[Herts] Meeting Equipment Improvements?

[Darren Reilly]

Good Monday Morning to everyone 

If required I have loads of spare kit in my lockup and office so
anything that's needed I would most likely already have kicking about
from cables, routers & right up to spare old servers.

I have seen quite a few server related issues arise on here so I would
be happy to bring or possibly donate an old server to meets ( I am going
to start coming to the meets) this would give a great opportunity to
experiment with different ways of installing servers and when people
know a specific package really well could maybe talk people through
setting up and how to avoid some gotchas.

I think allot of people would get allot of benefit out of having some
kit that could be wiped and borked and not worry about it. And working
on a real server is IMHO is better than trying to fudge things in VMs
allot of the time. 

The spare servers I have are mostly PIII boxes but I run CentOS on them
and they run very well so it would be giving people some real world
experience. 

Some feedback and ideas would be welcome and if needed I am sure I could
setup and configure stuff if needed ( & providing I know how ) 

Cheers 

Darren

  

-----Original Message-----
From: herts-bounces at mailman.lug.org.uk
[mailto:herts-bounces at mailman.lug.org.uk] On Behalf Of ROBERTS, Mike
Sent: 16 February 2009 08:39
To: herts at mailman.lug.org.uk
Subject: [Herts] Meeting Equipment Improvements?


Hi Folks,

I was wondering on a few things that came to light, or I have been
thinking about for a while, after last weeks meeting. They are, in no
particular order :-

* The smoothwall firewall / dhcp server:  How does it get turned off at
the end of the evening? Does someone log into it and shut it down
cleanly or does it just get turned off?

* The networking "kit": On a couple of occasions finding the HertsLUG
kit for the meetings, in the office, has proved a bit tricky. Mostly, I
suspect, because it is kept in a black bin bag which seems to get
stuffed in a different place each time or gets moved as people may not
realise what it is. How long will it be before someone accidentally
throws the whole lot away?

* Network cables: We could do with some new ones. At least one is duff
which leads to 10 minutes of head scratching each month as we try to
figure out why the interweb doesn't work. The cable from the office
router to the smoothwall  appears to be too short so obstructs the chair
/ desk if someone is trying to work at it.

* Power: There aren't enough extension leads and we need a dedicated one
for the smoothwall as the socket it uses has now been taken to be used
by some additional kit in the office I think.


I would like to offer the following suggestions / solutions:-

* I will donate a "Really Useful Box" # to put all the networking kit
in. It can be labelled up and will, IMHO ;),  be a better thing to put
the meeting kit in than a bin bag.

* Next meeting I'll take away all the kit check / test the network
cables, get the extension leads PAT tested, mount the Wireless access
point and hub and an extension block on a "lump of wood" (TM) so that
they can be set up and just lifted out of the box and plugged in for
each meeting.

* I have already bought a couple more 6 way extension leads so we have
more sockets. + get one for the smooth wall in the office and possibly a
longer one so that we can get power to the second row of tables in the
middle of the room.

* Label the WAP with it's details so it is easy for first time visitors
to find out what they are.

* It might be an idea to keep a spare keyboard and mouse in the box
"just in case"? (or two? PS/2 and USB of each?) I am sure we can find a
few tucked away in our stacks of redundant kit ;o)

* Get some new network cables: one long enough to safely reach the
office router without getting in anyone's way (Label it up so people in
the office don't pull it out); several 1 to 5 m network cables (5 ports
on the hub?) so we have known good cables.


What do you think? Worth doing? Anyone got any other suggestions on how
to make things quicker and easier to set up?

Cheers Mike 8-{>


# For those familiar with "really useful boxes" they now make a more
rugged box in either white or black (recycled plastic) both of which are
opaque so you cant see what is inside.

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