Flashes of Panic

I discovered the reason the Mini was so slow: I had installed the compiler from the first system disk I had lying around. In other words, I inadvertently installed a PowerPC compiler on an Intel Mac. That won’t work well. I updated the installers and re-ran the entire installation stack in about half the time I’d spent on the fraction completed with the other compiler. (The “wrong” compiler still worked, of course, but since it was (a) running in a translated mode, and (b) cross-compiling, I was maxing it out more than it may have wanted, and there may have been some quirks in the resulting software.)

Once that was done, I shut down the whole network and ripped it to pieces, hoping to rebuild it in a better configuration. I took the Ikea half-round table which held all the hardware and cut two big rectangular slots in the back, the better to run cables through; previously, it had only had drilled holes. (I produced a lot of sawdust doing this, thus adding “vacuuming” to the end of the “to do” list.)

I swapped the Belkin router which has, I think, been dropping our ‘net connection on a regular basis, and instead resurrected the Linksys router that I bought in 2000 or so when I first had cable internet, back in Pennsylvania. With a 2004 release of the firmware and the password re-set, that one is now chugging along nicely and hasn’t dropped the connection yet. We’ll see how it does in the long-term.

I moved the power strip which served the network up into the table itself, then threaded all the power and network cables through the table so it also accommodated the cable modem, router, and the old Airport wireless base station. With the power brick for the Mini inside the table as well, the Mini itself wouldn’t fit, so I sat it on the tabletop with its power cord and ethernet cable sneaking up from the back of the table. Now there are only two cables coming in to the whole nest, the coax for the cable modem and the plug for the power strip. It’s much neater than before.

I set the router up to allow SSH connections in to the Mini from outside. We’ll see how that goes. I’m hoping that will allow tunnelled connections to its webservers, so I can reach the SVN respository easily from outside the house.

It was a lot of work and a big mess while it was happening, but I’m a little proud of the results. This has to be the best-looking server cabinet I’ve ever worked with.

Now Playing: Don’t Bang the Drum from This Is the Sea by The Waterboys

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