We're migrating spreadsheets and Visio drawings to 3GIS (www.3-gis.com) for the ability to track fiber paths, etc. We evaluated a number of systems. It's based on ESRI, so it's standards based.
We have been using Asterisk for about 9 months. We came from an Altigen system. Our configuration was:
Digium 4 port T1 card and ADIT Channel bank with 8 FXO & 16 FXS ports Cisco 7960 SIP Phone Generic selection of SIP/IAX phones Intel Server Class hardware (ECC Memory, RAID, etc.)
The Altigen system was a 8x16 system, and had a really good call queue system. We just needed more extensions. My goal was to duplicate the capabilities of that system. I started using AMP, the asterisk management portal as my configuration "GUI". In our office, I have 2 Linux/Unix people, and 20 windows techs, so my goal was a user friendly management system that I didn't have to baby sit. Unfortunately, when we started, AMP didn't support call queues. I hand-coded in the queues, and had a problem with queue calls dropping directly to voicemail. I'm in the process of transferring all of my extensions into the latest version of AMP, but I still have a few issues.
We have a number of issues that I believe will be fixed when we switch out the config files, but as it is right now, Asterisk is very unforgiving of errors in the dial-plan configuration files. If I had the option to do it over again, I probably wouldn't have gone with Asterisk. I still have problems where a "ZAP" or analog extension will simply "lock up." I have an issue where SIP calls will unpredictably fail until the extension re-registers. We have set up a connection with voicepulse to do outbound long distance, and it's OK as long as traffic isn't too heavy.
My advice is to consider Asterisk under the following conditions:
You need a VERY simple phone system. An Asterisk server with 4 FXO lines, 8 VoIP extension, and simple IVR menues to get to the extensions.
or
You are looking for a complex phone system, and can dedicate the time to hand-create the dial-plan files to be exactly what you need.
or
You can pay Digium or a consultant to customize the phone system exactly for your needs.
Asterisk has so many capabilities, but (not to knock the developers) it is too easy to crash the engine with a misplaced dial-plan entry. I created a "time-and-temp" application just for fun. It's absolutely amazing what you can do with it. Unfortunately, it isn't coded with five-9's of uptime in mind. Changes to analog trunks require a complete restart, which may not be possible in a busy phone system.
I like Asterisk. I think that in the right circumstances, it's a great tool, but you have to go into it with your eyes open. If you're time is valuable, go for a packaged solution.
As far as VoIP, you need to consider two cases:
1: VoIP Handsets on the same network as the phone system. (At least 10Mb/s of bandwidth available) 2: VoIP for inbound & outbound Telco.
My experience has been that VoIP on the local network has worked fine. My phone is on the same VLAN as our production network, and it has all the standard services running over it for ~30 PC's. I have NEVER had an audible artifact related to network traffic, including when I was trying to saturate the link with 80Mb/s of traffic. We're running G.729 for all of our SIP phones.
My experience with VoIP over the Internet has been hit and miss. As long as you have enough bandwidth between you and the VoIP provider, you can expect at least cell phone quality. The problem is if you have any bandwidth constraints or packet loss, you will degrade rapidly. Someone else mentioned the difference between GSM, G.711, & G.729. G.729 does seem to be the best option for us.
If you are intentionally trying to interfere with the other user, you are looking at either harassment or restraint of trade. The other user would be within his rights to request a restraining order on that basis. That's why I said you had better have a good reason to be using the frequency you're on.
I would sugguest that you read the FCC Part-15 rules that all WiFi equipment operate under.
To Quote:
15.5 General conditions of operation.
(a) Persons operating intentional or unintentional radiators shall not be deemed to have any vested or recognizable right to continued use of any given frequency by virtue of prior registration or certification of equipment, or, for power line carrier systems, on the basis of prior notification of use pursuant to 90.63(g) of this chapter.
(b) Operation of an intentional, unintentional, or incidental radiator is subject to the conditions that no harmful interference is caused and that interference must be accepted that may be caused by the operation of an authorized radio station, by another intentional or unintentional radiator, by industrial, scientific and medical (ISM) equipment, or by an incidental radiator.
(c) The operator of a radio frequency device shall be required to cease operating the device upon notification by a Commission representative that the device is causing harmful interference. Operation shall not resume until the condition causing the harmful interference has been corrected.
Most users believe that (c) is the "first-come-first-served" clause, but it actually refers ONLY to the primary user of the frequency, the ham radio operators. All secondary users are subject to (b) which is that you must accept any interference from a type-approved radio, including that which may cause unintended operation.
If you are ramp up your power, you are no longer type-approved, and can be subject to (c). As long as your equipment is type-approved, or under the EIRP power limits, you have as much right to the frequencies as anyone else.
Note: This does not allow you to specifically construct a "jammer" or simply change frequencies specifically to interfere with someone else. That would be willful interference, and WILL land you in civil court. If you ever end up there, be prepared to show that you made a good faith effort to mitigate the interference issue, and that there were specific technical reasons why you needed to be at the frequency you were at...
Reading the BBC Article, they totally missed the point of the original article. It's not webmail that is a problem, but TLS/SSL encrypted IMAP or POP3 sessions. No self-respecting web-mail application sends the user-name and password with every screen. Most use a session key after login. It's not a big deal for webmail users, but for those who use TLS to connect to their IMAP/POP servers, it's an open window.
Actually, in the town of Naperville, IL, USA all new homes are required to have some accessible features. Check out http://abclocal.go.com/wls/news/karenmeyer/062702_ disable_naperville.html for the story.
Check out 9th Tee's web site. It's all there. You have to get a bash prompt, upload specific drivers and utilities, and then you're set. Only thing is that (as far as I know) you have to run it with the case open. The RF shielding won't allow the 802.11b out.
They also have a wired adapter that is a much better deal. You do have to drill a hole for the cable to go inside, but you get wire speed then.
It's been a long time since RF theory class, but the basics of shielding (and a faraday cage is just a big shield) require that the shield be grounded. Otherwise the signal resonates through the skin. Unless there is a LONG wire, it's not a faraday cage.
Because when someone is able to download at 5Mb/s one time, and then "only" at 1.5Mb/s the next time, they feel like there is a problem, they call and complain. The get mad when they are told that the speeds are subject to network congestion. From a human nature standpoint, people are much more content with consistent medium speeds than with varying high and low speeds. It sucks for the people who would understand bandwidth contention, but we're the minority....
Rant mode on:
The majority of DDOS attacks could be tracked if only more ISP's would put outbound packet filtering on. I am not a transit ISP, so there is never a reason for me to send a packet with a source IP address that doesn't belong to one of our assigned address blocks. There is no way for that packet to get back to me. The problem is that it requires a more powerfull router to support the filtering. If more ISP's implemented filtering, at least you could track exactly where DDOS attacks are comming from.
Consider stubing conduit boxes from each room into the basement or atic. If finishing the basement, put in a suspended celing. Then if/when you need something different, it's very easy to pull new wire in without pulling out walls, etc. You might want to consider boxes in multiple walls for larger rooms. It's a cheap simple way to make your life easier in the future.
I first installed Linux on an old Sager-Middern laptop (233MHz, 128MB Ram) and my battery life went from ~2 hours to 8+ hours. I am a "power-user" in that I normally have from 3 to 8 applications open at one time. Windows just sucked the battery dry. Linux seems to handle the large number of applications much better. Even with significant swapping going on. On top of that, you should see the looks I get when I "surf the web" from 35,000 feet.
The next logical step is multi-devices on the same DSL circuit. Before long your cable-box will have an ethernet port, and it will log into the media access gateway to pull what ever channel you want...
I know I'm late to the post, and very few people are going to read this. That being said, Consider what SBC seems to be doing: (Disclaimer - We run an ISP, but I have no inside information on SBC.)
SBC is in the process of putting in "Media-access-gateways" that you will be connecting to via your DSL modem. You will log into the gateway with your user-name and password. Once logged in, a proxy-radius request will be sent to the ISP's radius server. Based on the response, a permit/deny result will be sent back to the customer. If it is a permit, and the ISP provides their own bandwidth, an ATM SVC will be built back to the ISP's network, and the node registered. At that point you're connected until you reboot.
Sounds like a lot of work, doesn't it? Consider this: Your ISP seems to be slow, or you just want to try something different. By just changing the username/password, you can connect to any ISP you want. With the downturn of the ISP business, I can see SBC not wanting to get stuck with ISP losses, so I expect them to push the subscriber to pay for their own DSL line, and then pay the ISP for just a "connection" charge.
Just noticed, that since about 11:30 CST this morning, our bandwidth usage for our Internet links has been huge. We're looking at transparent proxy, which blocks the invalid HTTP request that the worm puts out.
If I remember correctly, it wasn't that they changed, but that Roxio used the published specifications from Gracenote to create their CDDB lookup integration. Therefore, they agreed to the terms and conditions of Gracenote's release of those specifications. This is in spite of the fact that the specifications were released under GPL before Gracenote became private.
Basically, since Roxio read Gracenote's specifications, any capability to connect to a CDDB database other than Gracenote would violate the current license.
Perhaps one of the largest opt-in mailing list houses on the internet? A good example, lyris provides the horsepower for http://www.thisistrue.com to send out each week.
A 14dB amp would amplify noise, but if you can put a higher signal into the cable, you will have higher signal comming out at the other end.
Without amplifiers, there is no "free-lunch." If you're going to increase gain, you're going to reduce coverage somewhere. In the case of omni-directional antennas, when you increase gain in the antenna, you're narrowing the coverage angle. With a Uni-Directional, you're directing all the energy and energy capture to a very small (15 degree X 8 degree for 24dBi) area.
There are ways to configure diversity antennas so that one supports transmit only, one for receive. Then you can put amps on each. You do have to make sure you are not exceeding the FCC gain limits. Usually if you're using amps, you have to do a point-to-point application. Any one interested in wireless network design should check out some of the documents on Breezecom's site. They give a good tutorial on how to increase range and still stay within the FCC requirements....
Correct, I fumble-fingered on the d/b. I'd like to know the exact type of cable. I just looked up, and the best heliax cable I can find is ~4.5dB/100M. Better than LMR-400, but not as good as LMR-600. The 1dB/100 sounds like a 900MHz rating...
If you check out Cisco's site, they have a nice range-calculation utility that takes this into account.
We've been using long-range 802.11d for about a year. We have demonstrated good connections (5.5Mb) between a 5dBi omni-directional and a 24dBi Unidirectional across 17 miles. However our main tower is 165ft in the air, and has a feed line of 10ft to limit cable losses.
We see a number of installations where the users have put up an antenna, run 200ft of feed line, and wonder why they can't get a connection. A good rule of thumb is 7dB/100ft. For each 3dB your signal losses double, so a person with a 200ft feed line has a signal level 1/16th of the antenna level. You would need 14dB of antenna gain just to recover from your feed line losses.
Basically, if you're trying to run wireless, don't expect miracles. If you play by the posted rules things will work, but if not, don't blame the equipment...
Very simple. The DSL providers were selling a service for $40 that cost ~$50 and tried to make up the cost on volume.... Anyone remember the old Saturday Night Live Skit about "The First National Change Bank?"
I don't pretend to be an expert, but I've set up my system with the following components. My parameters were mandatory SVHS input/output on all video sources, best quality sound to my ear. Your ear may vary...
TV JVC 31" (4 years old, SVHS Input.)
Stereo receiver Sony STR-DE1025 with 3 Optical Digital and 1 coaxial digital inputs.
VCR1 JVC SVHS with Jog/Edit
VCR2 JVC Dual-Deck MiniDV / SVHS
CD Player Sony 100CD Changer optically connected
DVD/LD Player Pioneer DVL-700 (Optically connected)
DBS Receiver - 4th Generation Sony with Optical Output
Video Switch - JVC JSX-777 (Makes the system)
If I were doing it again, I would get a less expensive receiver with THX support. I only have Dolby Digital. The speakers make the system. I was very happy with the clarity of the Cambridge. The subwoofer is an ~21" speaker. It does not have an echo-chamber like you see in most subwoofers. The result is a bass that you feel more than hear. The couch actually shakes with the speakers at mid-volume on Armageddon. Unless I'm watching a DD movie, I use the RCA inputs through the video switch. Audio-path goes device-AV Switch-TV-Stereo. I use the TV to manage the audio level into the stereo, so I only need 1 remote to manage the system.
DO NOT use the TV switch in the stereo. It is usually just a relay that connects input to output. The loss of quality is unacceptable. The JVC actually has channel amplifiers and will convert between SVHS and Composite. It will also switch optical inputs for the DVD and the Dish. It takes the selected input, amplifies it, and sends it to all of the outputs. Allows for very clean dubs of tapes, etc.
I was going to bring this up. The device you are thinking of was manufactured by Applied Engineering, and actually let you put 2 ram cards into the IIgs. I was selling "Octo-Ram" ram cards at the time, capable of taking 8 Megs of memory. I populated 2 cards, created an 8MB ram disk (the IIgs could only address 8MB, even though the processor could handle 16MB) and copied 1/4 of my 20MB hard drive into it. Pretty wild what you could do with limited memory and drive space....
Slashdot Mirror
We're migrating spreadsheets and Visio drawings to 3GIS (www.3-gis.com) for the ability to track fiber paths, etc. We evaluated a number of systems. It's based on ESRI, so it's standards based.
We have been using Asterisk for about 9 months. We came from an Altigen system. Our configuration was:
Digium 4 port T1 card and ADIT Channel bank with 8 FXO & 16 FXS ports
Cisco 7960 SIP Phone
Generic selection of SIP/IAX phones
Intel Server Class hardware (ECC Memory, RAID, etc.)
The Altigen system was a 8x16 system, and had a really good call queue system. We just needed more extensions. My goal was to duplicate the capabilities of that system. I started using AMP, the asterisk management portal as my configuration "GUI". In our office, I have 2 Linux/Unix people, and 20 windows techs, so my goal was a user friendly management system that I didn't have to baby sit. Unfortunately, when we started, AMP didn't support call queues. I hand-coded in the queues, and had a problem with queue calls dropping directly to voicemail. I'm in the process of transferring all of my extensions into the latest version of AMP, but I still have a few issues.
We have a number of issues that I believe will be fixed when we switch out the config files, but as it is right now, Asterisk is very unforgiving of errors in the dial-plan configuration files. If I had the option to do it over again, I probably wouldn't have gone with Asterisk. I still have problems where a "ZAP" or analog extension will simply "lock up." I have an issue where SIP calls will unpredictably fail until the extension re-registers. We have set up a connection with voicepulse to do outbound long distance, and it's OK as long as traffic isn't too heavy.
My advice is to consider Asterisk under the following conditions:
You need a VERY simple phone system. An Asterisk server with 4 FXO lines, 8 VoIP extension, and simple IVR menues to get to the extensions.
or
You are looking for a complex phone system, and can dedicate the time to hand-create the dial-plan files to be exactly what you need.
or
You can pay Digium or a consultant to customize the phone system exactly for your needs.
Asterisk has so many capabilities, but (not to knock the developers) it is too easy to crash the engine with a misplaced dial-plan entry. I created a "time-and-temp" application just for fun. It's absolutely amazing what you can do with it. Unfortunately, it isn't coded with five-9's of uptime in mind. Changes to analog trunks require a complete restart, which may not be possible in a busy phone system.
I like Asterisk. I think that in the right circumstances, it's a great tool, but you have to go into it with your eyes open. If you're time is valuable, go for a packaged solution.
As far as VoIP, you need to consider two cases:
1: VoIP Handsets on the same network as the phone system. (At least 10Mb/s of bandwidth available)
2: VoIP for inbound & outbound Telco.
My experience has been that VoIP on the local network has worked fine. My phone is on the same VLAN as our production network, and it has all the standard services running over it for ~30 PC's. I have NEVER had an audible artifact related to network traffic, including when I was trying to saturate the link with 80Mb/s of traffic. We're running G.729 for all of our SIP phones.
My experience with VoIP over the Internet has been hit and miss. As long as you have enough bandwidth between you and the VoIP provider, you can expect at least cell phone quality. The problem is if you have any bandwidth constraints or packet loss, you will degrade rapidly. Someone else mentioned the difference between GSM, G.711, & G.729. G.729 does seem to be the best option for us.
If you are intentionally trying to interfere with the other user, you are looking at either harassment or restraint of trade. The other user would be within his rights to request a restraining order on that basis. That's why I said you had better have a good reason to be using the frequency you're on.
I would sugguest that you read the FCC Part-15 rules that all WiFi equipment operate under.
To Quote:
15.5 General conditions of operation.
(a) Persons operating intentional or unintentional radiators shall not be deemed to have any vested or recognizable right to continued use of any given frequency by virtue of prior registration or certification of equipment, or, for power line carrier systems, on the basis of prior notification of use pursuant to 90.63(g) of this chapter.
(b) Operation of an intentional, unintentional, or incidental radiator is subject to the conditions that no harmful interference is caused and that interference must be accepted that may be caused by the operation of an authorized radio station, by another intentional or unintentional radiator, by industrial, scientific and medical (ISM) equipment, or by an incidental radiator.
(c) The operator of a radio frequency device shall be required to cease operating the device upon notification by a Commission representative that the device is causing harmful interference. Operation shall not resume until the condition causing the harmful interference has been corrected.
Most users believe that (c) is the "first-come-first-served" clause, but it actually refers ONLY to the primary user of the frequency, the ham radio operators. All secondary users are subject to (b) which is that you must accept any interference from a type-approved radio, including that which may cause unintended operation.
If you are ramp up your power, you are no longer type-approved, and can be subject to (c). As long as your equipment is type-approved, or under the EIRP power limits, you have as much right to the frequencies as anyone else.
Note: This does not allow you to specifically construct a "jammer" or simply change frequencies specifically to interfere with someone else. That would be willful interference, and WILL land you in civil court. If you ever end up there, be prepared to show that you made a good faith effort to mitigate the interference issue, and that there were specific technical reasons why you needed to be at the frequency you were at...
Reading the BBC Article, they totally missed the point of the original article. It's not webmail that is a problem, but TLS/SSL encrypted IMAP or POP3 sessions. No self-respecting web-mail application sends the user-name and password with every screen. Most use a session key after login. It's not a big deal for webmail users, but for those who use TLS to connect to their IMAP/POP servers, it's an open window.
Actually, in the town of Naperville, IL, USA all new homes are required to have some accessible features. Check out http://abclocal.go.com/wls/news/karenmeyer/062702_ disable_naperville.html for the story.
Check out 9th Tee's web site. It's all there. You have to get a bash prompt, upload specific drivers and utilities, and then you're set. Only thing is that (as far as I know) you have to run it with the case open. The RF shielding won't allow the 802.11b out.
They also have a wired adapter that is a much better deal. You do have to drill a hole for the cable to go inside, but you get wire speed then.
It's been a long time since RF theory class, but the basics of shielding (and a faraday cage is just a big shield) require that the shield be grounded. Otherwise the signal resonates through the skin. Unless there is a LONG wire, it's not a faraday cage.
Because when someone is able to download at 5Mb/s one time, and then "only" at 1.5Mb/s the next time, they feel like there is a problem, they call and complain. The get mad when they are told that the speeds are subject to network congestion. From a human nature standpoint, people are much more content with consistent medium speeds than with varying high and low speeds. It sucks for the people who would understand bandwidth contention, but we're the minority....
Rant mode on:
The majority of DDOS attacks could be tracked if only more ISP's would put outbound packet filtering on. I am not a transit ISP, so there is never a reason for me to send a packet with a source IP address that doesn't belong to one of our assigned address blocks. There is no way for that packet to get back to me. The problem is that it requires a more powerfull router to support the filtering. If more ISP's implemented filtering, at least you could track exactly where DDOS attacks are comming from.
Consider stubing conduit boxes from each room into the basement or atic. If finishing the basement, put in a suspended celing. Then if/when you need something different, it's very easy to pull new wire in without pulling out walls, etc. You might want to consider boxes in multiple walls for larger rooms. It's a cheap simple way to make your life easier in the future.
Dan
I first installed Linux on an old Sager-Middern laptop (233MHz, 128MB Ram) and my battery life went from ~2 hours to 8+ hours. I am a "power-user" in that I normally have from 3 to 8 applications open at one time. Windows just sucked the battery dry. Linux seems to handle the large number of applications much better. Even with significant swapping going on. On top of that, you should see the looks I get when I "surf the web" from 35,000 feet.
The next logical step is multi-devices on the same DSL circuit. Before long your cable-box will have an ethernet port, and it will log into the media access gateway to pull what ever channel you want...
I know I'm late to the post, and very few people are going to read this. That being said, Consider what SBC seems to be doing: (Disclaimer - We run an ISP, but I have no inside information on SBC.)
SBC is in the process of putting in "Media-access-gateways" that you will be connecting to via your DSL modem. You will log into the gateway with your user-name and password. Once logged in, a proxy-radius request will be sent to the ISP's radius server. Based on the response, a permit/deny result will be sent back to the customer. If it is a permit, and the ISP provides their own bandwidth, an ATM SVC will be built back to the ISP's network, and the node registered. At that point you're connected until you reboot.
Sounds like a lot of work, doesn't it? Consider this: Your ISP seems to be slow, or you just want to try something different. By just changing the username/password, you can connect to any ISP you want. With the downturn of the ISP business, I can see SBC not wanting to get stuck with ISP losses, so I expect them to push the subscriber to pay for their own DSL line, and then pay the ISP for just a "connection" charge.
Just my ideas of where I seem the market going...
Just noticed, that since about 11:30 CST this morning, our bandwidth usage for our Internet links has been huge. We're looking at transparent proxy, which blocks the invalid HTTP request that the worm puts out.
If I remember correctly, it wasn't that they changed, but that Roxio used the published specifications from Gracenote to create their CDDB lookup integration. Therefore, they agreed to the terms and conditions of Gracenote's release of those specifications. This is in spite of the fact that the specifications were released under GPL before Gracenote became private.
Basically, since Roxio read Gracenote's specifications, any capability to connect to a CDDB database other than Gracenote would violate the current license.
Perhaps one of the largest opt-in mailing list houses on the internet? A good example, lyris provides the horsepower for http://www.thisistrue.com to send out each week.
Methanol? Better check your research. Methanol is produced from natural gas, a non-renewable resource.
A 14dB amp would amplify noise, but if you can put a higher signal into the cable, you will have higher signal comming out at the other end.
Without amplifiers, there is no "free-lunch." If you're going to increase gain, you're going to reduce coverage somewhere. In the case of omni-directional antennas, when you increase gain in the antenna, you're narrowing the coverage angle. With a Uni-Directional, you're directing all the energy and energy capture to a very small (15 degree X 8 degree for 24dBi) area.
There are ways to configure diversity antennas so that one supports transmit only, one for receive. Then you can put amps on each. You do have to make sure you are not exceeding the FCC gain limits. Usually if you're using amps, you have to do a point-to-point application. Any one interested in wireless network design should check out some of the documents on Breezecom's site. They give a good tutorial on how to increase range and still stay within the FCC requirements....
Correct, I fumble-fingered on the d/b. I'd like to know the exact type of cable. I just looked up, and the best heliax cable I can find is ~4.5dB/100M. Better than LMR-400, but not as good as LMR-600. The 1dB/100 sounds like a 900MHz rating...
If you check out Cisco's site, they have a nice range-calculation utility that takes this into account.
We've been using long-range 802.11d for about a year. We have demonstrated good connections (5.5Mb) between a 5dBi omni-directional and a 24dBi Unidirectional across 17 miles. However our main tower is 165ft in the air, and has a feed line of 10ft to limit cable losses.
We see a number of installations where the users have put up an antenna, run 200ft of feed line, and wonder why they can't get a connection. A good rule of thumb is 7dB/100ft. For each 3dB your signal losses double, so a person with a 200ft feed line has a signal level 1/16th of the antenna level. You would need 14dB of antenna gain just to recover from your feed line losses.
Basically, if you're trying to run wireless, don't expect miracles. If you play by the posted rules things will work, but if not, don't blame the equipment...
Very simple. The DSL providers were selling a service for $40 that cost ~$50 and tried to make up the cost on volume.... Anyone remember the old Saturday Night Live Skit about "The First National Change Bank?"
Correction s/THX/DTS/g
I don't pretend to be an expert, but I've set up my system with the following components. My parameters were mandatory SVHS input/output on all video sources, best quality sound to my ear. Your ear may vary...
TV JVC 31" (4 years old, SVHS Input.)
Stereo receiver Sony STR-DE1025 with 3 Optical Digital and 1 coaxial digital inputs.
VCR1 JVC SVHS with Jog/Edit
VCR2 JVC Dual-Deck MiniDV / SVHS
CD Player Sony 100CD Changer optically connected
DVD/LD Player Pioneer DVL-700 (Optically connected)
DBS Receiver - 4th Generation Sony with Optical Output
Video Switch - JVC JSX-777 (Makes the system)
Speakers -
6 Cambridge soundworks speakers:
Center, Front-L/R, Back-L/R, 140 Watt subwoofer
If I were doing it again, I would get a less expensive receiver with THX support. I only have Dolby Digital. The speakers make the system. I was very happy with the clarity of the Cambridge. The subwoofer is an ~21" speaker. It does not have an echo-chamber like you see in most subwoofers. The result is a bass that you feel more than hear. The couch actually shakes with the speakers at mid-volume on Armageddon. Unless I'm watching a DD movie, I use the RCA inputs through the video switch. Audio-path goes device-AV Switch-TV-Stereo. I use the TV to manage the audio level into the stereo, so I only need 1 remote to manage the system.
DO NOT use the TV switch in the stereo. It is usually just a relay that connects input to output. The loss of quality is unacceptable. The JVC actually has channel amplifiers and will convert between SVHS and Composite. It will also switch optical inputs for the DVD and the Dish. It takes the selected input, amplifies it, and sends it to all of the outputs. Allows for very clean dubs of tapes, etc.
Good sound isn't cheap, but it's nice to have...
I was going to bring this up. The device you are thinking of was manufactured by Applied Engineering, and actually let you put 2 ram cards into the IIgs. I was selling "Octo-Ram" ram cards at the time, capable of taking 8 Megs of memory. I populated 2 cards, created an 8MB ram disk (the IIgs could only address 8MB, even though the processor could handle 16MB) and copied 1/4 of my 20MB hard drive into it. Pretty wild what you could do with limited memory and drive space....