Braxiatel

Category: Comp

Braxiatel is the new computer that I have built. It has a 433MHz (overclocked to 445MHz or 888.01 BogoMIPS) Intel Celeron processor and 128MB of RAM. (Yes, I do know about the problems that Intel had with earlier versions of the Celeron processor, but this newer model has worked fine for me, except for when I try to overclock it to 500MHz+.) It is running Debian GNU/Linux 2.3 using the Linux 2.2.15 kernel. I have found this to be fairly stable, as the only real problems I've had were all my fault <big grin>. I'm currently connected to the Internet with a 56k dial-up connection (more about this later).

Note: Actually, there is no "official" version 2.3 of Debian, as it is currently under development. The real version name is "woody".

My Internet Connection

Ah yes, the heart of the matter. This is where I tell you about exactly how my Internet connection is set up. (I'm sure that my ISP would love to know about some of this stuff...)

Basically, I'm connected to the Internet using a 56kbps dial-up line (using PPP, of course) via Locl.net I have PPPd (dial-up networking for you Windows folks) set up in "demand dialing mode". This means that my modem is only turned on as needed, even though it "looks" like a constant connection (from the perspective of, say, Netscape Navigator). This is pretty much in line with the way that connections are handled on (modern) Windows PC's and Macs.

There are several important differences between my set-up and the set up of your average PC. First, through the use of PPPd's ip-up feature, I can execute programs each time that a connection is initiated (much like DUNCE). Secondly, PPPd is set up to drop the connection after only two and a half minutes of inactivity. (This is so that I don't eat up too much of my ISP's bandwidth...)

My ip-up Script

So, what sorts of things are executed by my ip-up script? The best way to present it is in order, so here are the steps:

  1. My static list of DNS servers is updated using the information provided by Locl.net during the connection process.
  2. Fetchmail downloads all of my new email from both Locl.net's and Tri-State's mail servers, and puts it into Exim's queue.
  3. Exim (my "mail server") flushes it's queue of outgoing messages. Thus, all of my new mail will be delivered, and any mail which I have written will be shipped out.
  4. My current IP address is stored in a file (/var/run/ppp.addr). This address will be stamped on to any newly-generated web pages (this will be explained later).
  5. My current IP address is reported to DynDNS.org. (This will also be explained later.)
  6. My system's clock is updated using the NTP host at harbor.ecn.purdue.edu
  7. New articles from all of the Usenet newsgroups that I am subscribed to is downloaded and handed off to INN. (This will yet again be explained later.)

My So-Called "Server" Programs

As you may have noticed in the above list, I have many Server-type programs running on my personal computer. This is because in the UNIX (and Linux) world, 'offline'-style mail and news reading is handled partly by specially-configured server programs. This is a rather common practice.

Other "server" programs are part of my attempts at remote-access. I don't have much use for that anymore, but I just haven't got around to removing them. :-) The address braxiatel.dyndns.org is part of this effort. My IP address is reported to their server in the vain hope that it might actually work. :-)

Mail Delivery

My mail deliver starts with fetchmail, which retrieves all of my mail from Locl.net and Tri-State. fetchmail hands it on to exim, which delivers it to procmail.