Its been a few days that I did some tweaking on Squid Proxy and it appears stable! This all came about as I was trying to speed-up data fetching and finding that for some reason the cache was just too slow for actual use. I wondered if it was at all worth it (obviously slow proxy means unhappy users ... especially if its your home users).
In gratitude to the discussion I found in the forum, its reposted and message re-arranged here in summary below:
Question:
Why squid is so slow?
Answer:
The default configuration of pfSense is a router not as a server, that is why kern.ipc.nmbclusters="0". Simply remove this line and Squid will be just fine.
Add the lines below to the /boot/loader.conf
kern.ipc.nmbclusters=32768
kern.maxfiles=65536
kern.maxfilesperproc=32768
net.inet.ip.portrange.last=65535
Alternatively, just delete it and replace with:
autoboot_delay="1"
#kern.ipc.nmbclusters="0"
hint.apic.0.disabled=1
kern.hz=100
#for squid
kern.ipc.nmbclusters="32768"
kern.maxfiles="65536"
kern.maxfilesperproc="32768"
net.inet.ip.portrange.last="65535"
Sunday, December 27, 2009
Monday, December 07, 2009
Laptop and Netbook: HD on chip?
There's a big push as well as demand for high definition capable hardware. The simple reason being that once you've seen HD done right then there's really no point going back to standard definition (SD).
Most places are now offering HD versions of movies and even video game trailers are usually transmitted in this format to provide users an actual feel of how it would render on the actual console.
My journey to build an HD record and playing rig (PVR) was fraught with a lot of frustration recently and that was because I simply refused to cannibalize my stock pile of parts and use the best of the best and purchasing expensive hardware was not an option. The reality of course is that high definition viewing requires computing power not just from the CPU but also on the GPU.
Video cards that support h.264/x264 aren't cheap but prices are falling. For laptops and netbooks however we're all stuck in the waiting room. That is, until recently.
Broadcom's Cyrystal HD running on chip as BMC70015 is one of the top contenders. Already there's been some scramble to get products out since May and adding to your long term view pleasure only costs $30 on top for the add-on video accelerator.
The other chip in the market is from Quartics via the QV1721. This is secret sauce since I first got wind of it only a few months ago and wondered which product would carry it. The estimated add-on price would be $20 accordingly. On another note, they also offer the QB7xx (51/61/71) which are PCI-Express (PCI-e) solutions for the rest of you PC users.
ZiiLABS is promoting its ZMS-08 chip with competing Blu-Ray capabilities. This Creative subsidiary will be going against some giants so it'll be tough unless they can provide a competitive price. I haven't been able to find a vendor they've already tapped but shipping volume is expected also in the first month of next year.
The other news in town would be the nVidia ION 2 chip which was said to cost from $50 to have. If you were luck enough to pre-order back in September then you'll probably be getting a $399 notebook come January 2010 (yes, chip released in Q4 2009 but product integration and all is something else).
Personally by just looking at specs I was more wow'ed by chip capabilities of Quartics. That being said, the first vendor that comes out with it is going to be high on my shopping list .... for 2010. Take a look at my other projects on the blog and there shouldn't be any questions what for :-)
Most places are now offering HD versions of movies and even video game trailers are usually transmitted in this format to provide users an actual feel of how it would render on the actual console.
My journey to build an HD record and playing rig (PVR) was fraught with a lot of frustration recently and that was because I simply refused to cannibalize my stock pile of parts and use the best of the best and purchasing expensive hardware was not an option. The reality of course is that high definition viewing requires computing power not just from the CPU but also on the GPU.
Video cards that support h.264/x264 aren't cheap but prices are falling. For laptops and netbooks however we're all stuck in the waiting room. That is, until recently.
Broadcom's Cyrystal HD running on chip as BMC70015 is one of the top contenders. Already there's been some scramble to get products out since May and adding to your long term view pleasure only costs $30 on top for the add-on video accelerator.
The other chip in the market is from Quartics via the QV1721. This is secret sauce since I first got wind of it only a few months ago and wondered which product would carry it. The estimated add-on price would be $20 accordingly. On another note, they also offer the QB7xx (51/61/71) which are PCI-Express (PCI-e) solutions for the rest of you PC users.
ZiiLABS is promoting its ZMS-08 chip with competing Blu-Ray capabilities. This Creative subsidiary will be going against some giants so it'll be tough unless they can provide a competitive price. I haven't been able to find a vendor they've already tapped but shipping volume is expected also in the first month of next year.
The other news in town would be the nVidia ION 2 chip which was said to cost from $50 to have. If you were luck enough to pre-order back in September then you'll probably be getting a $399 notebook come January 2010 (yes, chip released in Q4 2009 but product integration and all is something else).
Personally by just looking at specs I was more wow'ed by chip capabilities of Quartics. That being said, the first vendor that comes out with it is going to be high on my shopping list .... for 2010. Take a look at my other projects on the blog and there shouldn't be any questions what for :-)
Friday, December 04, 2009
HP MediaServer EX470: HP Software Update 1.3-R and Home Server Power Pack 3
Its been a hectic few days, what with all the meetings and reporter interviews. Not to mention system maintenance and all that.
On the side though, its time to break out in song: At LastAt last my love has come along
My lonely days are over
And life is like a song ...
My HP MediaServer EX475 is once again alive and kicking and rid of that pesky lit RED LED. This same issue with the light was actually fixed some time after PP1 but it never dawned on me that somehow through some freak mishap the automatic installation of PP3 just recently actually rolled the server updates back.
How? I'm not so sure.
What is sure is that my membership in the WHS Beta Program still stands and that part of being a member is to be able to get bleeding updates. I dropped the ball and interest after PP2 came out and proof that's what was installed is the existence of the PVConnect plug-in. At the same time my HP Server Update version was 1.3.6.21622 and for some reason today it had rolled back to 1.1.1.13411?To review, here's the HP MediaSmart Server Software Version list thus far:
1.1.1.13411
1.3.6.21622
1.3.8.25155
I also spent partial half of the whole afternoon trying to understand and reconfigure the internals of Photo Webshare due to the Error 500 page. Imagine the annoyance to find that after the initial update and the succeeding 1.3-R that it now works after all. Argh!
Right, with that being said everything is now working well and it feels a lot more snappy.To recap .... Windows Home Server Power Pack 3 - check; HP MediaSmart Server Update 1.3.8.25155 (aka 1.3-R) - check; red warning light off - check; Photo Webshare back - check; and as you'll probably notice there's 2GB RAM already installed from a previous upgrade primed for HP Server Update 2.5 - check!
Its time to enjoy the WHS once again, that is as soon as the Drobo finishes its data protection run which it has pegged to keep going for over 24-hours. Its now apparently "usable" though even if the rest of the message says the Share isn't protecting any of my data at this time. Duh?
Tuesday, December 01, 2009
pfSense: Triple Load Balancing
After several wrong turns, I've finally gotten my rig to play nice with three-(3) WAN connections load balanced.Everything is running on an old Intel P3-1000 with 1-GB of RAM and 40-GB PATA drive. Obviously its got four-(4) Ethernet ports with parts scrounged from various spare cases in the garage.
How'd I do it? More details on the adventure shortly....
There's a fairly easy Multi-WAN tutorial to follow over at pfSenseDocs which deals with a basic dual-LAN setup. Using the funny discussion at one of the forums gave me confirmation of what I needed to do. Next thing you'll need to do is make sure outbound is likewise working.
Enjoy!
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