Need More Power!

So a few posts ago I was writing about how I installed a light in my shed. Well this time I'm gonna tell you about what I did with the other two batteries from that post, and how I now have power in my shed.

So to start I basically did the same thing for the wiring, and a copper tie.

The big difference here is I had to connect the two batteries in series to get 24V. (Nice little document here) Why do I need 24V you ask....? So we can connect it to a Smart UPS 1500.

I have seen the Smart UPS 1500 on ebay between $45-$60 without the battery, and that's exactly how I want it seeing how I have my own.

Battery Set UP
So once again.... I cut some copper pipe to the length I needed, hammered the heck out of both ends, made 90 degree angles (on both ends), and drilled the ends of the pipe to connect to the battery terminals. Once this was all done, I used the tie (Notice it is one in this case) to connect one set of terminals on the batteries. One Positive (+) on one battery and one negative (-) on the other battery to connect them in series.

We want the battery in series so they need to be connected Positive, negative (+ -), Positive, negative (+ -).

So I placed the copper tie I made on one + of one battery and - to the other battery. On the other end I placed the copper of the romex directly to the battery terminal (White +, black -). The romex runs from the battery to a light switch.

Smart UPS Setup
I drilled a hole in the top of the UPS case to slip the romex wire in and connect it to the UPS. I had to cut the connector on the UPS and use wire nuts to secure the connection from the UPS to the romex. Once that was completed, I ran the romex to the light switch.



The light switch is wired the same way as in my previous post. The reasoning behind the switch is so I can kill all power going to the UPS system when not in use. (The UPS its self uses some power)

Now whenever I need Power, I just flip the switch and hold the power button in on the USP for about 5 seconds, and BAM!!! I have power.

Now the big downer with this system is two things.

1.) When you run the UPS to power something, it alarms. That is easily remedied with a pare of pliers by removing the alarm.
2.) Charging is a bit of a pain. Every time I go to charge the batteries I have to brake down the connections so I can charge each 12V battery separately.

In theory you can use the charger on the UPS to charge the batteries. From what I understand it wold take me days to charge these due to the size of the batteries.

So far I have used this system to run a small stereo in my shed. In theory I could also use it for more lighting if need be, or a small shop vac. I'm still in the process of deciding if I want to use all four batteries for this system and get one small 12V for my light. If I use all four for this system I would be able to increase my usage by quite a bit.

Perhaps one day I will get a solar charger, but that will be some other project to write about.

So has anyone else done something like this?

Call All Network Security Geeks! PacketProtector is here to help!

So I thought I would tell you about a fairly new router firmware. This is not going to be an uber geek post, just a quick overview and my thoughts.

I like to play with new firmwares on my router. I have played with most stock firmwares, DDWRT, Tomato, and a few others. However; one day while looking for Vlan support on my Linksys WRTSL54GS I came across PacketProtector. I was intrigued, and thought I'd give it a go.

The folks that run the forum were very supportive and helpful when I ran into some Vlan problem and helped me as much as they could. Unfortunately no matter what I did or tried I could not get Vlan to work. However that was about a year ago, and here we are today!

PacketProtector is built on top of OpenWRT and aims for and easy and intuitive network security OS for a few different types of routers. PacketProtector is still in its infancy and has only been around for a few years with only a hand full of developers.

Considering the lack of users and developers that the packetprotector community has, the project has not slowed down one bit. They continue to push the security bar and have continued bug fixes, development, enhancements, and releases with loyal dedication some larger projects wish they had.

Installation is easy as you can tell by their documentation.

On my WRTSL54GS it was as simple as uploading the Packetprotector .bin file to the administrative "Upgrade Firmware" interface on tomato.

Side Note:
Before I installed PP, I did a backup of my routers config so if need be I could revert back to my original settings.
I eventual went back to Tomato just to test a few things out. (Just to see how easy it would be to revert back to tomato)

To get to back Tomato all I did was go to "system-Upgrade" in PP and uploaded the tomato.trx file. Once that was complete I uploaded tomato for the WRTSL54GS .

Now once I did that, I noticed something funny. All my original configurations were still there...nothing was lost or changed. This in theory could cause problems. It may be a good idea to do a system rest or clear the NVRAM on the router before installing PP.

Packetprotector by default is set with security in mind and automatically has https enabled at install, and has wireless disabled.

Once you log onto the Packet Protector Webif you will be greeted with a message stating "Default password hash Found!" With a link to change the password. However you should install the USB drive before you do anything.

So per the documentation we add the files from the USB tarball to the root of the drive. (Drive needs to be formatted Fat16, or ext3). So in the root of the drive you should have a "packetetprotector" directory and a "packetetprotector_home" directory.) From there we "turn off" the router and install the USB Drive. Once that is complete turn the router back on and wait for it to boot.

As you can see Packet Protector aims for a user friendly webif but falls short here for any noob. However if its power and control you seek its all right there under the hood! Packet protector allows you to install new packages (need to be connected online for that) and uses Opendns by default.

As you can see from the description from the main site this is not an average firmware.

a stateful firewall (iptables)
WPA/WPA2 Enterprise wireless (802.1X and PEAP with FreeRADIUS)
intrusion prevention (Snort-inline)
remote access VPN (OpenVPN)
content filtering/parental controls (DansGuardian)
web antivirus (DG + ClamAV)
a local certificate authority (OpenSSL)
secure management interfaces (SSH and HTTPS)
advanced firewall scripts for blocking IM and P2P apps
IP spoofing prevention (Linux rp_filter)
basic protocol anomaly detection (ipt_unclean)
anti-phishing (OpenDNS)
automatic signature/rule updates

Each of these services is automatically bootstrapped and configured with sensible defaults. A secure web interface makes common configuration tasks as simple as a point and click.

Not too bad ha....? Packet Protector has lots to offer for any security geek out there. However I would say noob's may want to hold off on this one for a while.

As with all things good there are a few downers. As I mentioned before the web interface needs a lot of work and may confuse or be difficult for a noob. There are also some things I'd like to see added to the Webif such as an easy way of turning the router into a secure proxy, add-blocking with a black and white list, an option for DNSOmatic in the dynDNS tab, as well as multiple DHCP servers for Vlans.

As of writing this there is currently a discussion going on about the Webif being updated. Feel free to join in!

In closing Packetprotector has major potential to be a major player in the 3rd party router firmware world. They could be a big hitter among security geeks everywhere, but could user a bigger developer and user base to get there. I look forward to being part of that community and hope you will join me.

How is this in X-tremegeek???

So the other day I was looking through the x-tremegeek catalog that was sent to my house and came across an item called PoopFreeze. I was shocked?? How is this geek.

Trying to make sense of this all I could think of was....

"Think of the hours of fun you can have with poopfreeze...You and you friends can freeze fresh poop and save it for latter experiments, or you can freeze it and smash it with a hammer into thousand of little poop pieces. How cool is that boys and girls?"

Yeah...so no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't make any sense of it.

Love the description...
"Even law-abiding dog owners think twice when the, ahem, product is particular warm and gooey. Poop Freeze to the rescue! Just aim and squirt to chill animal waste to -62°F, creating an outer "crust" that makes the unpleasant "grab and bag" a little more tolerable. Effective on all kinds of waste, including dog poop, cat poop, bird poop, lizard poop and more!"

Wow..., Just Wow....Could you imaging if this were an infomercial?
Oh the fun you could have....While we are on the subject of poop....whats this?
Love the description on this too...

"Kobayashi Toilet Deodorizer Plain and simple... this stuff works! We don't know how, but it works. Just put one tiny drop of this amazing deodorizer in the toilet before you sit and take, uh... care of business, and it miraculously prevents offensive odors from reaching deadly levels. It's a clear colorless liquid with just a slight hint of fragrance that doesn't cover up" or "do battle" with odors like those flowery overpowering sprays. It's as if offensive odors simply can't escape the toilet! It's amazing!"

Seems these two items are popular as they are out of stock at the moment of writing this. Well...If anything else I guess it make a good X-Mas Gift for that SPECIAL someone.

Ok.... no more toilet humor. I shall now return to geekhood!