So I have been thinking a lot about VPN, I want to securely access my home network and VPN is the best way to do that.

As I have mentioned in previous post I use

on my router.  This free software allows me to adapt my .  One of the variants out there for Tomato firmware allows me to run an

server from the router.

Using this

I would have the ability to connect securely and become part of my network from anywhere in the world.  This got me thinking a little more…

I have a small portable

solution, running on Ubuntu, if I had a VPN server up and running on my router I could configure the VPN client on Ubuntu to securely connect and be part of my network – allowing me to stream my content securely/encrypted anywhere in the world!

So I am on the search, I need to find a good application for port

triggering.

I use uTorrent for getting various content/distributions, however I

don’t want traffic hitting my router when I am not using the

application.  To get the best out of uTorrent you need to open a port on

your router (port forward), but I don’t want that port to be open when

my application is not running, so what’s the solution – port triggering.

There is an application out there that will work ,

but it is not supported in Windows 7.  The basic idea is that when Port

Trigger sees the application of choice (uTorrent) running, it will

intermittently send a request to a port.  This port request can then be

set up at your router to open the configured port for your application

connection.  Then, when the application is not running Port Trigger no

longer ‘pings’ the trigger port, and the router will not open the port

for the application.

If anyone has any suggestions for a Windows 7 supported application,

please get in touch!

My router running Tomato firmware:

So I used to be a big fan of Lupas Rename 2000 (), but I came across a problem that it could not solve.

I had several files that had characters at the start of the filename that I wanted to move to the end… after some searching I found a utility (free too) that could accomplish my requirement.  It’s called Bulk Rename Utility ().

This nifty little application allows me to, for example, do the following:

Original filename – “(1937) Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.avi”

New Filename – “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937).avi”

This is an example you understand…

The application can be downloaded as an installer, or as a stand alone application – for all you portable pundits out there.

So, I like P2P for getting my downloads fast, new Linux distributions and such, but what about sharing my content?  Most of the content I want to share with my family and friends is private, and I would like to keep it that way, so what are my options?  Well, I don’t want to use P2P for sharing my files, as that will allow anyone to get hold of it… but I want the security and speed offered via a distributed system.  I don’t want the hassle of setting up a secure FTP server, mostly because messing with SSH certificates is a bit of a bore.  The solution I found, uses the benefits of P2P, and the administration of SFTP – F@F.

is the acronym for a friend to friend network, this solution will allow me to use a P2P network structure, but only invite friends to join in the media sharing.  After some looking around I have found .  This little application is cross-platform, meaning it can be run on Linux, Mac, and Windows – truly allowing any of my friends/family to access and retrieve my data.  There are a few options for F2F, but I believe

to be the only active project with cross-platform support… but if you know different, share the love!

I currently have it running on my Ubuntu HTPC, as it is always on, I have yet to get friends/family set up with their clients, as I want to play with it a little myself.

So I signed up to be notified about the

beta, but I never received an email – today I went to check the site out for an update… the beta has been out since the 7th.  I have downloaded the deb on my Ubuntu machine and installed it:

sudo dpkg -i “downloaded file name without quotes”

Probably have dependency issues…

sudo apt-get -f install

Worth checking on a few updates…

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get upgrade

Well, obviously I haven’t had a chance to check it out, but we will see – I am very interested in the social aspects of the application, but I am loving

with

right now!

Update:

So I played about with boxee for a short period, the beta is a much needed improvement, but I am not sure if I will switch to it from xbmc!

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