Server Crash

While on vacation in Costa Rica, the server crashed.  The fairly new Lenovo box would not boot.  The problem appeared to be a faulty motherboard.  Deciding that replacing the motherboard could lead to another failure, I decided to build a new system using the working memory, hard drive and dvd.  Fry's Electronics seemed like a good choice for a parts.  I found a Cooler Master Case, MSI motherboard, Intel process and a 600w power supply all at a reasonable price.  Normally I turn down extended warranties, but this time I said yes.

At checkout, I was asked to sign the extended warranty.  One item caught my eye.  By adding peripherals the warranty would be voided.  That doesn't make sense.  I'm buying a motherboard to add peripherals.  That is what a motherboard does.  When the Fry's employee check, he confirmed that yes, adding any non Fry's peripheral would invalidate the warranty.  He said that policy had never been enforced.  With my luck I would be the first.  Needless to say I cancelled the extended warranty.  Just reinforces my belief to never buy extended warranties.

The good news the server is back up and working just great.  After assembling the new system, reusing peripherals from the crashed system, Ubuntu 10.04 booted right up.  The only change needed was to comment out the old mac address in /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules and change the new mac address to eth0.  Try that with windows.

Cable News and Signal Strength

One of the channels I knew that we would both miss is MSNBC.  In looking through the content on Roku, I found Roku Newscaster.  The channel has ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, FOX, NPR, BBC and a few others.  I just watched yesterday's Rachael Maddow show.  The feeds are from the following day.  Watching breaking news isn't this channel's strong point.  But it is not only free, but free of commercials.  Plus, I can pause the feed to answer the door.

Somewhere I read that Vizio didn't include signal strength meters to keep the cost down. Yesterday I discovered that under System, there is a signal strength meter.  It gives a numerical number, it looks like from 1 to 100, on the strength of the antenna input.  You do have to go back to the menu every time you change channels.  Not a big deal, but that does slow you up.

Home Media Center Up and Working

Did a temporary fix to the script and now the Home Media Center is up and working.  Streaming a movie from my DVD collection as I write this.  Quality is good.  There have been three or four buffering events so far.  Only other issue is screen size.  If I play the same movie on the Blu Ray player, I get full screen.  Streaming through the Roku gives a standard screen size.  There are some choices in Handbrake that may solve this problem.

Still working on Home Media Server

The biggest problem so far has been getting traffic to the tornado web server on port 8888.  I finally decided that the problem was Apache listening on port 80 and grabbing the traffic before iptables redirected it to the tornado web server.  To fix the problem Apache was moved to port 8000.  Then iptables was able to redirect port 80 to port 8888 with no problem.  I used the following iptables command:
iptables -A PREROUTING -t nat -p tcp -d <server_ip_addr> --dport 80 -j REDIRECT --to-ports 8888

The next problem was the lack of image files showing up on the HMS administration page.  Looking at error messages, python was not able to import Image.  I use pip to add PIL to the virtual environment.

pip -E pyvirt install pil

  

Now images show.  

Next item to tackle is getting Roku to get past the page requesting the server address.  I see the request for users, but nothing is displayed on the TV screen.  

Home Media Center - Setting up the Virtual Python Environment

Brian Lane's instructions are very good, but on Ubuntu 10.04 thing are somewhat different.  For example to install "Development Tools" under Fedora you use the command yum groupinstall "development tools"  but under Ubuntu the command is sudo apt-get install build-essential.  However, I was still getting errors after installing all of the requirements.  What was needed was to install python2.6-dev.  Once I solved the missing piece the virtual environment setup went smoothly.  My home media server is now waiting for someone to access it!

Home Media Center

People have asked me for a diagram of my setup.  So here is a quick attempt, using Dia to diagram the setup.

I get feeds from a indoor antenna and DSL service from Qwest.  Once the Home Media Center is running, I hope to build a MythTV to capture HD video from the antenna.

Save money by renegotiating your cable rates

Interesting article on how to save $420 a year on your cable bill.  While I like his determination to keep renegotiating for low rates, the comments are even more interesting.  Like many I thought that the franchise agreement that Comcast signed with the city of Seattle was to protect the residents.  One of the comments goes into some detail on what exactly is covered and what isn't.  Start reading the comments from the bottom.

Cut the Cord

This morning I disconnected the Comcast cable box and connected the TV to the antenna.  Wow.  Great picture.  I even watched a commercial.  The colors were vibrant and crystal clear.  Then can a Dino Rossi ad so I turned it off.  He could have at least used a HD quality recording for his commercial.

When I returned the cable box to Comcast I expected to get a sales pitch.  Happily I was just given a receipt and was told that the account was closed.

Setting up a Home Media Server with Roku

I found that mp4info is provided by mpeg4ip-utils in ubuntu.  I did an apt-get install mpeg4ip-utils and there was the correct mp4info.

HandBrake GUI didn't decrypt my DVD that I tried to rip.  HandBrake is supposed to use VLC to decrypt the DVD before coping it to the hard drive.  HandBrakeCLI did the trick.  Sure takes a long time to rip a dvd but know I know how.  It would be nice to get HandBrakeCLI working on the Ubuntu server but I can live with using my laptop for now.  I think the problem is that HandBrake can not find VLC which access libdvdcss.  Something to look into. Once HandBrake rips the dvd, I just need to scp a copy over to the server.

Programing the Roku Box

I started digging into Brian Lane's program.  I'm missing mp4info that is called by both makebif.py and staticvideo.py.  Neither apt-get on the Ubuntu server or yum on my Fedora laptop found a mp4info.  I did find a ruby and perl module MP4info.  The perl module had a example program that I modified into mp4info.  Hopefully it returns what is expect.  We'll see.  I need to get busy ripping some of my discs to see if the program can use my mp4info.

Roku Glitch

I was going to quickly add the Roku to my Harmony programmable remote.  Roku was hidden under the DVD category.  But when I attempted to use the Harmony remote it would not work.  And then I couldn't get the Roku remote to work.  With Google's help, I discovered that turning the Ambient light sensor off on the Vizio set fixes the program.

Roku Box Arrived!

The Roku HD box arrived yesterday from Woot!  The package contained the Roku box, a remote with two batteries, power transformer and RCA cables for audio and video connections.  The Roku box is very easy to install and configure.  Just plugged it in and connected the HDMI cable to the TV.  Configuring the wireless settings did take a few minutes.  Roku does not include a WPS push button mode.  Instead I had to enter in my entire WPA passphrase using the remote and the on screen keyboard.  But once the passphass was entered, the Roku box downloaded the latest firmware and then rebooted.  Configuring Netflix, Pandora, etc. took about 30 minutes.  I should have keep my laptop in the living room instead of going back and forth entering the activation codes.

While I haven't watched any movies or youtube video's, the quality and responsiveness was good.  I did google for private beta codes and found six or seven additional channels to add.  So far the only problem was viewing my Facebook photo's.  I can see my profile picture but none of the rest.  From looking at the comments on Roku's Facebook page, it appears that I'm not the only one having this problem.  Everyone seems to be blaming Roku, but I suspect that Facebook has some API problems that they are not addressing.  I have similar problems with Shotwell trying to upload pictures to Facebook.

So far my only real issue with the Roku setup is that the passphrass is shown every time the box is rebooted.  I don't really want just anyone being able to see my passphrass.  It should be shown as ***********.

So now on to setting up the SDK and Brian Lane's program for streaming my DVD from a server.

Hulu Plus Invite

Just arrived in the mail:

Hello from Hulu,

Good news! Your Hulu Plus preview invite is ready.

Now if my Vizio BluRay player would give me the Hulu Plus app I could start watching my favorite programs streamed over the internet.

Vonage

Part of the move from Comcast involved switch telephone service.  Comcast VIOP service worked well and even integrated into the cable television showing the caller's phone number.  But Comcast's VOIP service isn't cheap.  Vonage offered a $9.99 per month plan with 200 outbound local and long distance minutes.  Since we rarely use our landline, 200 minutes seemed more that sufficient for our needs.

The Vonage adapter's instructions are not written for dsl modems with build in routers.  Vonage adapter wants to performs a NAT function between the internet connection and your home router.  Since my DSL modems, both the Actiontec and Netgear, have a built in router the Vonage adapter needed to be plugged into a spare router port.  I'm guessing that the Vonage adapter performs a QoS function for the VOIP call.  Fortunately the Netgear dsl router can be configured for QoS for VOIP calls.  The adapter seems to work great with this configuration.

The switch from Comcast to Vonage went very smooth.  I have to give credit to Vonage for attention to detail.  They provided an estimate of how long it would take before Comcast would transfer my number to Vonage.  Then Vonage sent an email a few days ahead of when the switch was going to occur.  They also provided a temporary number to use in the interim.  So the day before the switch, I forwarded my Comcast number the Vonage temporary number.  I didn't miss a call.  I wish I could same for my switch from AT&T Wireless to T-Mobile.  But that story is for another day.

The only negative part of Vonage, and it isn't a real problem, is their voice mail uses completely different codes than everyone else.  Instead of hitting 7 to delete a message, you hit 3.

If you are interested in Vonage, use the link below and I'll get a credit on my monthly bill.

Netgear ASDL Router Update

John ran all night but couldn't crack any of my passwords.  That is good news, but now I'm not sure about the pppoe password.  As a last resort before calling Qwest I installed the Netgear software.  Surprise, it prompted me for my id and password and connected to the Qwest DSL.  The whole process took a long time, but it worked.  Good thing there was a spare WindowsXP machine available.

Download speed, according to speedtest.net improved slightly, but the upload speed dropped considerable.  Maybe one of the ASDL setting need tweeking.

The software on the Netgear DGND3300 is much superior to the Actiontec PK5000.  The Netgear has wireless guest logins, easy port forwarding, dedicated IP addresses by MAC, and syslog forwarding.  Besides it is dual band and supports 802.11 a/b/g/n.

New Netgear ASDL Modem

Found a slightly used Netgear ASDL modem on craigslist.  Picked it up at a reasonable price.  Now I have to get it to recognize my user id and password.  The Qwest tech wrote the password but either I can't read his writing or he made a mistake.  Rather than call Qwest I'm going to try John the Ripper to crack the password. It has been running on two different machines for a couple.  I'll report back if it ever returns a password.  

Netflix or Hulu

I just read an interesting article on MacLife on Netflix vs. Hulu Plus.  Getting Hulu Plus is rather difficult right now.  There are only a few devices that are equipped with Hulu Plus, while Netflix is all over the place.  Netflix is easy to use and I am already a subscriber.  But Hulu Plus offers content not available on Netflix.  The article was really comparing apple and oranges.  There isn't much overlap in content. It would be nice if Netflix offered current content, but since they don't, Hulu Plus is very attractive.  At $9.99 a month they offer much of what I'll be missing after I drop Comcast.

Qwest Modems

Qwest installed the DSL last week.  Once they removed some bridge taps, the speed was up to the advertised level of 20Mbs.  While Speedtest.net only rates it at 13.71Mbs, it is fast enough to watch movies over the internet.  I wonder if the bottleneck is the conne'ction to the Internet backbone?  Qwest gives the speed between the CO and you, but does it have the capacity to the Internet backbone?

The modem, a Actiontec PK5000 is barely adequate.  The Actiontec PK5000 does not have the ability to set an IP address based on a MAC address.  While I can get around this, .it should be available.  What bugs me more is not being able to set up a bridging router in my entertainment center.  I had hoped to place a bridging router next to the entertainment center to feed a Blu-Ray player, Roku unit, and possibly a pvr.  A call to Qwest tech support confirmed that the PK5000 is not able to connect to a bridged router, but none of their DSL modem have the ability.

At least the PK5000 has WPS (Wi-Fi Protected Setup) which makes setting up network appliances easy.

Qwest, come on, offer some decent DSL modems.  I believe that telco's could compete with cable companies as more people figure out that they just need a fast Internet connection.

Dropping, losing, cancelling or whatever you want to call getting rid of Comcast

My goal is to reduce our family's dependency on Comcast services.  For the last few years we have been using Comcast's Triple Play of TV, Phone and Internet.  Comcast hooks you with relatively inexpensive monthly service of $99 a month.  But after a short while, monthly bills start increasing.  It had gotten over $150 a month in just a short time frame.  So in the next few weeks I plan to move off of Comcast completely.  Some of the work is in progress, but most is still in the planning stage.

So far, everyone I've talked with about dropping Comcast also wants to rid themselves of Comcast.  Some are  well off while others are not.  Some are die hard conservatives and others liberals.   But getting rid of their Comcast bill is the one thing we have in common.

Part of the planning process is determining what you want to watch.  We don't watch a lot of sports, but we do like some of the programing on USA, NBC, ABC, CBS and PBS.  We also like MSNBC, but that isn't a deal breaker.  I like CNBC and CNN but I usually read the news on line.  My neighbor and I did a test of receiving over the air TV from the local channels.  We can get excellent reception with just an indoor antenna. An indoor antenna takes care of all but USA.  We used Antenna Web to plot out the best direction to point the antenna.

USA network will require another arrangement.  The two choices available seem to be wait for the shows to be on Netflix or Hulu Plus.  It looks like Hulu Plus, even at $10 a month, is a good choice.  While it isn't available, it should be soon.  On the plus side, Hulu Plus means that we can watch the shows when we want, just not the same night as they are broadcast.  On the negative, Hulu Plus doesn't offer CBS or Comedy Central.  Maybe I need a pvr (personal video recorder) to watch CBS.  That is something to consider later.

So far I've installed Qwest high speed internet service and Vonage phone service.  Qwest offered up to 40mbs internet for only $19 a month or $29 a month with out Qwest local service.  Since I also signed up for Vonage I pay $29 a month.  The speed as reported by the modem is 20mb.   I signed up for the cheapest Vonage plan since our needs are not great.  If I find that I need to increase it I can later.  Of course the Qwest pricing is a special offer.  In six months the cost goes to full price.  Hopefully I can negotiate a continuation of the special offer then.  So far I've dropped my cable bill by almost $100 a month!