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