Thursday, January 1, 2015
Political correctness...
Political correctness... Sometimes I run across an instance of progressive (it's always progressives!) political correctness that just leaves me with my mouth gaping. Here's another one: a major publisher (Harper Collins) prints an atlas with Israel simply left out. It shows Jordan and Syria extending all the way to the Mediterranean.
I always thought the entire idea of an atlas was to graphically depict reality. The current reality is, undeniably, that Israel exists. That reality really doesn't seem likely to change anytime soon.
Somewhere George Orwell is laughing...
I always thought the entire idea of an atlas was to graphically depict reality. The current reality is, undeniably, that Israel exists. That reality really doesn't seem likely to change anytime soon.
Somewhere George Orwell is laughing...
Progress report...
Progress report... Yesterday was “the day of the network” around here. I'm in the process of bringing up a network that is capable of handling both clients and servers in two buildings (our home and our barn), with a decent firewall, WiFi over the better part of an acre (between the two buildings), and the ability to connect over point-to-point links to several locations where I will want remote sensors (spring, well house, greenhouse, weather station, cameras, etc., etc.).
My network design includes two routers (identical MikroTik RB2011UIAS-IN units), three WiFi access points (provided by TrendNet TEW-812DRU units), two 20 port switches (using Cisco SG300-20 units), and a cable modem for our Comcast connection (which may not be a permanent arrangement (a Arris TG862G unit). The point-to-point links will come up later; I'm planning to implement those with various pieces of Ubiquiti kit – highly recommended by a friend who runs a wireless ISP and won't use anything else. The only one of these I was familiar with was the Cisco switch; everything else I needed to learn.
Yesterday I brought up the MikroTik routers and the TrendNet WiFi routers. In both cases I used nothing but the web configuration GUIs, and in both cases it was quite straightforward. The MikroTik's capabilities are particularly impressive – at 10x the price I'd still be impressed, but for sub-$200 it borders on incredible. I struggled for a while because I'm so used to Cisco's IOS that I couldn't believe configuration of the MikroTik could be as simple and straightforward as it was. Cisco has built a substantial business around training and certifying IOS experts. MikroTik seems to take another approach: let's make it so easy that even a complete idiot could do this. I like MikroTik's approach :)
Today I'm bringing up the Cisco switches. I'm going to configure them to have two completely separated VLANs (no routing between them on the switch) so that I can control all the routing on the MikroTik routers (where it's far easier). Hopefully that won't prove to be too difficult. I've already got console connectivity, which is a prerequisite that has been challenging in the past. This time it was easy :)
My network design includes two routers (identical MikroTik RB2011UIAS-IN units), three WiFi access points (provided by TrendNet TEW-812DRU units), two 20 port switches (using Cisco SG300-20 units), and a cable modem for our Comcast connection (which may not be a permanent arrangement (a Arris TG862G unit). The point-to-point links will come up later; I'm planning to implement those with various pieces of Ubiquiti kit – highly recommended by a friend who runs a wireless ISP and won't use anything else. The only one of these I was familiar with was the Cisco switch; everything else I needed to learn.
Yesterday I brought up the MikroTik routers and the TrendNet WiFi routers. In both cases I used nothing but the web configuration GUIs, and in both cases it was quite straightforward. The MikroTik's capabilities are particularly impressive – at 10x the price I'd still be impressed, but for sub-$200 it borders on incredible. I struggled for a while because I'm so used to Cisco's IOS that I couldn't believe configuration of the MikroTik could be as simple and straightforward as it was. Cisco has built a substantial business around training and certifying IOS experts. MikroTik seems to take another approach: let's make it so easy that even a complete idiot could do this. I like MikroTik's approach :)
Today I'm bringing up the Cisco switches. I'm going to configure them to have two completely separated VLANs (no routing between them on the switch) so that I can control all the routing on the MikroTik routers (where it's far easier). Hopefully that won't prove to be too difficult. I've already got console connectivity, which is a prerequisite that has been challenging in the past. This time it was easy :)
Happy New Year!
Happy New Year! The past few years, every New Year Day I have the same thought: this new year (2015 now) sounds like something I've read in a science fiction novel. This year I had another thought: the year I was born sounds like something I've read in a history book.
Gulp...
Gulp...
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