Last year, I wrote about cancelling my home phone line with our local provider and replacing this home service using the wonderful “PBX in a Flash” software on a server located in my house. The original article details the process and hardware utilized. Of coarse, the overall goal of this project is to cut home phone service costs, provided better phone service. My wife Heather LOVES receiving voice mail messages on her computer via email.
In practice, there are a few draw backs to the the setup. The good news is that there are solutions to every problem.
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Google Voice, PBX in a box, phones, Raspberry Pi
For months I considered purchasing a Raspberry Pi single board computer. For the unaware, the Raspberry Pi is a single board computer, which is amazingly inexpensive ($35) and reasonably powerful for its size and cost. The design concept was to create a small, inexpensive computer to use as a learning tool for children. The back-story is really cool and a great example of how things should be done, well worth the read.
The Raspberry Pi Model B is a 700Mhz ARM1176JZF-S core processor with 512 MB of ram. It has an HDMI and RCA video out, built in Ethernet, 2 USB connections and audio out. Storage is done with an SD card and powered by a 5 Volt, micro USB connection.
The first thing to know about the Raspberry Pi, is that this is all about cost for them. So, there is nothing extra in the package. When ordered, your will get the ‘board’, no power cord, no SD card, no case, nothing. This is not a pick one up from Best Buy and plug it in kind of computer. But that is part of its charm, and the intent behind it, is to teach kids how to work with computers.
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PBX in a box, Raspberry Pi
Recently, I inherited a project which caused a bit of nervousness. I inherited a custom compiled application with a set of dependencies that can’t be fulfilled with modern Linux distributions. This program needed to compiled against MySQL headers for version 3.23. To compile the program, it was determined that the best solution was FreeBSD 6.2. This was the last version of FreeBSD which supported the required libraries. I did try other distributions included Suse, Gentoo and Redhat, but I ran into circular dependencies issues which precluded this use. However, the HCL for FreeBSD 6.2 is a little old at this point.
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Linux, Virtual Machines
As an active Network Administrator I have several bad habits. The first is that I play with computers in my spare time. The second, is that I have too many computers. Five years ago when I purchased my home, a friend gave me a 1/2 height server rack. I mounted by home server on a shelf and ‘It began’.
By ‘It Began’ I mean the expansion of my home computer requirements. Over the past five years, I have added a variety of new systems to my home network, including phone servers, alarm systems, etc… My 1/2 rack is perfectly suited to hole these systems and my home stereo system as well. The functionality was nice, it securely holds my computers, although . However, it doesn’t look all the great. This isn’t a huge concern for me, but I would always like it to look better.
Recently a friend of mine gave me a full height, enclosed server cabinet. The cabinet comes with locking doors, side walls, exhaust fans, side doors and in reasonably good shape. The price was right, and certainly would add a certain cache to my home office. The server cabinet didn’t come with any shelves, or rails. The cabinet will be rather heavy when full which could cause a problem in a home environment. There are a few small issues to overcome, but for me, the advantages significantly outweigh the work.
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PBX in a box, phone systems
Recently, I met a new IT Administrator getting started in the field and we started comparing notes. We found out quickly that he is rather new to the field and at this point while I am rather ‘seasoned’ from his point of view. We spent about one hour just visiting, sharing stories, and getting to know each other. When I was done, I realized that I have a similar conversation about once per month for the past 15 years at least. This is fine with me, I enjoy talking shop and getting to know others in my industry regardless of experience. I always assume that I don’t know everything, and that others have a method or idea which I have not considered.
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