Astlinux

It Starts With A Broken Doorbell

There’s been an odd converge of concerns around this place. The SIP-GSM gateway is about to arrive so I’ll be tinkering with Astlinux again. Also our doorbell is broken, which makes receiving deliveries a serious drag.

Doorbell Button 100 pixelThe doorbell is physically located at the gate in the front fence. There’s a zip cord line that runs underground from the house and a simple momentary contact switch in the frame of the wrought iron fence. It seems like there’s a problem with the underground line, not something that is easily repaired or replaced. The rest of the works are located in a central closet, with a second ringer in the office.

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monowall Screencast Tutorials

m0n0wall-160Rarely do I profess as much devotion to a piece of software as I have for m0n0wall. I’m told that it’s one of the single most successful open source projects and it’s easy to see why. It’s been my primary router for over four years. It’s never let me down, and the user community is very supportive.

I am happy to see that Phillip Cooper has recently created a series of “screencasts” documenting it’s basic setup and configuration. This should help new users a lot. I wish they’d been around when I got started. I further wish that I’d thought to do the screencasts myself. It’s a good idea.

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Next VOIP Project: SIP-GSM Gateway

The other day I called my cellular carrier, T-Mobile. They tell me that I can convert my plan to a “family plan” and add another phone. Further, it’d be ok if I provided the phone myself, perhaps an old GSM phone that I haven’t used in a while. I have an old Razr sitting a drawer somewhere. But I have other plans for the hardware.

I have a huge number of minutes on my plan as I often use my cell for tech support work that can go for hours. Then this week the US cellular market is rocked by new offers of “unlimited” minutes for $99/mo. That’s what I presently pay for my 2500 minute plan. Might have to change that plan soon. This just makes me think that I really should go forward with a plan to add a SIP-GSM gateway to my Astlinux setup.

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Astlinux Lives!

After a relatively long quiet period the Astlinux mailing list has been fairly active lately. This is thanks in part to some new users who have been extending the distro to meet their needs. Like any open source project, the…

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