Clockfort's Tech Blog

So, I successfully managed to broadcast a “cshnowires-psk” network from my makeshift router. However, the encryption of the tunnel between the networks is NOT making my router’s 200MHz MIPS CPU happy – in fact, it’s maxing out at around 50KB/s with a strong wind behind the back of the bits.

Looks like I’ll have to have a Real Machine (TM) to do the encrypt/decrypt of network traffic so I can see an actual 100mbit link. It’s not so bad, really; I think I’ll kill two birds with one stone and create a media center/VPN gateway box out of an old machine (A P4) using linux, mythtv, and either vpnc or openvpn.

OpComm got some new sexy items in this week – we now have a pair of 1000LX/LH SFPs (one a cisco official, and one a clone) which we’ll be able to use to patch a line from South network to North network. Now, all I need to get in are some meter-long single mode fiber patch cables, and those two Cisco Catalyst 2960G-24TC switches we ordered, and we’re in business. :-)

On a related note, I’m swaaaaamped with work, both thanks to RIT and due to my incremental upgrades to get everything ready for the big move to gigabit, plus an unexpected power outage that temporarily sent the server room back into the stone age.

OpComm got some new goodies in the mail today! 9 dual-gigabit PCI-X HP (Intel-chipset) server NICs for $5/each on ebay? Win.

It’s all part of OpComm’s current maniacal plans to upgrade the network (including uplinks to the internet) to gigabit speeds… and beyond!