Damek.

After some small struggle to get all the parts in one place, the server is going swimmingly. Which, as my mother knows, means it’s going well. The only addition I would make to that last post is that, after turning the sucker on for the first time, I quickly learned that my decision to get ball-bearing fans instead of the regular case fans was misguided. Ball-bearing fans are not, as I thought, quieter, they are louder. The thing sounded like an airplane taking off. But I quickly ordered the proper, regular fans from iDOTpc, and after installing them the server is almost whisper quiet. It ain’t perfect, but I can sleep at night.

So it’s pretty cool, and now that it’s set up, I can almost forget about it. When I want some music that isn’t on my laptop, I can just grab it out of the air. When I’m at work and need to do an update to Quicken, I can just connect to the server and do it. I don’t have a static IP, but that’s what DynDNS is for. The server runs a little DynDNS Updater that moniters my DSL connection’s IP, and if it changes, alerts DynDNS.

Fun, huh?

I’ve also learned a bit more about SSH and have installed it on the server. Thanks to that, and with the help of Bitvise Tunnelier, all my connections to the server are encrypted, so my nice passwords and whatever else aren’t available to anyone who might want to snoop around. Security becomes more important when you’re running a little server, especially if it’s running Windows.

Of course, after giving in and getting a Windows-based server, what happens? Rumors start bouncing around that Apple will soon release a cheap, low-power Mac. Gosh darn it! Heck! Doohickey! That’s right, I will say doohickey! Doohickey, doohickey, doohickey! If I’d only known about this a few weeks earlier, I wouldn’t have bought this PC. I mean, it’s working just fine, but I’d much rather have a Mac. My iBook has spoiled me. The only software I would worry about needing Windows to run are Soulseek & Quicken, and suddenly I discover there’s a great Soulseek port for Macs called soulseeX, which looks good, and I’ve been hearing from other Mac users that Quicken for the Mac is really not as bad as I thought.

It don’t matter. I have this server now and it works. Can’t return it. Wouldn’t be worth selling. Couldn’t afford another $500 bucks anytime soon. If the mini-Mac rumors are true, I’ll just let other people enjoy them and keep hoping Alex will be willing to switch in a couple years when it’s time to get new laptops. That’s about when I’d also replace the server, hopefully with a nice little Mac.

Yes, they really are awesome these days.