Working and Now On To Cross Compiling

Ok, looks like I now have the Raspberry Pi up and running. I currently have had the RPi running for over two days now and everything seems to be running smoothly. As you can see in the following picture, I have it running, with the USB connections going through a powered hub. In addition, I have the ethernet plugged in and a second USB to ethernet connector plugged into the same powered usb hub. The display shows a couple of xterminal windows and the backdrop of the RPi logo. I haven't really explored all of the ins and outs yet.

I have added a VNC server so that I can pull up the screen from anywhere, including outside the house through a vpn connection. Technology is great, you get to experiment and do things when you want to do them.

I have the current SD load on a 16GB card. I felt that I needed to have something a bit bigger in case that I get really inventive and want to load a whole bunch of crap on the card. Right now the big focus is to be able to cross compile the operating system to where I want it to be. The steps are as follows:

1. install an Ubuntu VM running on Fusion under my Mac Mini
2. install the cross compiler and associated tools onto the Ubuntu VM
3. get the linux source for the operating system from the Raspberry Pi git repository
4. compile the thing
5. move the compiled load onto the Mac Mini
6. transfer the compiled load onto a new 16GB SD card

That is what I plan on doing over the next couple of days. Wish me luck.

-- LW

RPi - Working and Now Onto Cross Compiling

Ok, looks like I now have the Raspberry Pi up and running.  I currently have had the RPi running for over two days now and everything seems to be running smoothly.  As you can see in the following picture, I have it running, with the USB connections going through a powered hub.  In addition, I have the ethernet plugged in and a second USB to ethernet connector plugged into the same powered usb hub.  The display shows a couple of xterminal windows and the backdrop of the RPi logo.  I haven't really explored all of the ins and outs yet.

I have added a VNC server so that I can pull up the screen from anywhere, including outside the house through a vpn connection.  Technology is great, you get to experiment and do things when you want to do them.

I have the current SD load on a 16GB card.  I felt that I needed to have something a bit bigger in case that I get really inventive and want to load a whole bunch of crap on the card.  Right now the big focus is to be able to cross compile the operating system to where I want it to be.  The steps are as follows:

1. install an Ubuntu VM running on Fusion under my Mac Mini
2. install the cross compiler and associated tools onto the Ubuntu VM
3. get the linux source for the operating system from the Raspberry Pi git repository
4. compile the thing
5. move the compiled load onto the Mac Mini
6. transfer the compiled load onto a new 16GB SD card

That is what I plan on doing over the next couple of days.  Wish me luck.

-- LW

RPi - First Things First

I was able to get the Raspberry Pi (RPi) to boot after installing a load of Wheazy-Raspbian onto an SD card. This is a partial tale of "what the heck happened?"

Step 1 - get a copy of the RPi load off of http://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads.
I decided to get the one marked 2012-10-28-wheezy-raspbian.img.zip. When I downloaded the file, Mountain Lion was quick to automatically unpack it for me.

Step 2 - put the RPi load onto an SD Card.
For a Mac this is not really an involved step but if you are not used to working on the command line it might be daunting. You first launch the terminal then put in your SD card reader followed by placing the SD card into the reader. Assuming that the SD card is formatted correctly, a "df -h" will show a list of the drives on the system. My SD card was labeled "/dev/disk3s1". That means that for purposes of this procedure I use "/dev/rdisk3" to refer to the entire SD card. The procedure can be found at http://elinux.org/RPi_Easy_SD_Card_Setup. So to install the image, I ran the following:
sudo diskutil unmount /dev/disk3s1
sudo dd bs=1m if=2012-10-28-wheezy-raspbian.img of=/dev/rdisk3
diskutil unmount /dev/disk3s1

Step 3 - put the SD card into the RPi, connect all cables, and apply power
I removed the SD card from the SD reader and put it into the RPi, I then connected the ethernet cable, and applied power to the system. Note that at first I did not have a monitor or keyboard/mouse connected. I first wanted to access it via a headless means since I do most of my work remotely

Worked just fine.

-- LW

RPi - First Things First

I was able to get the Raspberry Pi (RPi) to boot after installing a load of Wheazy-Raspbian onto an SD card.  This is a partial tale of "what the heck happened?"

Step 1 - get a copy of the RPi load off of http://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads.
I decided to get the one marked 2012-10-28-wheezy-raspbian.img.zip.  When I downloaded the file, Mountain Lion was quick to automatically unpack it for me.

Step 2 - put the RPi load onto an SD Card.
For a Mac this is not really an involved step but if you are not used to working on the command line it might be daunting.  You first launch the terminal then put in your SD card reader followed by placing the SD card into the reader.  Assuming that the SD card is formatted correctly, a "df -h" will show a list of the drives on the system.  My SD card was labeled "/dev/disk3s1".  That means that for purposes of this procedure I use "/dev/rdisk3" to refer to the entire SD card.  The procedure can be found at http://elinux.org/RPi_Easy_SD_Card_Setup.  So to install the image, I ran the following:
sudo diskutil unmount /dev/disk3s1
sudo dd bs=1m if=2012-10-28-wheezy-raspbian.img of=/dev/rdisk3
diskutil unmount /dev/disk3s1

Step 3 - put the SD card into the RPi, connect all cables, and apply power
I removed the SD card from the SD reader and put it into the RPi, I then connected the ethernet cable, and applied power to the system.  Note that at first I did not have a monitor or keyboard/mouse connected.  I first wanted to access it via a headless means since I do most of my work remotely

Worked just fine.

-- LW

Raspberry Pi Came In

I ordered a Raspberry Pi on July 27th of this year and it came in the mail on Dec 10th (4 months and 14 days; or 137 days). That is a long lead time to wait for an item. However, looking at all the postings from locations around the world I can see why it is so popular.

What am I planning on doing with it? Experimenting of course! People have used this thing for all kinds of projects from streaming video to making a wireless access port to controlling motors on a robot. I like networking and media streaming so I will probably be using it there.

-- LW

Raspberry Pi Came In

I ordered a Raspberry Pi on July 27th of this year and it came in the mail on Dec 10th (4 months and 14 days; or 137 days).  That is a long lead time to wait for an item.  However, looking at all the postings from locations around the world I can see why it is so popular.

What am I planning on doing with it?  Experimenting of course!  People have used this thing for all kinds of projects from streaming video to making a wireless access port to controlling motors on a robot.  I like networking and media streaming so I will probably be using it there.

-- LW

Startup Notes

Well, I have three Raspberry Pis right now.  I have decided that I need to have a separate place to post information about what I am doing with them.  More information soon.

Strange Port Openings Appeared

While I was going through the motions of trying to get the Ceton echo (CE) to authenticate against my WMC pc, I encountered so many problems that I started turning off all my controls.  In particular, I turned on uPnP on my router and took down my Windows firewall on the WMC pc.  After I that I was successful in getting the CE to authenticate.

This morning I was fiddling with the router and I remembered that I still had uPnP running.  When I went to turn it off, I noticed that the Teredo tunneling protocol had been activated from both the WMC pc and the CE ip addresses.  (I looked it up)  The Teredo tunneling protocol is a way of tunneling through a router that has IPv6 turned off, which is the case on my router.  I turned off IPv6 because of all the things that I had read concerning bypassing routers.  Symantec has a nice writeup on how this protocol can be used by botnets, viruses, etc. to wreak havoc on a network.  Needless to say, I eliminated the Teredo ports and turned off uPnP altogether.

I am assuming that the CE will still work with the WMC PC because Microsoft should have already given out certs for the connection.  There should no longer be a need to pass back any information.  I will test it out tonight but the theory is that this setup should work without having uPnP or those ports available.  Otherwise, I am really concerned that I have an opening to the outside that I did not authorize.

BTW, what are people who aren't tech knowledgeable supposed to do?

-- LW

Got New Ceton Echo WMC Extender

I received a Ceton Echo Windows Media Center Extender (http://cetoncorp.com/products/echo/) which was delivered yesterday.  The full up versions of these things only came out on 30 Nov (which was last week).  First appearances were that this would be fine for eliminating the Verizon STB in the basement.  Small form factor and very quiet.  However, I was completely unable to setup the CE with my current WMC Atom based processor.  The error that I was getting back indicated that something was out of whack with my firewall setup.  So I had to abandon my efforts last night until I had enough time to do more research.

I happened upon the CE installation guide online (different than what was on the quick start guide included with the CE) at http://cetoncorp.com/support/index.php?/Knowledgebase/Article/View/54/26/echo---installation-guide.  What this is telling me is that there are a whole bunch of ports that need to be available on the main WMC pc for the CE to work properly.  What I am having a little trouble with is the two ports that are open to the internet for download and upload.  I will need to do a little more research into this.

Update: Well after about five or six tries I was finally able to get the Ceton echo to connect to the Windows media center. What I experienced from that point, was that it was pretty much like having the windows media center right there in front of me. I was able to take a video and was able to switch and move between various things as well as start a recording, but I have the recording going while I have the CE off. Time will tell how well this is going to work in my setup.

-- LW

First Vlan Tryout Setup

After having borked the router last time when I was trying to set up a vlan, I am now going to be a little more cautious. To that end, I am going to list out all of the steps and the proper sequence so that I don't get into trouble. My first tryout is to set up a vlan from a VMware Stack through two managed switches, and then to the final router. The following steps will be necessary:

1. Setup the Stack to connect through vlan8.
2. Setup the Mac Mini to put vlan8 out as a tagged stream.
3. Setup the Mac Mini to be able to get to any system in vlan8, but not the other way around (iptables equiv.).
4. Setup the first switch to accept vlan8 packets on the same port as the Mac Mini.
5. Setup the first switch to pass the tagged vlan8 to the second switch on a trunk.
6. Setup the second switch to receive the tagged vlan8 packet on the trunk and pass it as a tagged packet to the port on which the router resides.
7. Setup the router to receive the tagged vlan8 packet on the trunk line and pass it on through the NAT firewall to the outside.
8. The router should be set up so that it does not allow cross communication between vlan8 and any other vlan on the router.
9. Setup the router with a port forward to the VMware stack.

That is basically what I need to accomplish, now on to figuring out the particulars of each.

Update: 12/3/2012 - I have performed steps 4, 5, and 6 with the two switches.  That was the easy part of this sequence.  I have decided to make the subnets reflective of the vlan number by using the vlan number as one of the 4 octets.  Not sure whether to use C, B, or A addressing scheme.  I have also performed step 2 to have the vlan8 output as a tagged stream.  When I went to perform step 1 I set the Stack to the vlan that I had created in step 2, I encountered no problems.  When I changed the DHCP address to the new vlan8 subnet that is when the problems began.  More later.


- LW

Some thing that I want to do with VMs

Having a Mac Mini (MM) Server is actually an advantage at times.  In my network, I have a number of VMs that perform different functions that I am playing around with.  The trick it would seem is getting useful vlan activity out of it.  I am just starting to get the hang of how to set up vlans both in the Mac Mini sense and in the VMWare Fusion sense.  The new version of VMWare Fusion will give some added capability that I did not have before.  I have some basic functionality in the network that I want to be able to achieve:

1. I want to have some basic functionality in the MM that I don't want anyone else to have access to from my network, e.g. the Win7 VM and some of the programs on the MM.
2. On the other hand, there are some Media applications, e.g. PMS and iTunes, that I need the rest of my network to have access to, across multiple vlans.
3. I have a vlan specific to administration in my network that I want both my MM and my Win7 laptop to have access to (the Win7 laptop only when I am logged on as myself).
4. The MM hosts my VPN and I must control access to my network via specific vlans that can be accessed from the outside.
5. I have the following vlans specific to the MM: Media, Experimental, Personal, and DMZ.
6. I want an Ubuntu/SVN VM to have access to the personal vlan.
7. I want an Ubuntu/XBMC VM to have access to the media vlan.
8. I want an Ubuntu/Robot VM, running Robot Operating System, to have access to the experimental vlan.
9. I want a Trac/SVN VM and an Ubuntu/Drupal VM to have access to the DMZ vlan.
10. Control of #1, #2, and #3 will be routing initiated by an Ubuntu/Router/Switch VM.  The preferred router would be a DD-WRT based VM, but I want some basic routing functionality that I can control.
11. Even though I can gain access to the login screens of each of the VMs, I would still like to have the capability of loading a webmin client into each of the Ubuntu based VMs and have access to it via the administrative vlan.  Is this even doable?

More on this later.

-- LW

I Have a New Version of VMWare Fusion

Normally I would not talk that much about my VMs, but I just purchased an update to Fusion at a discount of $20 off the normal price. The thing that convinced me to buy it was the way that virtual LANs are created now. When I was using version 4, I was faced with making vlans by modifying some configuration files. Now I can do the same with a GUI interface. In addition, the interface is a little better at relating the internal vlans to external tagged vlans. This will set well with what I ultimately want to do with my home network.

- LW

Have an Apple TV 2 to Try Out

Thanks to my son-in-law's grandfather, I now have an Apple TV 2 to try out for a few days.  If you point your browser to http://www.appletvhacks.com, you can find a wealth of information about making this item dance and sing way past what Apple is willing to let you do.  It is unfortunate that Apple is making it more and more difficult to use the Apple TV the way that I would like to have it used, namely stream from other than iTunes stuff and allow me access to my HDHomeRun Prime.  I am still in the development stages of the home network, mainly because it is fun to do; and one of those things is to replace the Verizon set top boxes with something cheaper.  As I get closer to my retirement, I need to be able to reduce costs all the way around.  I will keep Verizon's FIOS TV and Internet, but I need to get the cost to go down.  Otherwise, I will be in the process of looking for something else to replace it with.  Hence, the changes to the network which will include this Apple TV 2.  Right now there is no jailbreak for the Apple TV 3, which I have two of in my house.

My game plan is to first jailbreak the Apple TV 2 (which has a 720p output) and attempt to get the streaming that I want to my downstairs HDTV.  I plan on connecting Plex Media Server, iTunes, the HDHomeRun Prime, and Netflix as streaming options.  What I will probably need to do is setup XBMC on the Apple TV 2 to connect to the HDHRP to complement the capabilities of the device.  I have other Apple Products which allow for AirPlay, along with AirParrot which can AirPlay from my Windows 7 laptop.  I should be able to have a complete media experience without some of the shortcomings that Apple and Verizon have implemented into their system.

-- LW

Decided to Not Fight It

I decided to not fight the way that Verizon has their ActionTec router set up. What I did was I put a second router behind the ActionTec router. I then made the ActionTec router form a DMZ between it and my current Buffalo router. By doing this, Verizon now has full control of their ActionTec router to do whatever it is that they want to have done. And I can control the inside of my network using my own router.


-- LW

Less Than Happy with the New Router

I have installed the new router in my home network. The ActionTec router from Verizon is somewhat of a disappointment, first of all it only has 100MHz Ethernet even though the user manual says it gets 1GHz. Second, it has a port open to the world which from my readings is not there because "Verizon's servers will poll the address and update the software in the router"; it seems to be there because Verizon has a direct connection to a facility down south which is an internal intelligence gathering organization. Not only that but it apparently a web based server, undocumented in the router user manual, which is only protected by username and password. I consider that a security breach into my home network.

I will be attempting to close this port down in the near future. If I am not able to do that, I will be putting all of my network behind my other router and DMZing the connection to it from the ActionTec. If the organization down south needs to see what I have in my network they can contact me directly. Conspiracy theories aside, I just don't trust something that I know nothing about and is well known across the internet. The port is also the same port that is used by at least two botnets for their control. Also the username and password combo is subject to attack. That is why I don't allow management of any router I have directly from an Internet connection. Hopefully Verizon will understand.

Update: [12/2/2012] it would appear that I may be completely wrong here.  The ActionTec router has a TR-069 capability which allows it to be controlled as part of a larger scale system for remote management of end-user devices. (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TR-069)


- LW

Have a new house router from Verizon

Well, Verizon sent me a new ActionTec MI424-WR Rev F router without me asking.  Their take was that my previous router (which I don't use at all any more) needed to be upgraded to take advantage of their new capabilities.  I read it as "we can control our routers so we can snoop on what you are doing."  The ActionTec router has some nice capabilities but with a 4 year old kernel (possible security problem here).  The only thing it can do outside of what my current setup can do is that the MOCA connection is built into the router and is version 1.1 (my current MOCA gateway is version 1.0) giving it both a WAN and LAN capability.  I was just about to toss it aside when I noticed that I can configure the ports for VLAN access and that has some merit with what I am trying to do.  I therefore have been busily modifying the network layout to accomodate the new ActionTec and at the same time do what I want to do with one and only one managed switch.  I don't know, maybe it would make life simpler if I had two managed switches here.  By making some connection changes I am able to free up some lines on the managed switch and still do what I want.  I think that I will try it with the ActionTec in the large bedroom downstairs and trunk it back to the managed switch from the router.  That will enable me to designate a couple of the ports for other things.  My only issue at this point is that I need to get the coax from one side of the wall to the other in order to accommodate the changes.  I think that I also might do something with my current Buffalo router that will give me extra capability to route traffic around the network since it is able to work with tagged vlans.  More later.

-- LW

Power Outage and HTPC

I did manage to loose power for about four hours on Monday night. I know because I was about to turn off the lights at 10 and the lights went out followed by my UPS on the Mac Mini beeping. I turned off the UPS and went to bed and was awoken by the lights coming on in the bedroom. Even though the HTPC was not on a UPS, it did survive the surge coming back on. I did have to restart the WMC however. I will make that the default that launches upon boot-up. I also need to change the HTPC to HDMI 1 so that the Plasma TV is tuned to it by default. These are little things that you don't necessarily think about until something happens to force your hand.


- LW

Works - with Some Issues

It would seem that the Atom based micro computer (HTPC) that I bought is going to work out okay. I have been able to stream from my HDHR Prime without any difficulty except for the occasional pixelated line on the screen which appears to be Verizon FIOS TV (because it occurs on other STBs in the house as well). I am able to stream tunes and video from the Mac Mini and that counts for a lot. The one issue seems to be hibernation, when I tell the HTPC to keep running, something eventually causes the video stream to not run after a long time. What I mean is that normally I turn off the Plasma screen TV and leave the HTPC running; but after I wake up and try to get the setup to work, I find that the HDMI signal is missing and the Plasma TV doesn't see a signal on the HDMI line. There doesn't appear to be a setting that I can use to get around it. Not sure what to do here.
- LW

Building an HTPC

Well, I ordered parts to build an HTPC and everything should be in by early next week.  I decided to go the "small" route rather than get a normal tower and piece it together.  So I ordered a ZBOX ID41-U, some memory (4GB DDR3 SO-DIMM), a SSD (64GB), a Logitech wireless keyboard, and an IR based media center remote control.  I will have to add a Windows 7 OS and get another 5 port 1GHz switch to complement the setup.  Last night I got the keyboard and SSD in a delivery and I hope to have the ZBOX and remote control delivered tonight.  The memory has been shipped but I don't expect it to arrive today since it is coming from a longer distance.

My main concern is to get the system set up like a STB using Windows Media Center to stream from my HDHomeRun Prime.  I already have an external USB DVD reader that I can plug in as necessary and I can stream content from the 3 TB drive on my Mac Mini.  For that matter I could stream DVD content from my Mini as well.

I was actually intrigued by the ZBOX specs (from the Amazon site):

• NVIDIA ION GPU (with 512MB DDR3 memory), Intel Atom D525 CPU (1.8 GHz, dual-core), Intel NM10 Express chipset
• 1 2.5-inch SATA 3.0 Gb/s hard drive connection, 2 204-pin DDR3-800 SO-DIMM slots
• HDMI (1080p with 8-channel audio), Dual-link DVI, HDCP compliant, VGA (with DVI-to VGA adapter), NVIDIA nView multi-display technology
• NVIDIA PureVideo HD technology, NVIDIA CUDA technology, Adobe Flash Player 10.1 acceleration, DirectX 10.1
• eSATA, 2 USB 3.0 ports, 2 USB 2.0 ports, 10/100/1000 Ethernet (RJ45), Digital S/PDIF output, Power connector
• Compatible, DirectCompute ready, OpenGL 3.2 compatible, OpenGL compatible, Integrated 802.11n WiFi
• Headphone/Audio out jack, Microphone jack, 6-in-1 Memory card reader (MMC/SD/SDHC/MS/MS Pro/xD), 1 USB 2.0 port

 It seems to have pretty good reviews, all except for the WiFi capability.  I don't know what the reviewers setup was that caused him to make that comment.  I do know that 802.11n is a little finicky in most situations and doesn't deal well with walls and they tell you to tilt one antenna to help with signal in a two story house situation.  That is pretty much why I have decided to have a full up 1GHz ethernet connection between the HDHomeRun Prime, the Mac Mini, and the ZBOX.  That way, the bits are pretty much delivered to the ZBOX, and it is up to the ZBOX to do something with them.  I have heard a number of good things about the Intel Atom and a dual-core processor would make the setup just that much better for my purposes.  The ZBOX is also a 7.5 by 7.5 by 2 inch box and comes with a mount for the back of a TV/Monitor.  This will definitely be a plus based upon where I want to mount it.

So the game is afoot.

-- LW

Added a Plasma TV - Now Got to Get Her Done

Well, I added a plasma 51" TV to the mix over the weekend.  I am also not going to be going back for a Verizon STB.  So, this means I have to get a Media Center up and running.  Over the weekend, I used my Laptop to show TV on the new set.  I also moved one of the Apple TVs upstairs to run on the new set.  I had to redo the ethernet wire coming through the wall in order for it to work correctly.  I was able to successfully get streaming to happen, including HDTV, into the set.  I want to duplicate the setup on a desktop, with wireless keyboard/mouse and IR remote control.

I discovered over the weekend that I needed to move the incoming router.  When I did this I ended up having to plug in the switch upstairs to the incoming router.  This is not an ideal situation but it is a temporary fix until I get another ethernet wire from the managed switch through the hole in the floor to the upstairs switch.  Networking is getting complicated in the house.

-- LW

A Little Router Conversion

After diagramming what I wanted to do in the network, I decided to change out the second and third routers (both Linksys WRT54GLs) from OpenWRT to DD-WRT.  I did this in order to remain compatible across all routers that I had in the house.  Also I wanted to learn something about setting up a router for vlans and multiple wireless SSIDs.  The conversion from OpenWRT to DD-WRT is simple, you download the appropriate dd-wrt binary and update the flash rom from the OpenWRT menu, reboot, press the reset switch for about 15 seconds and let the router boot up.  When the router comes up it will be a http://192.168.1.1 with a default password; then you log in and reset the parameters to your liking.

My requirements for the first of these routers are simple but will require a number of changes to the normal setup; most of the instructions for these can be found in the tutorials at http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Tutorials:

(1) I need port 1 to be a fall back in case I do something stupid, so no vlan

(2) I want port 2 to be the trunk port with vlans 5, 6, 8, and 9 tagged (802.1Q)

(3) I want port 3 to be vlan 6 with no tags [connect this to port 2]

(4) I want port 4 to be vlan 8 with no tags [connect this to port 2]

(5) I want vlan 5, 6, 8, and 9 to be separate from each other

(6) I want the wireless to come in on vlan 5 with no tags [connect this to port 2]

(7) Later on I want to have a separate wireless SSID on vlan 9 with no tags [connect to port 2]

(8) I will be using the router as a WAP, therefore the WAN port should be deactivated

First I activated the SSH server on the router and logged in as user.  I started off with setting up four new vlans numbered 5, 6, 8, and 9.  To do this you activate a hardware name:

root@DD-WRT:~# nvram show | grep vlan.*hwname

vlan1hwname=et0

size: 22970 bytes (9798 left)

vlan0hwname=et0

root@DD-WRT:~# nvram set vlan5hwname=et0

root@DD-WRT:~# nvram set vlan6hwname=et0

root@DD-WRT:~# nvram set vlan8hwname=et0

root@DD-WRT:~# nvram set vlan9hwname=et0

root@DD-WRT:~# nvram show | grep vlan.*hwname

vlan6hwname=et0

vlan9hwname=et0

vlan5hwname=et0

vlan1hwname=et0

vlan8hwname=et0

size: 23034 bytes (9734 left)

vlan0hwname=et0

Next, I change the port settings around so that ports are connected in a different arrangement.  The WRT54GL router has the ports numbered backwards according to the instructions on the DD-WRT site.  To start with, we associate ports with vlans:

root@DD-WRT:~# nvram show | grep vlan.*ports

vlan0ports=3 2 1 0 5*

vlan1ports=4 5

size: 23034 bytes (9734 left)

root@DD-WRT:~# nvram set vlan6ports="2t 1 5*"

root@DD-WRT:~# nvram set vlan8ports="2t 0 5*"

root@DD-WRT:~# nvram set vlan0ports="3 5*"

root@DD-WRT:~# nvram show | grep vlan.*ports

vlan6ports=2t 1 5*

vlan0ports=3 5*

vlan1ports=4 5

size: 23066 bytes (9702 left)

vlan8ports=2t 0 5*

Now we associate in the opposite direction to complete the setup:

root@DD-WRT:~# nvram show | grep port.*vlans

port5vlans=0 1 16

port3vlans=0 18 19

port1vlans=0 18 19

port4vlans=0 18 19

port2vlans=0 18 19

size: 23066 bytes (9702 left)

port0vlans=1 18 19

root@DD-WRT2:~# nvram set port5vlans="0 1 6 8 16"

root@DD-WRT2:~# nvram set port2vlans="6 8 16 18 19"

root@DD-WRT2:~# nvram set port3vlans="6 18 19"

root@DD-WRT2:~# nvram set port4vlans="8 18 19"

root@DD-WRT2:~# nvram show | grep port.*vlans

port5vlans=0 1 6 8 16

port3vlans=6 18 19

port1vlans=0 18 19

port4vlans=8 18 19

size: 23298 bytes (9470 left)

port2vlans=6 8 16 18 19

port0vlans=1 18 19

Lastly we do a commit and reboot the router.

root@DD-WRT:~# nvram commit

nvram_commit(): end

root@DD-WRT:~# reboot

At this point, we have the vlans on the correct ports but the connections are not correct to the trunk line.  A little more work is involved.

--LW

Well Fudge - My Router Doesnt Do Port VLANs

Ok, just went through some sites looking for solutions on how I can do a port - trunk metaphor with my Buffalo WZR-HP-G300NH router.  It turns out that because it uses an Atheros chipset, it doesn't have the ability to separate out the ports from one another.  So if I set up a tagged (802.1Q) vlan on one port, all of the ports will have the same tagging applied to them.  I wish I had known this when I first bought the router.

Now I have re-arranged my network setup to only have one port into the Buffalo router which will be trunk fed, i.e. all the packets will have tags.  I will also be able to have separate DHCP servers for each tagged vlan to put the addresses into separate subnets.  The other two routers I have are Linksys WRT54GLs which have Broadcom chipsets and will support the port - trunk metaphor.  They are 100MHz ethernet but that is less important in the lower portions of my network.  So with a little re-arrangement I have resolved the main issue.  Now I can use the Netgear managed switch to force my little vlans to appear.

-- LW

Tried Working with the New Switch

Ok, so I thought I understood the VLAN concept.  However, the description and setup on the new managed switch was different than what was described on the Buffalo router.  So in confusion, I have left the router and switch in the current state.  It is interesting to note that when I put the managed switch in place of the unmanaged 1GHz switch everything worked just fine.

I spent a good part of today figuring out what VLANs were going to what ports and where the trunking was going to take place.  It turns out that the easiest way to setup VLANs is to work with a port - trunk metaphor.  Trunks carry packets with VLAN tags and ports strip the tags off or put the tags on.  So the trunk carries more than one VLAN.  Anyway, that is how I learned it.

I need to go back and read the DD-WRT way of setting up VLANs to figure out how to set the switch up correctly.  Right now it doesn't appear too difficult as to how I will proceed once I understand the setups.

-- LW

Stuff for VLANs in the House

Ok, I think that I have figured out how to create some VLANs throughout the house.  I only need 3: one to mask off the MOCA gateway from the rest of the network [MOCA], a VLAN to constrain all Wireless connections (with a possibility of changing one MAC address to a different VLAN) [WIRELESS], and the third to be the main VLAN for personal stuff [PERS].

I also have some interesting requirements:

(1) the VPN needs to be able to get to the [PERS] VLAN for access.
(2) the HDHomeRun Prime needs to be able to spew forth on the [PERS] and the [WIRELESS] VLANs.
(3) I want to minimize the $$ outlay for any managed switches.

I found a managed switch (Netgear GS108T-220NAS)  at Staples for $109 that seems to be able to do the trick (1GHz).  I will be using the VLAN capability on the Buffalo (WZR-HP-G300NH) router (1GHz) and a corresponding VLAN capability on both of the OpenWRT routers (100MHz).  Other than that I need only the existing Cat-5 cable in the house.

--LW

Oops - Operator Error - Did Not Look at Examples

Over the weekend, I changed out the software on the router coming into my house. I was able to get Internet access working for all of the units in my house but was not able to get my VPN working correctly. I tried all kinds of things including restarting the router, restarting the VPN server, checking wires, etc. It wasn't until this morning that I figured it out.

In the setup for Port Forwarding, there was a entry in each port field asking for the source network. I just assumed that it meant WAN if I wanted the Internet. The field was there to limit the IP addresses to a certain range of values, not the overall VLAN name. It sometimes pays to look at the help files. In this case, nowhere in the documentation does it tell you that is what the field is for; glad I now know.

I updated the software to set up some VLANs running through the house and keep certain flows like TV STB flows from interacting with Wireless traffic and personal computer traffic.

Now I am onto getting the VLANs working


- LW

The iPhone 5 And My Resistance

Well, I want to buy an iPhone 5. Why? Because I currently have an iPhone 3GS and I want to upgrade. Notice I used the term "want" and not the term "need". My 3GS is working just fine but it is starting (ha, has been) to get slow in it's connection to the outside world. It is strange that I use the 3GS more for looking things up than I use it for making phone calls. I am a little resistant to taking on the i5 right now because of some of the issues that have been noted: Maps, availability, and picture quality. I also have the little issue of an unlimited data plan with AT&T that I want to keep. I will probably be grandfathered into my old plan so I am a little less concerned. I use Google Maps a lot and that along with the lead times to get a new phone are keeping me from going to my local AT&T store to sign up for another 2 year period. I have had this same account since Cingular gave me my first Nokia back in the day many years ago.

I have decided that I will wait until Apple gets the lead time down to available now. Might not happen before Christmas but it does teach me patience.


- LW

Mountain Lion and an Update on the 3TB Drive

I finally went from Lion to Mountain Lion on the Mac Mini server. First off, it cost me extra money even though I got the system in January. I had to fork over $20 for Mountain Lion and an extra $20 for OS X Server through the App store. There were a couple of tweaks that I needed to do, most notably making the DNS point to my house router instead of a generic address that the server chose. Other than that, the update went without a hitch.

Low and behold, when I rebooted the system I could access the 3TB drive via file sharing using SMB. Also, the VNC started working again. So maybe $40 wasn't that bad of an investment. Next up, I will probably move the DHCP server to the Mac Mini as well.


- LW

Mountain Lion Server

Oops, I almost upgraded my Lion Server to Mountain Lion without checking to see what differences there were. So far I have found two inconsistencies: the blogs seem to indicate that there is no DHCP server (Apple seems to indicate that there is one, should look at the errata) and you have to load Mountain Lion, followed by OS X Server (for a total of $40). I have the money for the latter issue, but I want to make sure that I am not doing something completely stupid before my purchase. Interestingly enough, it would seem that Apple left out the DNS server as well. Maybe they left out the user interface to DHCP and DNS and you have to do it from the command line. More study with a lot of not available time.


- LW

Whats with my new drive?

Well, I have a 3TB Seagate drive that I purchased a couple of weeks ago and up until this morning, I have not tried loading the software from it. I tried this morning and it failed to install. Curious, I followed the directions to the letter and it issued a failure message. I'm not sure if it is because the File Server is trying to use it, or exactly what is going on here. I will look at the Seagate website to see if others have had this problem.


- LW

Project #6 - Configure OpenWRT on a Router

My Buffalo router (running DD-WRT) is currently being used as a Wireless Access Port.  I would like to have this router changed over to OpenWRT and make it the incoming router for the home network.  In addition, since the router has a USB port, and I can add a USB drive, I would like to take advantage of the forked-daapd addin which would turn the router into an iTunes network audio server.

Project #5 - Configure MythTV to access Plex

Configure a desktop system to plug into my TV downstairs to serve as an HDHomeRun Prime client, probably Windows 7 WMC or Ubuntu running MythTV.  The difficulty with this approach is that there is no easy remote control for the set without investing in some IR based control.

OBE

Project #4 - Plex Client / Server on Raspberry Pi

Get a Raspberry PI and configure it to run a Plex client and maybe later on get it to run as an HDHomeRun Prime client.

OBE

Project #3 - Media vlan through the house

Run two to three virtual lans through the house to separate out the media related services from the day-to-day internet usage on laptops and iOS devices.

New Projects for the Home Network

I have been musing about projects for a while now.  I should buckle down and complete some.  I have been thinking of some new projects to spend time on:

(1) My Buffalo router (running DD-WRT) is currently being used as a Wireless Access Port.  I would like to have this router changed over to OpenWRT and make it the incoming router for the home network.  In addition, since the router has a USB port, and I can add a USB drive, I would like to take advantage of the forked-daapd addin which would turn the router into an iTunes network audio server.

(2) Configure a desktop system to plug into my TV downstairs to serve as an HDHomeRun Prime client, probably Windows 7 WMC or Ubuntu running MythTV.  The difficulty with this approach is that there is no easy remote control for the set without investing in some IR based control.

(3) Get a Raspberry PI and configure it to run a Plex client and maybe later on get it to run as an HDHomeRun Prime client.

(4) Run two to three virtual lans through the house to separate out the media related services from the day-to-day internet usage on laptops and iOS devices.

Sounds like a challenge.

LW

Media Center Thingies

So here I am, an Apple TV upstairs and a Roku downstairs, Plex Media Server and iTunes running on the Mac Mini downstairs. I am a little frustrated that manufacturers want to have it all to themselves and not let individuals have a choice in how they view their media. Well, now I can watch the audio and video that I have stored away on the Mac Mini, but right now I have duplicate files on the system. I am not exactly sure of how PMS and iTunes will play together. I do know that I can let PMS access the iTunes library so that is one way of reducing the amount of files available. Right now I have 3TB of storage to do my thing, but I am the type of person that watches how much data I store since I have been burned in the past.

I am seriously thinking of moving the desktop system from upstairs to downstairs and plugging it into the HDTV. In that way, I should be able to use WMC to play the TV channels from the HDHomeRun Prime. Such a simple idea and yet to get it to work, it causes great grief. Not sure what the next round of experiments will bring.


- LW

Thinking Differently about Home Media Servers

Since last post, I have been on a quest to direct myself on what other tidbits need to be added to my home network.  I was pleasantly surprised to find that TV Streamer/GoodPlayer App combo on my iPad is actually able to stream an HD TV program from the HDHomeRun Prime.  That means that the HDHomeRun App by Elgato will probably be eliminated from my iPad 2.  It doesn't make any sense to have more than one App to perform a function especially if the second App not only performs the functions of the first but exceeds it in many ways.  The GoodPlayer App actually has some other capabilities that I had not explored previously.  So I consider it worth the extra money.  So now I have pretty much full up streaming to my iPad 2, at least until Verizon changes their CableCard policies (got wind of that one with a letter from them about some coming changes affecting CableCards).  So far, the TV programs that I like can be watched where I like on the iPad.  It would really make it a whole lot simpler and obviate the need for all these network changes if I could just stream to anything from any STB or DVR like a number of competitors do.

I am currently paying about $170 a month (1 STB and 1 DVR with no movie channels) for TV / Internet [25/25] / Telephone.  That is a big hunk of change and as the economy starts changing more, I will be looking for ways to cut that amount down.  I typically get into these things for the long haul until the company does something that causes me to leave.  That's what happened with our subscription to Cox Communications - they didn't have some of the niceties that Verizon FIOS did.  However, speaking from experience, Verizon is in the business of making money and I have noticed a definite cost per month creep that is just about to the tilt point of $175.  It won't matter that they have a blue zillion channels or have really top of the line data speeds if I can't afford it.  I don't have movie channels because I already have a stash of DVDs at home and I rent DVDs.  I don't stream from Netflix anymore because I found myself not interested in what movies they did have to offer.  I don't use video on demand because its an additional cost that I am not willing to pay.  I am not interested in going to see latest releases multiple times because I am pretty much a see it one time person, unless I really like the movie then I will buy a DVD.  I rip my DVDs so that it is easier to pull them up and watch them in my house using Plex Media Server / Windows Media Center / iTunes, and no I don't loan my ripped DVD files to anyone - so don't go around and accuse me of being a pirate just because I want convenience.  This constant push to charge for every view of a movie is for the birds.  The big houses are wondering why they are not getting customers at the movie houses it's because of the cost of going there.

My real desire is to be able to get to my TV and movies from any TV or computer in the house with a minimum of cost and do it while learning a little about media streaming.

Decided to go Down the Apple Rabbit Hole Again

Yesterday, while the power was out in various parts of the county, I went with the family to one of our local malls. The mall has an Apple store in it and while the others were occupied, I went in with my grandson. While in the store, I asked one of the employees whether I could stream a non-iTunes purchased video from iTunes to the Apple TV. His response was that it had to be a purchased item from the iTunes store. So I put the Apple TV back on the shelf and walked out the door - I don't feel like re-purchasing things that I already have in my library.
While outside, my grandson hinted that I had not phrased the question correctly. Brilliant! So he and I talked for a few minutes about the wording and we went back in the store. I then asked a different employee if I ripped a DVD that was in my library to a form which could be imported to iTunes, if I then could stream that movie from my Mac Mini to the Apple TV through my home network. I then got a positive response to my question. I then decided to purchase the Apple TV (ATV), the newest version (can't jailbreak it yet).
My motive for doing this is twofold, I want to stream movies I have already ripped and I want to be able to stream to the Apple TV from my iPad. When I got the ATV home, I unboxed it and tried it out one my TV downstairs by following the instructions on the enclosed booklet.
It was an easy install, I unplugged the STB and plugged the HDMI cable into the Apple TV. By simply following the instructions on the screen, including the part about connecting to the wi-fi with my password, I was soon able to get the ATV up and running. I then located the "Computer" block on the front screen. When this was selected, I was asked to enter my AppleID and password. Apparently, Apple does it's home streaming based on a common AppleID rather than a specific IP address. I am not doing anything illegal here so I went with the flow. The ATV then instructed me to set up home serving on iTunes with my AppleID. I then went and booted iTunes up with a new configuration file (press option while launching iTunes), did an add of all media that I had, set the home streaming bit on (from the menu), and made sure I was using the same AppleID that I put into the ATV. Once that was complete I was able to link into the library that I had created and stream pictures, audio, and video from my library.
Other things I learned:
1. Leave iTunes running because it breaks the connection. There does not seem to be a way of keeping the streaming running without a copy of iTunes running.
2. In order to stream to the ATV, the format must be either mp4 or m4v.
3. Do not make the mistake of pointing to all material because if it gets to some TV rips, it will place the contents into the movie category, not the TV category - should probably look to see what format is required.
4. You will need to spend some time getting the cover art and movie metadata squared away.
Other than that, once I get a remote controlled HDMI switch I will be all set on the downstairs TV.
- LW

Got a little ambitious with WMC

Well, I am on vacation for a few days. My granddaughter is graduating high school tomorrow. While I am out, I thought I might try to use a WMC to power my HDTV. I chanced upon a USB to VGA/DVI/HDMI converter in a Micro Center near me. I am thinking that the problem that I was having with setting up a Windows 7 computer to get it to authenticate with my HDHome Run Prime may be solved. I will try to get the Windows 7 system to use the new adapter as the primary display. The motherboard in the system is pretty old, but still has some life left in it. It should be powerful enough to crunch through the video feed. All it is doing is passing the video feed on to the HDTV. We shall see.


- LW

Frustrating ... Still No HDHomeRun Prime with Roku

Ok, back to figuring out the HDHomeRun Prime using Plex issue.  I have a Plex Client on Roku and I was hoping to be able to flow the TV stations to my Roku from the Plex Media Server running on my Mac Mini.  To repeat, I can watch TV from the HDHomeRun Prime from my Windows 7 Laptop Plex Client connection and from my Mac Mini Client connection.  I cannot get the feed via either the Roku Client or the iOS Client.  In addition, I have only been able to set up about 30 channels so far.  I am really stuck on this one.  I am able to play videos and other plug in outputs using the Roku and iOS clients but not the output from the HDHomeRun Prime plugin.  I will do some more experiments to see if there is a way to accomplish this.

I Need a Decent Journal - Time Keeping App

Do you have a Status Report that you have to deliver to several different customers during the week, each status being delivered on separate days?  It seems like all of the Apps available for iOS either allow you to collect time, collect journal information, but not both at the same time.  I need an App that does the time clock thing, but allows me to enter journal information on what I have been working on (sort of like GTD sub-projects) during that time period and then click on a different task and start timing for it.  When I want to generate a report to turn in for status purposes, I need to gather the information based on a time period with time collected and journaling information embeded.  I can't seem to find something to meet that need.  Maybe I will have to roll my own.

Updates over the air

Ok, I finally bit the bullet and allowed my iPhone 3GS and iPad 2 to update to iOS 5.1.1 over iCloud.  What is interesting is that the way Apple has engineered the experience is that you first see a Medalion over the Settings App.  So, out of curiosity you open the Settings App and discover that the General Settings has the number one next to the name.  Upon clicking on General you will see a number one next to the "Software Update" line.  Clicking on this will bring you to the Software Update page and a button that says Update Now.  You will also notice that the update has already been downloaded and the size is displayed.  When you click on the Update Now button, the system will go through the normal process of checking the download, unpacking the download, and then installing the download.  A few minutes later and it is ready to go.  Both devices went without a hitch.

You might be wondering why I haven't tried this before.  It's because I have always been afraid of loosing connection while the download is happening and not being able to recover.  That is why I have always done the iTunes route, which by the way I do not feel is intrusive.  I will still use the Mac Mini to run iTunes as a backup plan.  I don't plan on using iCloud to do my backups as my devices all have different loads of music, apps, etc.  In fact, my iPhone is 16GB and my iPad is 64GB.  The iPad would definately not fit on the iPhone.  I am waiting for the iPhone "5" or whatever they are going to call it to come out and then I will upgrade.  I have the old grandfathered unlimited data and I refuse to give that up.  Yep, I still use ATandT for cell phone service.  It's not as good as Cingular was but I have had the account for many years and some good bennies to boot.

Why is it not possible to Airplay to an iOS device?

Ok, in the world of things that go bump in the night. Why can't I do some Airplay kinds of things from my Mac to my iPad? I mean as an integral part of the operating system and not with some special set of programs like Air Video. I found out that I can put an Air Video App on my iPad and load an Air Video server on my Mac and that will stream video to my iPad from the Mac, but it doesn't integrate with other applications and it has a proprietary streaming function, so it really isn't Airplay. What is up with that?


- LW

Was able to get Airplay working

Ok, thank goodness for small victories. I was able to get Airplay working on my new coffee table laptop. I bought a program called Aerodrom and loaded it onto my laptop. I initially had a great many problems with Symantec until I disabled it for 15 minutes while I installed. It seems that one of the items in the installer is a dll that is packed and Symantec doesn't like it. Symantec wants to be able to scan a dll as it is installed to avoid a package putting something malicious into the system. It turns out that after installation, Symantec recognizes the dll as being okay, it just needs to not be allowed to interfere with the installation.

I was able to launch Aerodrom and found that it allows me to stream both my iPhone 3GS and my iPad 2. It doesn't give the ability to duplicate the screen from the iPad 2 but at least a lot of the apps will stream Airplay wise to it. I found that Aerodrom does have some hiccups in starting however. I still have to figure out what is causing that to happen. It may be some settings with Bonjour, which has to be on the laptop in order to work. I was also successful in playing something using the Plex client on my iPad 2 and having it show up on the laptop. This means that I can stream from my Plex Media Server to the iPad2 and then to the laptop. I think that I might invest in an AppleTV now that I know that the Plex client will stream. Oh well, more tests are in order. Now if I can just get some time with the laptop when my granddaughter is not doing homework.


- LW

What is the next great project?

I still have much work to complete the network Media Server as I have seen it. I need to ensure that my iPad is able to stream the HD content from my new HDHomeRun Prime. Right now, I am limited to the non-HD channels via the 3rd party HDHomeRun app. I am still unable to stream TV content through my PLEX client. Strangely enough this doesn't bother me so much since I do have a streaming capability on the new coffee table Laptop that I bought about two weeks ago. I updated the PLEX media server version last night and over the weekend I converted some more DVDs to digital form for streaming. I am still not at the point where the wife is using the Roku to get her DVD content (we have been concentrating most of our time helping the granddaughter do her homework at night). So things to be accomplished include:
1. get more DVDs from the library converted to digital form on the PMS
2. figure out how to stream the HDHomeRun Prime to the Roku via PLEX client
3. figure out how to stream TV content to the iPad via PLEX client
4. check out the output of the new coffee table Laptop on the living room HDTV
5. look into getting a new Roku if #1 and #2 pan out
6. possibly get rid of the second STB if #2 and #5 pan out


- LW

Added some Microsoft Office to the Mix

As much as I hate to say it, business runs on Microsoft Office. Are there better products out there that don't cost as much? Depends on what you need to do. So many people use Microsoft Office to do their writing and spreadsheet work that they typically assume that it is the only product available. Libre Office is coming into it's own. However, in order to remain compatible with my work situation, I purchased a copy of Office 2010. I got a really good deal primarily because it was purchased through a deal made with my work. I was able to get most of the packages that I use on a daily if not weekly basis. I am missing Visio and Project, but I really don't necessarily need them for home use since I bring my work laptop home every night.

Having Office at home allows me to now move some personal things that I had on my work laptop to my new big screen laptop. I may actually use my work laptop less and less. Go figure.


- LW

I changed out some things in the home network

I don't know if I have made a mistake or not. I decided to get a HDHomeRun Prime (HRP) and put it into my network. What I found out is that Windows Media Center under Windows7 is very picky about video cards. In fact, when the video card did not match it's minimum requirements for HD TV it refused to allow me to authenticate the CableCard in the HRP. What I ended up doing to get the CableCard activated was to log on to the HRP via Internet Explorer and get the values that were shown. Then I logged into Verizon and authenticated the card online with that information. Once I did that, I was able to access the HRP video stream on my Mac Mini using the PLEX Media Server.

Unfortunately, I discovered two problems with this approach; the URL information that came from the HRP folk was pretty much incomplete for my area and the stream locked itself to the Mac Mini PLEX client. I was unable to get the stream to happen on my iPad2 with it's PLEX client, although I was able to receive the stream with the HRP app that a 3rd party had developed. Maybe I should look into making my own iPad2 app because this 3rd party app does not provide a stream from the HD side of things. This is because the H.264 video is not native to the iPad2. I am pretty sure that the processor in the iPad2 would be able to handle the stream and I have sufficient bandwidth on my home network to receive the signal.

I did go out and buy a Windows Media Laptop this last weekend. It has an i7 processor (quad core) with 8GB ram and a 750GB hard drive along with a 17.3" diagonal screen. This laptop weighs about 6.5 pounds and is huge. I was able to get Windows Media Center on it to authenticate to the CableCard and be able to play back TV on pretty much any channel that I normally receive on Verizon FIOS. I did discover that it un-authenticated from the CableCard after some Windows7 patches were applied and I was using the HRP from other devices in the house. But, I was still able to receive the TV signals just fine even though it repeatedly wants me to re-authenticate the CableCard. What is up with that? More about this mystery later.


- LW

Project #2 - Replacing WMC with HDHomeRun Prime

I have decided to replace the Windows Media Center with an HDHomeRun Prime in order to start weaning myself away from my current dependence on ISP video converters.

I have been updating my home network

I added a Mac Mini Lion server to my home network over the holidays. My main goal was to have a computer that I could plug into the TV in the living room. I thought the mini would be ideal because it's small and can be easily hidden behind the HDTV. The only thing showing would be the bluetooth keyboard on the coffee table. I haven't told the wife yet because I'm still getting it to where I want it to be. I am running VMWare Fusion and have a stack for Windows 7, Ubuntu, and a combo stack for Trac/Subversion for when I get really going on the iPad development. I originally had the mini behind a second router in the basement, but I was having problems with IpSec VPN logins from the outside. I have since decided that it was due to some configuration issues, i.e., IP address masking. The only difficulty that I have come across so far is an inability to load TurboTax on the Windows 7 stack. This seems to be a known problem with the Intuit line of products that make changes to the boot sector of drives and other places to protect their "intellectual property". The attempt to load the software caused some permission and ownership changes throughout my mini that kept vMWare from executing properly. I refuse to load TurboTax on my mini directly, knowing that it will damage my system. So the load goes onto an old laptop until tax time is over. If there were another equivalent program I would change to it in a heartbeat. Intuit sucks!!!!


- LW

Project #1 - Adding a Macintosh Server to the Network

I decided to add a Macintosh Server to my Network.  The thought was to be able to connect the Server to one of my televisions to be able to serve up media.

Linux Weenie is going live!

Strangely enough, after all of this time, I thought that I would bring back the blog that I originally started to write over a couple of years ago. I have since gone on to more specialized blogs on other topics. This blog will be a place that I can post information about technology, my work aspirations, my home life, and other things that most people will find interesting but just so so. Hopefully, this will change in the future as I get into the habit of putting things up on the screen.