Review: Excito Bubba home server - Personal Computer World

The Bubba server is the closest we have seen to a computer that fulfils this dream of sharing files, networking a printer, streaming media, downloading files and Bit Torrents as well as organising emails and acting as a web and ftp server.

This server has had me excited in a way that no hardware has managed for many years. Small, quiet, plenty of storage space and very low power requirements make it everything I’ve wanted from a home server. And it runs Linux. I almost hesitate from saying this too loud because the words server and Linux too close together scare most ordinary users but the Bubba is a triumph of intelligent design. It can be controlled entirely through a well designed web interface so the underlying OS is not such an issue.

Of course, this does not mean that the OS choice is unimportant. Linux reduces the cost and delivers performance way beyond what I would expect from Windows on a similar platform.

Read the review for the full story, I’m off to try and calm down!

eXcito - Your files anywhere, anytime…

Accessing your files where ever you are - that’s freedom. Being able to place your server in a small drawer, always running - that’s freedom. Not being bothered by constant fan noise - that’s freedom.

I’m very excited about this. Partly because it runs Linux but mostly becuase it appears to be a rock solid solution to the problem of where to keep files when I move between more than one computer at home. It’s also relatively cheap too which is always a good thing.

Linux.com | Note to new Linux users: No antivirus needed

Misleading claims and false advertising by virus protection rackets to the contrary, you simply don’t need antivirus products to keep your Linux box free of malware.

While I agree that Linux does not need antivirus protection, I consider it good practice to have some form of AV protection on a Linux computer. Not for that computer’s benefit mind (at least, not at the moment) but for Windows users. Email borne viruses may pass through your inbox by mistake.

Then again, some distributions come with AV built in; it’s also open source so there’s no licensing issues. If you read the verbose mode of Mandriva there is a reference to ClamAV. Grisoft also has a Linux version of the ever popular AVG Free for Linux.

None of this detracts from the fact that Linux is far more resilient to viruses. Sadly though there is no solution to human error relied upon by most phising attacks…

Setting up your system network can be hard enough. You organise your router, firewall, connection to the internet and the workstations you need to connect to your router.You then sort out the required Ethernet cables, hiding them within your walls, so that your network is self-contained.Over time you’ll probably add more workstations to your network, and multiple network engineers will make other amendments.In the future you might find that you need to make major structural changes to your existing network. Can you remember what is connected to which router and how your workstations are all networked?The Dude is a network monitor that will enable you to scan all the devices within a network subnet and then draw a map of the network devices and tell you where your workstations are connected and warn you of service problems.Better still, your network doesn’t need to be internal. If your company has a network between offices, The Dude will enable you to map the entire network.Note this is an advanced tool for network engineers.

The Dude 2.0 beta 3 - Computeract!ve

Blogged with Flock