I never really realized how cheap mainstream computer parts are now adays. After a bit of looking I’ve decided to go ahead and upgrade my web server to a Intel Q6600 with 4GB of ram, with the possible upgrade to 8GB. This only costs a little over $300. Parts list with links after the break.
When I upgraded the main switch on the network in order to support multiple internet addressable web servers I noticed that whichever system I connected first could access the internet while the following ones couldn’t. I decided to call Cox’s support line to see what the proper procedure was for using multiple IP addresses. As it turns out the less-than-intelligent person who installed my modem did not set it up to use multiple IP addresses (nor did he know that I was receiving a business connection instead of a residential connection). The tech support agent figured the problem out and resolved the issue very quickly. I should have my secondary server up and running within a week.
Due to popular request I have decided to re-install a gallery system onto my webserver so that friends can upload their pictures to my server. If you would like access to post pictures, let me know and I’ll hook you up.
What are the odds of the following: My friend and I doing major upgrades to my home network and then 30 minutes later Cox upgrading their systems to support higher speeds and killing my connection. The total downtime for my website amounts to 3 hours.
Seriously, this happened.
When I was frantically running around my house at 1am trying to get the website back online I eventually wound up disconnecting everything and connecting my laptop directly to the cable modem. I was able to connect. I thought that was odd and so I decided to run a speed test. The results: 30mbs download and 2.5 mbs upload. The download speed was almost as high as a DS3. That’s insane. After two hours of troubleshooting the internet connection once again cooperated with my LAN and business as usual resumed. (so much for getting my normal amount of sleep).
What I figured happened is that Cox rolled out updates to their infrastructure once again without so much as a warning email. This is the second time this has happened to me. The upgrades aren’t the issue, it’s the fact that they don’t tell anyone that irritates me. My connections speeds (after I burn out the ‘power boost’) is a very healthy 10mbs down and 2 mbs down (aka exactly what I am paying for).
I’m now going to call it a night and let my body rest so I can wake up sometime tomorrow (morning?).
I’ve upgraded the main switch in my server closet to the Cisco 48 port that I had laying around (I’ll finally get some use out of it now). I wanted to use VLANs so that I could have both internet facing and local networks separate if I wanted to, as well as possible VLANs for wireless network traffic. The website was down for about 3 minutes while I made the switch. This is actually one of the smoothest upgrades I’ve had in a long time. I setup all of the settings on the Cisco switch while I was at my desktop, shutdown the switch, carried it to my server closet, powered of the old one, slid it out and then slid the Cisco in. After plugging all of the cables in I was back in business. I’ll post a video of my current network if I get around to it.
I’ve set up a page on my server to host video for the Edison High School Marching Band. I’ve set it up so that it has links to Youtube in order to stream content to a web browser and also has links to download the file directly from my server to save to your local computer.
For real this time, the site is up and running. After several times of switching back and forward, I’m back to using wordpres. I figured out the permalink error and now have it working properly. Now I should be running wordpress for the forseeable future.
