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[benn600]

I switched to a new computer --used.  It is a 2.0GHz P4 Gateway with USB 2.0, 512MB, 40GB and I cannot believe this.  Granted the OS is pretty much empty, but regenerating the array took only 24 hours instead of 36 and I can copy about 17GB/hour vs. the old 10GB/hour on a 2.4GHz P4.  This is a great server!

I'm using a brand new D-Link 7 port usb hub so all 5 drives are on one usb port.  I never saw my network utilization jump above 80% while copying to the array before.  It goes up, down, up, down...80,70,70,0,60,0,70,70, etc... while copying.

[johnnyboy]

Its probably down to the USB chipset on the MoBo at a quick guess - makes a HUGE diff.
Glad to hear it's working better for you though - imagine how fast raid 5 would be lol

[benn600]

lol.  that's what I'm using.

[johnnyboy]

I meant with a proper RAID5 controller and some 3Gb/s SATAII drives.

[benn600]

With the propper hardware, can you get writing speeds nearing that of regular RAID0?  You would think so because aside from the parity, it writes just like RAID 0.  It's just the extra processing.  If only it could process in real-time with no delay or slowdown.  I'm quite happy with my inexpensive setup!  I just finished moving my modem, smoothwall, and *new* (used) computer I use as a server to our basement storage room on nice shelves so it's quite neat--all on 3 UPS's...one for the hard drives and other very small devices, one for server, and one for Smoothwall.  They are all around 700 VA or whatever they use to rate them.  I prefer using watts because I understand that more.  I think they translate to around 300 watts or so each.  It would be easier to have one big one but even a 1500 VA one isn't as powerful as 700 * 3 and I haven't really seen bigger ones in regular retail stores.

How many watts do average external SATA hard drives take--especially the WD My Book's?  I am running 5 of them plus two USB hubs.

[glynor]

You may want to take a look at IPCop instead of Smoothwall.  IPCop has a lot of new (and better) options than the free Smoothie, and is based on the same code.  It was originally a fork of the old GPLed Smoothwall code when the lead developer decided to try to make money off of it.  A bunch of the old Open Source developers didn't agree with the decision and created IPCop.

I've found that it has a lot quicker release and bug-fix turnaround time in addition to the better features.  You really might want to check it out!

Note, their web site is usually at http://www.ipcop.org/ but it is down right now.  It was up only a few days ago, so someone apparently forgot to pay the domain registrar.  I'm sure it will be back up in a few days.

[benn600]

I think I'm sold!  I looked at the screenshots and that has a lot of the features I think it's unacceptable that they are not included with Smoothie.

It is free, right?  Have you installed Smoothie before?  How does the IPCop installation vary from Smoothwall.  I also find that, outside of absolutely ROCK-SOLID DHCP (which I NEVER got with a cheap router), Smoothie lacks some vital features like dynamic IP address listing, traffic shaping, etc.  I also feel, generally speaking, like it is a little slow.  Some page loads seem a bit slower than they should be and I often notice lag from click to start downloading the page.

[johnnyboy]

I've used IPCop and the install is super easy. Just a typical windows type install practically.

Traffic shaping exists but with all these type apps from what I've heard, the traffic shaping is reasonably limited.

Has all kinds of options and strongly recommend it!

[benn600]

I will most definitely download IPCop now and install it when I get the chance on my Smoothie box.

It's actually a decent computer at 550 MHz with 512MB of memory and I'm thinking 40GB hard drive.  Thanks for reminding me about IPCop.  I jumped right into SmoothWall because everyone knows about it and a friend actually got me started with it--I wanted to follow the lead instead of trying something else.

Thanks--and I'll post my feelings when I install it.  I have a feeling it will have a lot of things I desperately needed with Smoothie.  Many of which can be added with addons, but yuck if you don't have to!

[johnnyboy]

That box is overkill.

If you have anything lighter spec you'd be better off using it. A super old laptop would be your best bet as it's:

1. Tiny
2. Low Power Usage
3. Can shut the lid and hide it away somewhere easily


I had it running if I recall on a 333Mhz laptop with 256Mhz of RAM with like a 5Gb hd I think it had.
They're the kind of laptops that you can get for next to nothing as big companies have thousands they chuck out when they upgrade all their users machines.

[benn600]

That's not an issue here.  I have a dedicated 5 shelf (heavy duty) unit in our basement.  The top shelf is dedicated (and holds nicely) my two servers--IPCop (I switched today!) and a Windows XP box sharing files, etc.  I have no issues with space, the monitor is on a KVM and 99% of the time is off (LogMeIn to control it), and the computer is not needed.  I have a 600 MHz computer laying around just waiting until I can get another LCD to hook it up and make it usable.  I'm hoping to find a cheap (analog only okay) LCD for that computer.

I also have a 533 Celeron desktop, 180 MHz Pentium Pro, and 120 MHz Pentium computers that I am not using but I decided that more power is better.

I still notice some slight slowdowns.  Mainly in initial lag from when I click a link to when the page pops up.  I'm wondering if it's IPCop or the fact that I have the proxy enabled.  I would think the proxy would speed surfing up but it might be slowing me down.  I have the cache limited to 20GB--it's never gotten above a GB.

[johnnyboy]

Dude you sure got some huge computer resources.
Dunno where u get all the cash for all that as a student - as a professional I really couldn't afford all that even lol.

Anyway, I'd say try disable cache - with speeds these days its unneeded.