my Macs, _and_ i'm still delving into the deep
recesses of Linux, _and_ i have to do a lot of stuff with NT at work
(ugh, but i _really_ don't want to ever have NT installed at my
house), _and_ i have this pitiful Win95 ThinkPad here with a broken 
screen (propped up with two diskettes...you'd have to see it) with 
no sound card which makes it kind of useless for games and such, _and_
i'm doing some stuff with SunOS and Solaris at work.

Is that enough for now?  Probably so.  Hope i haven't bored you, or
worse, put you over your quota for e-mail.  Heh.

Juno, eh?  A few of my friends use that.  Seems like a cool thing.

Later!
--
Darryl Lee <lee [at] darryl.com> | "That Systems Guy" | <http://www.darryl.com>

A few notes... 04/20ish/97

i think Jimmy actually understood most what i was talking about. Amazing.

1 i think i meant to say that ISDN is "only $20/mo", not "on $20/mo". Also, it's an 8-port hub, not 24.

And oh, now the price is about $27/mo, thanks to those money-grubbing thieves at Pacific Bell. But lo, there might be some hope on the horizon! (01/15/98)

2 The SCSI-Ethernet adapter went back to work (grr), but i found a much nicer replacement in the GatorBox CS that i'm ahm...demoing. It bridges LocalTalk to Ethernet, so _finally_ i can now see my HP DeskWriter C (on LocalTalk, actually PhoneNet) from my Ethernetted Macs and even my Linux box. [Yes, somehow i actually got papd to talk to the DeskWriter. Text is ugly, but with GhostScript i can actually print out really clean PostScript. (But it's _reallllly_ slow.) Yes, i got the instructions on the net, and yes, i'll put the links on here...eventually.]

Oh yeah, and the other cool thing about the GatorBox CS...if i ever get around to fixing them, my two Mac Pluses (!) will be able to do more than just be big bookends. i could...*gasp* put them on the Net, even. (Ewww, i know. :})

Anyways...my PowerBook 520 is back, but now it's got a problem with the AC Adapter. Better get it to the Apple Service before my AppleCare runs out in June!

05/07/97

Ah, got the AC Adapter replaced, and it works quite nicely now. Still have short battery life, but i think that's due to really overusing the poor thing.

In reading this, i realized, i totally forgot about IP Masquerading, which is a big ingredient in this big old mess. Lets all of my machines use darryl.com (the Linux box) as a "gateway" to the outside world. Sort of a firewall, sort of a proxy, only much less work. :}

Next big project, getting something called IP Auto Forwarder to work so things ilke Streamworks, and hope of all hope, CU-SeeMe will work!!


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