I've been out of the loop over the holidays

Sorry for not posting since the end of November.  I have been busy with home life and work and have not had a chance to get back to this blog.  New posts to come shortly.

I now have a personal cloud device in the home network

I just purchased a Western Digital My Cloud drive (3TB) and added it to my network in the Pers vlan.  Right up front I can say that I am very pleased with this drive and how it operates.  The My Cloud drive has a 1GB Ethernet port and a USB 3.0 port on the back.  The 1GB Ethernet gives the drive plenty of flexibility to stream media content within the house, so I am planning on using it to host both video and audio files for use throughout.  I have also connected a 4TB backup drive to the USB 3.0 port on the back, giving a total of 7TB of storage.

I was able to get the drive up and running through the WD website for use with my iOS apps.  The 4TB drive shows up as a share on the drive, which is perfect.  Unfortunately, my work network's proxy server doesn't recognize the WD website, so I had to go through our guest wireless to test out general access via PC from work.  I was able to log into the WD website and select one of the shares to be opened in Windows Explorer, and it came right up.  So that is an interesting way to interface to the drive from the outside.  It appears that Western Digital did their homework.

The problem that I am currently facing is that the My Cloud drive is on my Pers vlan while the media components (that would make use of the video and audio file storage) are on the Media vlan.  At the moment I am in the process of setting up an Ubuntu VM to be the router between the Pers and Media vlans.  My constraints are as follows:

• Use Shorewall firewall on Ubuntu VM to do routing; propose using Media and Pers zones; connection is via the vlans that were created on the Thunderbolt interface.  These show up as different ethX devices in the Ubuntu VM
• Using 1 to 1 NAT, present the Mac Mini and the My Cloud drive on the Media vlan with Media vlan IPs
• Setup firewall to allow connection to iTunes protocol, AFS protocol, SMB protocol, and http protocol on the My Cloud drive from Media vlan
• Setup firewall to allow connection to iTunes protocol, AFS protocol on the Mac Mini from Media vlan

More later.

Some Thoughts on a Remote Wireless Access Device

The thought occurred to me today that I might want to set up a version of the RPi Router that would be able to be an extension of my home system.  What I want to do is take the RPi Router into my office at work, turn it on, and have it use the same SSID, but via an SSH tunnel, go into my system at home.  I would need to be able to:

1. Use dual wi-fi access, provide a connection to the work wi-fi network (with auto authentication) and provide the same SSID as my home.  Not sure if I need two USB wi-fi dongles or not.
2. The connection should use an SSH tunnel which is kept up in the background, allowing me to use any of the systems that I have in my house.
3. Somehow, this RPi Router should provide a DHCP forwarding from my house to whatever device hooks into the router.  I may be able to use my new FVS318N router to accomplish some of this, since it does provide VPN capabilities (in case I cannot get the SSH tunnel to do it).  An RPi based VPN for using the FVS318N anyone?
4. Should be plug and play, i.e. put in the SD card and plug in the RPi to get it to function.  Wishing for the moon at the same time.

This obviously is a variation on some of the 1-Port Router ideas that I have had in the past.

Got in the new RFDuino

I received my incentive from the RFDuino kick starter program. I sincerely hope that the individual who started this is successful. This is a quality piece of work. I can't wait to try it out.

Issue with the FVS318N Router

I am slowly learning how to incorporate the FVS318N.  However, now I discover that there is apparently no way to setup VLAN to VLAN rules.  The router gives you the ability to make some rules for LAN to WAN, LAN to DMZ, and DMZ to WAN, but no LAN to LAN (or in my case VLAN to VLAN).  I did discover that there is a CLI (command line interface document that details some newer aspects of the router, but a cursory look into the command set did not give me the impression that there was a way to setup LAN to LAN rules.

My main motivation in setting up the LAN to LAN rules is to allow the Media VLAN to be able to access the Plex server running on my Mac Mini which is on a completely separate VLAN.  In addition to that, I use the Mac Mini as the main workstation for modifying the routers and switches in my home network.  Yea, I know, way too much - but I enjoy doing what I do.  I was thinking that I might try my hand at setting up either a Raspberry Pi router or setup a VM on the Mac Mini to do the routing.  What would be perfect is if I could do it on the new FVS318N.  This router will be able to replace about 3 devices if I succeed. 

Update: I figured out that if I use a "1 to 1 NAT" from a router, I can have an IP show up in one VLAN from a device resident in another VLAN with a different IP.  I am currently working the issue using a VM on the Mac Mini to do the routing with Shorewall.  Once I get that up and running, I will transfer it to a Raspberry Pi router which will be on all the time.

Found an interesting thing while using one of my routers

This weekend while fooling around with one of my routers, I chanced to put the WAN input of the main router onto my DMZ vlan.  I was able to have a full connection to the outside after I got rid of the first ethernet cable that I was using (it did not register as being connected).  When I connected the main router to my DMZ vlan, I noticed that I had a GHz connection (thanks to the GBit switch that I was using) and I was able to connect to the outside with no apparent slowdown of the speed.

I still have an issue though, because I set up the ActionTec router to route specific ports to my main router.  However, with this new connection, I have a means of controlling pretty much everything in the house.  I was wondering how I might fit my new FVS318N router into the mix.  Originally, I was going to put it upstairs and replace 3 devices (my main router, the upstairs switch and the router I use with the media vlan downstairs).  The media vlan router is connected into the DMZ vlan in the downstairs bedroom.  I was going to use the FVS318N to replace it as I could set up multiple dhcp servers, each tuned to a separate vlan.  This has been the issue throughout my house as I expand the capabilities of my setup.

Sounds like I need to explore a little more of what vlans can do for me.

Portable Pi Project - Part #1

Well I now have some challenges ahead of me. I have decided that I need to make a portable RPi layout for testing. The idea is to bring it in to work to have around during lunchtime, when I get a chance to eat a bowl of soup. I figure if I put an RPi, hub, battery, various USB devices, external wifi adapters, the RPi camera, etc. on a sheet of Lexan I can make good use of it. This will allow me to code and test out some projects while being able to put the RPi into my bag in the morning.
I think that putting the equipment between two sheets of Lexan, with enough standoffs, I should be far enough along. The real problem is the orientation of the peripheral ports. I need to get to the USB, Ethernet, HDMI, SD card slot and maybe the GPIO from the side of the setup. The SD card slot is needed to change out different experiment setups. The others are self explanatory.
If I get it tied down enough with a sufficiently narrow width, it should work.
Update:  I purchased two 8x10 sheets of Lexan from my local Home Depot, along with 6 - 1" plastic standoffs, 4 rubber feet, and mounting hardware.  I wasn't able to find M3 screws or nuts but I did have some that I purchased at a different time.  It turns out that 6-32 will not fit into the mounting holes of the RPi, but M3 will.  I was able to take 1/2" standoffs and cut them in half with a PVC pipe cutter (does a really good job BTW). I mounted the RPi in one corner with the power and SD card slot about 1/4" from the edge; this has the SD card sticking out when it is mounted, but makes it easy to change out.  I wanted to be able to get to the SD card slot for changing the peripheral.  Now my issue is mounting of the other elements.  I figure that I should take apart the USB hub and that should make it easier to mount in the shell.  The current state of the configuration is shown in the following picture.

I am planning on mounting the USB Hub in the center of the left side in the photo (the case for the USB Hub has been removed). The battery will be mounted on the bottom.  I will also mount a USB-WiFi adapter with antenna at the top.  In addition, I will probably mount either an Arduino and/or a USB-Audio adapter on the left.  That should cover me for most applications.  I would assume that I would attach the Logitech keyboard USB dongle on the right side of the USB Hub.

Mounting for the battery and other components has been somewhat of an issue. I would like to be able to remove the battery at times since I also use it with a robot and it also acts as an emergency iPhone battery recharger. I would like to get a clamp type mechanism but I am not sure where I would find such an animal or what it even looks like. Looks like a trip to Home Depot / Loews is in order here.