Jump to content

Oicu812

Regulars
  • Posts

    997
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by Oicu812

  1. I agree, and it all comes down to what you want to do. Code developer, game developer or user? You might need a machine at this level. I am a code and automation developer for some of the largest companies globally. If all you do is browse the web and watch videos, a tablet is perfect. We have both, and use both daily.
  2. You're quite welcome. I was doing this for my own enjoyment and information, so I thought I would share it with the world. If you are in the market, I would buy a new PC soon. The supply chain is breaking down, and costs are going up. The base machine I purchased 3 weeks ago was $2,600. In those 3 weeks, the same machine has gone up to $3,300. Ouch.
  3. One more piece of advice. On your wireless router, turn on Access Control. This makes it impossible for new devices to be connected to your wireless network, until you add their hardware address to your router configuration. The information that you must obtain is called the MAC address, which is part of the properties of every network device. Every single network card in existence needs to have a unique identifying address for the card to obtain an IP address. If you have two devices on the network with the same MAC address, neither will work properly. Why is this important? No one can do a drive by on your wireless network. They can't get an IP address without first being added to your network security. No IP, no workie. Simple.
  4. @tigerwoodKhorns I generally stick with Seagate for spinning drives, they've all worked for me since the late 1980's. My first was a 10MB hard drive in an IBM PC. If you want reliable SSD's, I also have a perfect record on Samsung drives. Just a quick question here: Are you sure that 2TB is a hardware limitation for you? Because 2 terabytes of hard drive space happens to be the largest addressable size for 32 bit operating systems. Usually you can put in larger hard drives, and add a bunch of 2TB partitions on that drive if you are not hardware limited. If you can tell me if we are talking about 32 bit Windows, that would narrow things down for me, plus the model of your computer. We might be able to add a bunch of storage almost as cheaply as only buying 2TB drives. Here are 2TB drives for $46 each, new: https://smile.amazon.com/Seagate-BarraCuda-Internal-Drive-3-5-Inch/dp/B07H2RR55Q/
  5. You don't. But if you pick a website hosting service and build your own VPN like I did in my post, you are reasonably certain that everything is okay. It is mildly complicated, but if you follow the guide step by step it will work just fine. As for network security, yes it does form another layer of protection for your private network. Due to the fact that you are only using the VPN connection, it makes it darned near impossible for someone to crack your network because all of your communication only happens on the VPN outlet. They would have to break into that machine, and then into your router from there. Could it be done? Possibly, if you had a team of the best spend a LONG time. Other targets are much easier, and attackers will move on.
  6. . A virtual private network (VPN) is a technology that creates a safe and encrypted connection over a less secure network, such as the internet. VPN technology was developed as a way to allow remote users and branch offices to securely access corporate applications and other resources. To ensure safety, data travels through secure tunnels and VPN users must use authentication methods -- including passwords, tokens and other unique identification methods -- to gain access to the VPN. Think of the VPN as a tunnel, where your machine is connected to another machine on the Internet, and the traffic between you and the other end of the tunnel is encrypted. Only your desktop and your VPN server can decrypt your transmissions. All everyone else sees is digital garbage, completely unreadable "code groups" as they say on TV. WTH is a VPN: https://techcrunch.com/2017/01/01/wtf-is-a-vpn/ The article that started all of this in my brain: https://techcrunch.com/2017/04/09/how-i-made-my-own-vpn-server-in-15-minutes/?ncid=txtlnkusaolp00000591&yptr=yahoo&utm_source=fark&utm_medium=website&utm_content=link&ICID=ref_fark There are a lot of pay VPN's out there, and every one I tried was either slow as heck, or did not work at all. So I decided to build my own, using a Cloud server. I picked Digital Ocean, because they are inexpensive, VERY easy to use, and they do not log your internet traffic. This VPN will work for MAC OS X, Windows, Android phones and boxes, iPads, iPhones, etc. You will be able to use coffee shop wireless networks without any worries, because EVERYTHING you send or receive is encrypted with either 1024 or 2048 bit modern encryption. That means your ISP cannot read any of the communication sent to and from your computer. Your web browsing, DNS lookups (which websites you connect to...), file downloads (even torrents), everything you do is sent through the tunnel, and emerges onto the internet from the other machine (VPN server) where you have connected. For instance, if you have a website in the UK that provides content only for the UK, you can create a VPN server in the London datacenter, and watch the content all you like, because your VPN IP address is in the UK. From anywhere in the world. I set up an account with DO (Digital Ocean), and created my own "droplet", which is their terminology for one of their virtual servers. For $5 a month, you get 20GB of online storage (on SSD drives!), 1 CPU, 512MB of RAM, and 1TB of traffic a month. That amount of RAM is plenty, because all you are doing with the machine is running the VPN software. I am connected to my VPN right now, and I am getting 190mbps download, and 20 mbps upload speeds. This is a faster speed than most ISP's provide to their customers. My connection through Digital Ocean is smooth as glass. You can also use your server as online picture storage (No more Photobucket bullsquirt). You can host your own webpages. You can take control of DNS, so that you can repoint any domains you own to your new online server. The beauty of this method is just how fast you can implement a new server, load the VPN software, and configure your desktop OS for this new VPN. Now that I have gotten the procedure down, it would take me less than 10 minutes to implement a new server, including the 45 seconds it takes for Digital Ocean to create your new OS build. If you are questioning why I would want to set up another server, the answer is this: Let's say you wanted to download something via a torrent, but you are worried that the torrent download can be traced back to you. You set up a new VPN, do your download, and then delete the server, the "droplet". The torrent tracker will have the hostname and IP address of your droplet having downloaded a file. Now, because you have deleted that machine, it breaks the trace. The IP address is no longer assigned to you, and the original server is gone forever. And since it is so fast to set up another one, it makes the task of covering your bases very easy. Setting up your very own VPN server! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ There are a few commands you have to run at a command prompt, and a couple of files you need to download. I will provide direct links to that software, and instructions on how to use them. The first thing you will need is Putty. This is a piece of software installed on your desktop, that allows you to log into Unix and Linux boxes: ftp://ftp.chiark.greenend.org.uk/users/sgtatham/putty-latest/w64/putty-64bit-0.70-installer.msi Either click the link, or paste the FTP URL into your web browser. In the resulting dialog box, click either Open or Save. Once you have downloaded the file, double click it to install Putty. For ease of use, have the installer place an icon on your desktop. (I use this software all day, every day for my job...) Now, go to DigitalOcean, and sign up for a new account: https://www.digitalocean.com/ ## There is no charge for simply setting up an account. They charge by the number and size of servers you build and operate. For our VPN, simply choose the smallest server size, $5 a month. Pick Ubuntu for the OS. Type in the hostname you would like to call your server. That's all you will need for now. Once you hit the big green "Create" button, 45 seconds later your server is built. They will send an email to the account you used to sign up, that will include the new hostname, IP address, and the root user password. Copy the IP address out of the email into your clipboard. Run Putty, paste the IP into the "Host names (Or IP's)" box, and then paste it again into the "Saved Sessions". Hit the "Save" button, and then the "Open" button. This will open a text based connection to your new server. Type "root" in for the user name, and copy the root password from the email. Once it is in your clipboard, anywhere in the text area, simply right click to paste, and hit enter on your keyboard. The next information to come up will be an enforced password change for root. Right click again, hit enter, and put your new password in twice. Once the password is changed, it will land you at the command prompt with a flashing cursor. It will look like this: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- login as: root root@138.197.70.58's password: Welcome to Ubuntu 16.04.3 LTS (GNU/Linux 4.4.0-87-generic x86_64) * Documentation: https://help.ubuntu.com * Management: https://landscape.canonical.com * Support: https://ubuntu.com/advantage Get cloud support with Ubuntu Advantage Cloud Guest: http://www.ubuntu.com/business/services/cloud 0 packages can be updated. 0 updates are security updates. Last login: Tue Aug 15 17:00:02 2017 root@ubuntu-512mb-nyc3-01:~#_ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- At the command prompt on your shiny new Ubuntu server: Copy and paste this line, and hit enter: apt-get update Copy and paste this line, and hit enter: apt-get install zip Copy and paste this line, and hit enter: apt-get install build-essential libssl-dev libffi-dev python-dev python-pip python-setuptools python-virtualenv -y Copy and paste this line, and hit enter: python -m virtualenv env && source env/bin/activate && python -m pip install -U pip && python -m pip install -r requirements.txt Type in "exit", hit enter and your Putty window will close. Run Putty again, log in as root with your new password. Leave the window open and minimized for the next section. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This next section is for Windows desktop users - If you are on a different operating system, follow the instructions on this page: https://github.com/trailofbits/algo (Scroll down for different OS instructions) Run a command prompt as Administrator: Right click the CMD.exe icon in your Windows start button, and choose run as administrator. OR: Windows 10, right click the start button and choose Command Prompt(Admin) On the Windows command prompt, type in the following: mkdir c:\tmp cd \tmp Leave the command prompt open and switch to your browser. Go to the website: https://github.com/trailofbits/algo Click on the green "Clone or Download" button, and choose "Download ZIP". Save that file in C:\tmp Alt-TAB back over to your command prompt, where you are in c:\tmp psftp root@138.197.70.58 <--------------CHANGE THIS TO YOUR NEW BOXES IP ADDRESS! Log in as root with your password Using username "root". root@138.197.70.58's password: Remote working directory is /root psftp> cd /tmp <-------------- The command is: cd /tmp ## You are on Linux now, so take note of the forward slashes between directories. Remote directory is now /tmp psftp> mput *zip <--------------The command is: mput *zip ## mput allows wildcards local:algo-master.zip => remote:/tmp/algo-master.zip Alt-TAB back to your Putty session. Type in: cd /tmp unzip *zip cd algo-master ./algo Follow the prompts, and answer the first question with the number 5. Answer the rest of the prompts with either Y/N as needed. I answered one question with both of my wireless network names that I have built here at home. This allows any traffic for my local machines to be routed locally, bypassing the VPN. Your session will look like this: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- root@ubuntu-512mb-nyc3-01:/tmp/algo-master# ./algo What provider would you like to use? 1. DigitalOcean 2. Amazon EC2 3. Microsoft Azure 4. Google Compute Engine 5. Install to existing Ubuntu 16.04 server Enter the number of your desired provider : 5 Enter the IP address of your server: (or use localhost for local installation) [localhost]: 138.197.70.58 What user should we use to login on the server? (note: passwordless login required, or ignore if you're deploying to localhost) [root]: root Enter the public IP address of your server: (IMPORTANT! This IP is used to verify the certificate) [138.197.70.58]: 138.197.70.58 Was this server deployed by Algo previously? [y/N]: n Do you want macOS/iOS clients to enable "VPN On Demand" when connected to cellular networks? [y/N]: y Do you want macOS/iOS clients to enable "VPN On Demand" when connected to Wi-Fi? [y/N]: y List the names of trusted Wi-Fi networks (if any) that macOS/iOS clients exclude from using the VPN (e.g., your home network. Comma-separated value, e.g., HomeNet,OfficeWifi,AlgoWiFi) : BHNTG1682G57D7,BHNTG1682G57D7-5G Do you want to install a DNS resolver on this VPN server, to block ads while surfing? [y/N]: y Do you want each user to have their own account for SSH tunneling? [y/N]: n Do you want to apply operating system security enhancements on the server? (warning: replaces your sshd_config) [y/N]: y Do you want the VPN to support Windows 10 or Linux Desktop clients? (enables compatible ciphers and key exchange, less secure) [y/N]: y Do you want to retain the CA key? (required to add users in the future, but less secure) [y/N]: y <Bunches of output> "\"#----------------------------------------------------------------------#\"", "\"# Congratulations! #\"", "\"# Your Algo server is running. #\"", "\"# Config files and certificates are in the ./configs/ directory. #\"", "\"# Go to https://whoer.net/ after connecting #\"", "\"# and ensure that all your traffic passes through the VPN. #\"", "\"# Local DNS resolver 172.16.0.1 #\"", "\"# The p12 and SSH keys password is XXXXXXXX #\"", "\"#----------------------------------------------------------------------#\"", ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Now flip back to your command prompt where psftp is still running. Type in: cd algo-master/configs mget * quit powershell -ExecutionPolicy ByPass -File windows_<user>.ps1 Add ##The powershell command adds the cert to your windows desktop, you will have to look at the files in c:\tmp to catch the full name of the ps1 file you downloaded. Use one of the file names with .ps1 in this command. ------------------------------------------------------- Certificate "ron" added to store. CertUtil: -importPFX command completed successfully. ------------------------------------------------------- Now, we are almost home!!! Click your Windows Start button, hit the icon that looks like a gear wheel called "Settings" Click on "Network & Internet", and then in the left hand column click on VPN In the VPN list, upper right of the box, you should see an entry for Algo VPN <YourIP> IKEv2. Click it once, and then choose "Connect". Because you downloaded and installed a certificate, you do not have to enter a password to use your new VPN. Congratulations, you are now on the Internet. Hidden from your ISP! And once you have practiced a few times deleting and creating a server, it will become very easy! If you have any trouble with my instructions, or issues with something not working correctly, please let me know. Especially if I have any typos or problems within my information. .
  7. I am doing research on hard drive speeds, and seeing just how fast I can get drives to read and write data. Faster loading times for regular software, faster games. I had to replace my old computer which had a major hardware issue. It was freezing up constantly, even after I underclocked it by 50%. Because of the chip and tech shortage right now, it's darned near impossible to buy a top tier video card. The only option I had was to purchase a "pre-built" machine with the bones that I wanted, i.e. the right motherboard, CPU, case, and most importantly the GPU / Video card. Ram and other small parts are easily replaceable, which I have done. So I said goodbye to the old i7 4770k with dual GTX 770's, and hello to my little friend: Processor :: AMD Ryzen 9 5900X Processor 24 cpu cores (24X 3.7GHz/64MB L3 Cache) Memory :: 16GB [8GB x 2] DDR4-3200MHz RGB Replaced with 128GB [32GB x 4] DDR4-3600MHz ARGB (more on this and why this much is needed in a bit) Storage :: 1TB M.2 NVMe SSD Video Card :: GeForce RTX 3080 - 10GB GDDR6X (VR-Ready) Motherboard :: ASUS PRIME X570-PRO ES W/ WiFi So on with the story. As everyone knows, the bottlenecks in any computer system have always been around the storage solutions. Floppy disks gave way to hard drives, then on to SSD's, and recently there came the M.2 drives, each generation getting much faster than the one prior. I was once given a 1.5TB high voltage SCSI array (high end server hardware!) directly out of a business server room. It had 15 drives in a RAID 5 configuration to reach that storage size. I took it home happily, because 1.5TB hard drives weren't even available in the mid 1990's! I ran it for a couple of months, and then realized that the array cost me over $200 a month in electric bills. All by itself. Buhbye. A while back I had purchased 5 Samsung Pro 256GB SSD drives (solid state, no spinning platters) from a friend on the forum. I decided to add them into the new machine as a RAID 5 striped array. All 5 drives are used as one "logical" drive, with each one only having to read and write 1/5th of the data. This means that you can read and write up to 5 times faster than a single drive on a SATA6 port (this varies in the real world, but is a good starting point in describing a raid drive). Additionally, I added a 4TB old style hard drive with spinning platters for data and some other items that will be shown below. And now let's get on with the speed testing, and I will show you the results from the slowest to the fastest (The last item is an eye opener, no doubt!). First up, I tested an old USB 2.0 30GB thumb drive on the new system: (Here are what the codes mean: SEQ means sequential reads/writes, RND means random reads/writes, 1M is 1MB file size for the reads/writes, RND4k means random reads/writes of 4k in size) Traditional hard drives until recently could only read and write at 50MB per second, and that is only if you had a decent one... A USB 2 drive is about half that speed, as you can see. The next drive up is a new USB2 1TB stick, which is worse than the older one above: Next in line is the 4TB hard drive: (with the advent of SATA6, hard drive speeds more than doubled!) Now here comes some better speed. The M.2 NVMe drive that came with the system: (M.2 NVMe is a small board, not much bigger than a thumb drive that attaches on top of newer motherboards. They have a direct interface with the CPU, cutting out all of the traditional slowdowns by running all of the data through the motherboard chipsets) As you can see, the data transfer rates are now in the GB per second range (1,000 x MB), instead of merely measuring in sub 150MB speeds. This is over 20 times faster than the old style hard drives!  Here are the numbers for the SSD RAID 5 array. Better than the M.2 NVME, but not by a whole lot:  Still, 2.6GB of sustained transfer speeds is amazing. Now, as a real world test, I copied an 80GB file from the M.2 NVMe drive to the raid array: 1GB per second (a real world 1 Gigabyte transfer rate is kinda mind blowing, as the "modern" wired networks only transfer 1 gigabit per second!) Now comes the biggest, baddest disk transfer speeds I have ever seen! There is a piece of software available that allows you to portion out the RAM on your computer, making it into a functional "hard drive". It's called RAMDisk, and if you have enough RAM on your system, you can utilize it for some amazing storage and transfer speeds. This is why I spent the extra $550 dollars on the ram upgrade, and $21 for the personal use RAMDisk. http://memory.dataram.com/products-and-services/software/ramdisk RAMDisk - Software that Accelerates, Protects, Optimizes - Server Memory Products & Services - Dataram An affiliate (referral) program is a terrific way to earn some extra cash online. If you have a website, blog, social media, etc. then you can quickly and easily begin earning money. memory.dataram.com   Here's the weird thing: I purchased the RAMDisk Extreme upgrade, which supposedly raises your RAM drive allocation to 64GB. It did not limit me to that size, but instead allows me to use as much of my RAM as I like. I don't think that they intended this, and I sure as hell am not going to tell them they screwed it up!  I apportioned a hard drive in RAM that is 80GB of storage, leaving my system with 48GB of usable RAM for the operating system.  It doesn't sound like much, but I can load 6 or 7 of my favorite games on it, and enjoy the fastest machine possible for my budget. Anyone familiar with computers knows that your RAM disappears when you shut your computer off. This software writes all new or changed data to a file on an actual disk drive, backing up the RAMDisk in real time. When your system starts, it automatically loads the drive back into your RAM.  Here are the speeds that I achieved today with the new RAMDisk:  14.4 and 12 Gigabytes per second transfer speeds? Are you freakin' kidding me?? Now my mind really was blown. I loaded several of my favorite games on the new ram drive. Portal 1 and 2. Half Life 2. Quake 2 RTX. Pinball Arcade. They loaded in a blink of an eye. Even level changes were darned near instantaneous. Just incredible. I also moved my "Temporary Internet Files" to a folder on this drive to speed up web browsing. Anyway, just thought you would like to see some real world options, so that the next time you are either building or buying a system you can make more informed decisions. Oicu p.s. Here are some other ram disk software options: https://www.raymond.cc/blog/12-ram-disk-software-benchmarked-for-fastest-read-and-write-speed/
  8. $850 https://boston.craigslist.org/gbs/ele/d/foxboro-all-original-klipsch-forte-ii/7407268144.html All Original Klipsch Forte II Speakers Heritage Series - electronics... All Original Klipsch Forte II Speakers Heritage Series These truly are Superb sounding speakers designed by the Legendary Paul W. Klipsch The Oak cabinets are in good condition... The never modified... boston.craigslist.org 
  9. Looks like they just need a light dusting... https://boston.craigslist.org/sob/msg/d/rockland-two-big-klipsch-speakers-hi/7408143318.html Two big klipsch speakers 🔊 Hi Dale. Klipsch KG 5.5 - musical... In great shape boston.craigslist.org 
  10. I've owned the Blows 901/6's, and I think his ears and estimating ability might be a tad off.
  11. Congratulations! I think you're going to love these.
  12. I would love to have the Heresy Pro's, just too far from Florida. Good luck with your sale, but I would post a new thread. Not many people will read through your Khorns wanted thread and find out that you also have La Scalas and Heresies for sale.
  13. On the upper left side, close to where it joins the top, do you see the letter "A" embossed anywhere on either of them?
  14. Not quite. It's simply difficult to impart the generational leap of a new speaker design across the internet, when the end audience can't actually hear and feel the new product.
  15. These are 100W RMS mono amps out of Allen Organs. They work great (at least the ones that I got from another member here do, as I have 6 of them in service currently). RCA line inputs, bare wire outs which could easily be changed to bananas or 5-ways. Huge power supplies and capacitors. I use these with pre-amp outputs from a surround receiver, and they truly deliver. Clean, clear sound and they never even get warm. This is not my ad, I just found them and thought I would pass on a good deal: https://www.ebay.com/itm/165166085714?hash=item2674aa7652:g:T0oAAOSwr25hcKyZ I think that once you hear these, you will consider the $75ish dollars extremely well spent! I know that I absolutely love mine. I need to cut some birch ply to make bases for mine. I've seen these added to a pair of La Scala before, attached next to the crossovers to make them self powered speakers... edit: Come to think of it, I've seen La Scala that were built into Allen Organs.
  16. Carl, good luck on picking these up! I can help you empty a few hiding spots again if necessary. Got any more of the organ amps? *<;o)
  17. Great deal, especially if you can talk him into including the ported sub...
  18. They're not THAT much bigger than the Jubilee bass bins, right? You could make Jubilee XL's!
  19. Someone is going to get a real deal. Needs woofers. https://www.ebay.com/itm/133908114839?hash=item1f2d8bad97:g:lEUAAOSwmvRhbkm7 Klipsch MWM Bass Horns - Unloaded | eBay Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Klipsch MWM Bass Horns - Unloaded at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products! www.ebay.com 
  20. You should pick these up, that's a good price even with the marking. They aren't 1981, they are most likely 1977 with those badges. I have an identical pair of Heresy 'E' Walnut Oiled (Exported to Germany) from '77 with the same badges (and thankfully without the offending flowerpot ghost...)
  21. That does seem way cheap. Somebody go grab this one, especially since he says he can demo it for you with a pair of Belles!
  22. @Travis In Austin Would you like to move this thread to "Technical/Modifications" for us, please? Thank you in advance!
×
×
  • Create New...