The Uberkewl Network
Maybe you were wondering how I am able to have my very own presence on the world wide web. The answer to your question would be my network which is comprised of a firewall, a few computers and routers and the software I run on those machines. I should also note my utility and internet bills as well.
Uberkewl Network Topology Diagram
When entering my abode via the cable internet, the first thing you will encounter is my RCA cable modem. After managing your way past the cable modem you will run into my firewall. This is a commercial grade Cisco PIX 506E hardware firewall appliance. If you are good internet traffic then my firewall will send you on your way through the 5 port network hub to your destination inside the network. If you are not good internet traffic then my firewall will drop your ass like a hot potato while logging every piece of information about you that it can find. Since you are not bad internet traffic you were sent to Athena, which hosts my webserver. Almost all of the hardware on my network is named for mythological places or beings.
Cisco Secure PIX 506E Firewall (pix.uberkewl.net)
The above image is a photo of my Cisco PIX 506E firewall appliance named pix.uberkewl.net. This device inspects and logs every packet of data that attempts to enter the Uberkewl Network. If the traffic is of the specific type that is allowed, then the device forwards the packet to the appropriate destination, otherwise it is dropped into the dark bottomless abyss of /dev/null
Network Everywhere 5 Port 10/100 Mbps Ethernet Hub
& Buffalo NFiniti 5 Port Wireless Router (morrow.uberkewl.net)
The above image is a photo of my Network Everywhere 5 Port 10/100 Mbps Ethernet Hub and my Buffalo NFiniti 5 Port Wireless Router. If your packets make it past the Cisco PIX 506E then they move to the Network Everywhere 5 Port Ethernet Hub for distribution to either one of the machines connected to it or to the Buffalo NFiniti Wireless Router for distribution to a wireless device or to one of the wired devices plugged into it.
Athena
The image on the left is a photo of my internet services machine named athena.uberkewl.net. Athena is named after the Greek goddess of wisdom, war, the arts, industry, justice and skill. This box is a sleeper. On the outside, Athena looks like a Dell Dimension XPS D300 which is a Pentium II 333 MHz computer. Mythological stories often tell of Athena changing her appearance to fool the Humans she was manipulating and just like the Greek goddess this Athena is in disguise because inside the dull drab DELL Computer exterior is an ECS K7S5A Pro motherboard with 256 MB of DDR SDRAM installed and an AMD Thoroughbred Core Athlon XP 2000+ 1.6 GHz processor plugged into the socket. The mainboard also provides onboard fast ethernet courtesy of the SiS900 PCI fast ethernet controller as well as both USB 1.1 and USB 2.0 capabilities. The graphic display is provided by a Nvidia Riva 128 graphics adapter. Athena also has a DVD drive, ZIP drive, and 1.44MB floppy drive. The case was given to me by my mother when she upgraded her computer, I stripped out the old motherboard and processor and replaced it with an ECS K7S5A Pro motherboard that I had laying around and dug the 1.6 Ghz processor out of my spare parts and plugged it into the socket. A fresh new copy of Gentoo Linux was installed on the 6 GB hard disk. Athena is responsible for all internet services provided by the Uberkewl Network. In fact the pages you are reading right now are being served to you by Athena. Since only the best will do, the webserver is an Apache. Athena also runs a MySQL database server for fast, secure data storage and retrieval, Authoritative Domain Name Service for both the Uberkewl.net and Uberkewl.com domains is provided by Athena's Bind name server. Everyone who knows me well knows I am an IRC whore so Athena provides me with the opportunity to run my own IRC network complete with nick, channel, oper, and memo services via the UnrealIRCd IRC server daemon and the ircservices services daemon.
Hera
The image on the left is a photo of my Linux gaming machine named hera.uberkewl.net. Hera is named after the Queen of the Greek gods and the goddess of marriage and birth. Hera is an uberkewl custom machine built from parts that were donated by a friend. Hera is powered by an AMD Sempron 3000+ 1.8 GHz processor, 512 MB DDR 400 SDRAM, eVGA Nvidia e-GeForce 8400 GS 256 MB DDR2 PCI-E Graphics Adapter, Western Digital 120 GB IDE Hard Disk and a Creative SoundBlaster Audigy sound card. The games that I play on this machine include DOOM 3, Quake III Arena, Quake 4, Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, Unreal Tournament, Unreal Tournament 2004, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Wolfenstein:Enemy Territory
Pasiphae
The image on the left is a photo of my Linux home entertainment computer named pasiphae.uberkewl.net. Pasiphae is named after the mother of the Greek Minotaur and one of the original oracular goddesses of Greece. Pasiphae is an uberkewl custom machine that was originally an IBM NetVista. It was obtained from a car dealership who had put it in the trash. Once the machine was inspected it was determined that the motherboard was burned up like an overcooked tater-tot, so the motherboard was replaced with an Asus P4V8X-MX mainboard and has remained perfectly stable for the last 2 years. Pasiphae is currently powered by an Intel Pentium 4 1.8 Ghz processor, 256 Mb DDR RAM, Hauppage WinTV-Go TV Capture Card and an Nvidia GeForce 440MX graphics Adapter. Pasiphae runs MythTV and uses a 32" Toshiba TV to play DVDs and Movies. If I had an extra hard disk and cable TV then it would serve as a Tivo video recorder as well.
Zeus
The image on the left is a photo of my Windows file server/workstation/game rig named zeus.uberkewl.net. Zeus is named after the King of the Greek Olympian Gods and the God of Weather. Zeus is an uberkewl custom machine that was originally built about 5 years ago from parts ordered from Yahoo! Auctions, but has since been updated and had parts replaced. Zeus is currently powered by an AMD Athlon XP 2400+ Barton Core processor, Biostar M7VIG4 mainboard, 640 Mb DDR RAM, and an ATI Radeon 9600 LE graphics Adapter. These parts are all housed in an Antec SOHO server case. Storage is provided by a 250 Gb Maxtor IDE Hard Disk and a 180 Gb Western Digital IDE Hard Disk. Zeus serves multimedia files across the Uberkewl Network to the entertainment computer named Pasiphae. Zeus is also used when I need to use Windows based applications for school and when I play game titles that are not supported by Linux. Some of the games I play on this computer include Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2 Episode 1, Counter-Strike:Source, Day of Defeat:Source, Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter, and America's Army
Cisco 4000 Series 4700-M Router (router.uberkewl.net)
The image above is a photo of my Cisco 4700 router. At the present time, this device isn't assigned to any useful network specific task. Its current role is educational toy. This allows me to play with it and help me learn Cisco specific technologies. This is a commercial grade router with 2 ethernet interfaces, 2 serial interfaces, and 8 BRI ISDN interfaces as well as a console interface for administrative conectivity