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News
25 November 2011
I'm just so darned proud...
I know I'm not supposed to talk about "us, us, us" because apparently it's just not that interesting to you. But I'm just so darned proud of us that I'm going to do it anyway. My apologies in advance for boring your socks off. (Maybe you could give them to someone for Christmas!) We won! We won! We won! We won! We won!We are extremely proud and excited to have been awarded Knox Council's Sustainable Business Award for 2011, for our range of energy efficient computers. We were up against some other very impressive projects, and it's great to see so many business doing so much to help the environment. And as a result we're now entered into to Melbourne's South East Business Awards for 2012, in the Environmental and Sustainability category. Cross your fingers for us for that one... Woo hoo! Woo hooo! We won! We won! We won! We won! Need even more help choosing firewall software?Well here's another review of open source firewalls with a very self-explanatory title... >> Open Source Firewall/Routers That Don't Suck by Frank Linhares, the editor in chief of tech.nocr.at Frank gives you his (brief) views on pfSense (his favourite), m0n0wall, IPCop, DD-Wrt and Zeroshell. Hopefully you can use his experiences to help you decide on the right firewall software for your project. We'd have to agree with Frank that pfSense is the best, which is why we offer it on most of our hardware. Lots of really useful softwareAnd while we're talking about software, you might be interested in our freshly reorganised software resources page. It's now easier to find something useful, with a great selection of software options for: and more. Christmas & New Years hours
OK, it's time for Christmas again, so here's what you need to know. Christmas lunchOur amazing staff have definitely done a fantastic job this year. In fact, they rock! So we're taking them out for lunch on Wednesday, 7 December, to say thank you. This means we'll be closed on Wednesday, 7 December 2011 from 11AM to 3PM. End-of-year closureTo help you plan ahead, here are the important dates for our end-of-year period:
You're more than welcome to place orders via the website during this period, but we won't be answering the phones, shipping orders, or responding to emails until we reopen. Have an awesome one! 30 September 2011
Banging your head against the wall trying to install software?
Well, stop it! Does your brain hurt just trying to find the documentation, let alone read it? Want your new tiny shiny super-cool server to just work, straight out of the box? Then maybe it's time you considered one of these options...
And then go and have a nice quiet lie down. pfSense 2.0 releasedGet the latest version of pfSense
This one's been in the pipeline for three years, and brings with it a slew of new features, including:
Read the full list of new features on the pfSense website and be sure to read their upgrade guide before changing anything! And of course you can get pfSense pre-installed on a huge range of our servers. New versions of Voyage Linux and AskoziaPBXThere's also new versions of Voyage Linux and AskoziaPBX:
You can get Voyage Linux on almost all of our boxes and Askozia is available on our net5501's and ALIX 1's. Want an older version?And if you're looking for an older version of something, because that's the one you know how to use, then we might be able to help. We have a collection of old dusty O/S images that we can rummage through, so just drop us a line. Having trouble deciding which firewall software to use?Here's a fascinating review of seven different firewall distributions, including pfSense, monowall, SmoothWall, IPCop and ClarkConnect (now Clear OS). >> Seven Different Linux/BSD Firewalls Reviewed by fsckin w/ linux Their final conclusion was that "pfSense is ultimately the best choice overall and provides the best value of all we have looked at today." 11 August 2011
The new DNMA-92 802.11n wireless card Get super fast wireless with the DNMA-92802.11n wireless cards now in stockNow you can build wireless networks that are faster than your existing Cat 5 cabled LANs! We're offering the DNMA-92 802.11n miniPCI wireless card from Wistron Neweb. Blisteringly fast, this 802.11n card, with support for Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) technology, is capable of speeds up to 300Mbps. And if you need help choosing the wireless card that's right for you, take a look at our wireless card comparison table. Here's a bit more about the new fit-PC3The new fit-PC3 from CompuLab is creating a lot of interest. Based on AMD's Embedded G-Series Platform, the fit-PC3 is the most powerful member of CompuLab's range of compact fanless PCs. The fit-PC3 comes with a dual core 1.6GHz processor and integrated AMD Radeon HD 6310 graphics, up to 8GB of DDR3 memory, HDMI and DisplayPort video output and 7.1 channel audio with S/PDIF and analog output. There's also room for a 2.5 inch hard drive, integrated 802.11n WiFi, 6 USB 2.0 ports and 2 eSATA ports. It's still early days yet, but we'll certainly get our hands on some as soon as we can. At this stage, we're expecting initial stock to be available in October. In the meantime, here's a short video about the fit-PC3 from Compulab's Director of Business Development, Irad Stavi, at Embedded World in February 2011. 
Our ALIX "XL" with LCD panel ALIX 1 "XL" with LCD back in stockWe now have more stock of the ALIX 1 "XL" with LCD. The LCD panel is a great way to get feedback from an appliance you've created, without needing to have a web (or other) interface. For example, you might use it to build a VoIP appliance that displays the number of active calls and voice messages, or a compact flash card duplicator, say. Order one now or call us on 1300 859 799. Fantastic feedback: We're on the ballWe'd like to share with you some of the fantastic feedback we've received from our customers: "Again, (3rd) time purchaser your service is exemplary. We like impressing you. To read more fantastic feedback, visit our customer comments page. 20 July 2011
The only thing you need for this awesome trick How To Back Up Your fit-PC2sBack up your fit-PC2 using only a USB stick!Learn how you can back up your fit-PC2 workstation, or any USB-bootable computer, using just a USB thumb drive and some creative partitioning. We're doing this with our machines and we thought it was so cool, we decided to write you a case study telling you all about it. It makes it so quick and easy to restore your PCs to a known, stable state after a disk fails, or you get a virus. No more headaches (or heartaches) from having to rebuild your workstations from scratch. And to top it off, we've also written you some instructions so you can do it for yourself. Check them both out on our resources page and our case studies page. Our stuff just goes, and goes, and goes, and goes, and goes, and goes, and goes....You know, we say our stuff is built to last, but it's great to hear confirmation directly from our customers who are using it every day. We had a phone call recently from someone who had been running one of our boxes in the middle of the hot and dusty Northern Territory for more than five years. They rang because their internet link had gone down and the lights on the box were out. In the end, they figured out that it was their powerboard that had failed, and once they replaced it, our little box just powered up again and picked up where it left off. How cool is that? 
This is where one of our boxes has been running faithfully for more than 5 years Second-hand items for saleIn fact, our stuff lasts so well, that we now have customers with hardware left over from projects that died before our stuff did. They'd like someone else to get some use out of them, so we've listed some of these items in this month's newsletter. If you're interested in picking up a bargain, you can check out our second-hand items listing down the bottom of your email. Please contact the person listed directly to find out more about the items, or to negotiate a deal. We don't have any more information about the items, and we won't be involved any further in the transaction. And if you're not subscribed to our newsletter and missed out this time, perhaps you'd like to sign up, just in case. Fantastic feedback: You can depend on us!We'd like to share with you some of the fantastic feedback we've received from our customers: "Your excellent customer service really stood out for us - from our first point of contact through to receiving the order. We love to hear that we're doing so well. To read more fantastic feedback, visit our customer comments page. The Vikings are packing up and going awayOur supplier has advised us that the Viking ADSL2+ card has been discontinued. We have limited stock left, and we'll be able to continue to fill orders in the short term. We recommend that you don't make plans to use this card in a large project, as we can't guarantee supply. And we'll certainly let you know if we find a suitable alternative. 17 June 2011
The "orange box" that now manages James George's home office network Case Study - James GeorgeUsing an ALIX 2-3 to streamline home office networkingIn our case study from James George, the winner of our "Rip Snorter" competition, learn how he used an ALIX 2-3 to simplify his home office network. Adding an ALIX 2-3 to his sometimes unusual home network, helped James to reduce noise and heat, and save space and running costs. And as an added bonus it also increased his WATF (Wife Appreciation/Tolerance Factor)! James is now looking forward to finding time to play with his shiny new nuxV 1600 rack mount server. Read more on our case studies page. Did you know that it's the International Year of Forests?Check out the forests you've planted!The United Nations has declared 2011 to be the International Year of Forests. And we're so pleased to be adding to the number of trees in Australia through our four trees program. 
The site in June 2009, before planting So here's some happy snaps of the trees you've helped us to plant so far. Nhill, VictoriaThis property is located in Yanac near Nhill in Victoria, adjacent to a large nature reserve. It is a 425 hectare site, which was direct seeded in June 2009, resulting in over 400,000 trees, one thousand of which were "planted" by you. The property had been used for cropping and grazing in the past, and had been cleared frequently. The land had not been too disturbed by ploughing or stump removal and so remains close to its original condition. The site has now been revegetated with a range of native species, including:
and more... Thank you for helping us to get closer to our goal of planting half a million trees over the next five years. Our thanks go also to Greenfleet for taking care of your trees on our behalf. 
A golden wattle seedling (Acacia pycnantha) in June 2010 net6501 on the wayThe latest offering from Soekris EngineeringThe net6501 is a new small-form-factor computer currently being developed by Soekris Engineering. It's based on a 600MHz to 1.6GHz Atom E6xx processor, with four Gigabit ethernet ports, and up to 2GB of RAM. It also has two SATA 3 interfaces, 2 serial ports, USB 2.0, 2 miniPCI express slots and 2 PCI express slots. The net6501 has been designed for long life and low power, and is ideal for use as a firewall, VPN router, internet gateway or for small server applications. First production boards are coming soon, and we'll let you know as soon as we have more information. Get twice the size for the same price320GB hard drive now standard on the fit-PC2 and fit-PC2iNow you can get twice as much space in your fit-PC2 for the same price! Our standard 2.5" hard drive option is now a 320GB, instead of 160GB, with no change in price. Of course, you can still choose a 30GB SSD instead. The 160GB hard drives are only available on the nuxV 1600 rack mount server and the net5501 computers for a limited time. m0n0wall and Voyage updatedm0n0wall 1.33 and Voyage Linux 0.7.0 now availableWe've updated our monowall and Voyage operating system images to the latest versions. You can get an operating system installed for free when you buy one of our little boxes or a rack mount server. Or get one added to any Compact Flash card for just $10. Or you can download it and install it yourself from our operating systems page. Shipping costs go upOur standard shipping charges have gone up by a dollar or two, so a small parcel now costs $11 and a medium parcel (one ALIX 2-3) now costs $15. As always, the love and care we put into packaging your order is unsurpassed. You can see the total shipping cost for your order as you add items to your cart, and also as you check out. For more information, please visit our shipping information page. Old phone numbers go bye-byePlease use our new fax number - 03 9720 4518It's now been two years since we moved to our new premises, and our old numbers have finally been disconnected. If you need to send us a fax, please note that our fax number is 03 9720 4518, and the old number (03 9800 2279) will no longer work. You can find all of our current contact details on our 'Contact Us' page. 10 March 2011Congratulations!
James George is now the lucky owner of this... We have a winnerJames George, from Western Australia, is our "Rip Snorter" competition grand prize draw winner. James has won a fully optioned nuxV 1600 rack mount server, with dual 1.6GHz / 2GB RAM boards, plus dual 8GB CF cards and 160GB 2.5" hard drives, valued at over $2400. Watch out next month to read James' case study about how he used an ALIX 2-3 to simplify his home networking. Thanks to everyone who entered our "Rip Snorter" competition. Your "Yawarra" t-shirt and hardware should be arriving shortly, if you haven't already received them. In the meantime, check out our case studies page to see how other people are using our hardware. Do you have a half-finished case study?Want to finish it?You're busy, we know. It's hard to find the time to sit down and read the paper, let alone write a case study. So if you're the proud owner of a half-baked case study, how about we help you finish it? We love hearing about how you're using our stuff, so we're motivated. Send us what you've got, or give us a call, and we'll work with you to get it ready for publication. And even if we can't offer you the lure of a shiny new server, I'm sure we can find a spare t-shirt lying around somewhere... Now it's even easier to buy an A400P VoIP PCI card!The ultimate in VoIP flexibility
A400P - The ultimate in VoIP flexibility Due to popular demand, the A400P 4-port VoIP PCI card is now available on its own in the catalogue. The A400P allows you to integrate your existing analogue telephone systems with your shiny new VoIP digital telephone system. And it's fully compatible at both the hardware and software level with the Digium TDM400 VoIP cards and FXO/FXS modules. Add up to four FXO or FXS modules, in any combination, to your A400P to create an extremely flexible Open Source IP-PBX/Voicemail system. We're also considering offering a mini-PCI version of the same card, so if you're excited by the possibility, please let us know. And get us to install Askozia for you...It gets even easierWe're now offering Askozia as an option on all of the net5501 and ALIX 1's with the A400P. AskoziaPBX is firmware for running an embedded telephone system, incorporating Asterisk. It's very easy to use "out of the box", easy to configure and runs on a wide range of hardware. Askozia does auto-provisioning, voicemail, conferencing, call parking and more, and speaks ISDN, Analogue and VoIP. New TrimSlice on the wayThe TrimSlice is the latest offering from CompuLab, the makers of the fit-PC2. Perfect for digital signage, kiosks and multimedia applications, the TrimSlice features full HD, wireless, USB and SD slots. With a dual core 1GHz processor and 1GB RAM, plus a SATA SSD, the TrimSlice is just 15mm thick and uses a tiny 3W of power. The TrimSlice is due for release in a few months. And followed by the fit-PC3...The fit-PC3 is the fit-PC2's big brother. With a dual-core, 64bit 1.6GHz AMD processor and up to 4GB of RAM, this one looks very exciting. We'll let you know as we have more info on features, timing and pricing. 18 February 2011Are you using VoIP yet?Build your new IP-PBX/Voicemail system using a net5501 or ALIX 1
New VoIP FXO (lines) module We're now offering the A400P, a VoIP PCI card from OpenVox, as an option on our net5501 and ALIX 1 products:
Just add up to four FXO (lines) and FXS (handset) modules to the A400P card to build an incredibly flexible Asterisk-based VoIP phone system. Now you can create the IP telephony system that you've always wanted. 2GHz fit-PC2 now availableThere's good news and bad newsThe good news - We now have stock of the 2GHz/2GB RAM fit-PC2s and fit-PC2i's. The bad news - The 2GHz chipset (Intel Z550) is being discontinued, so they'll only be available for a limited time. The good news - We'll be able to get models with 1.6GHz and 2GB RAM later on this year. The gooder news - CompuLab are currently working on an even more powerful low-power PC, available later this year. Keep watching! fit-PC2i price dropNow it's all about the featuresWe've dropped the price on all of our fit-PC2i's, to match the fit-PC2s. So now you have decide which one you want based on features, rather than price. Here's a handy comparison of them all, to make your job a bit easier.
Win this tiny shiny server worth almost $2500 Just 10 days left to win a nuxV 1600!Best get writing, huh?I'm sure your case study is all done, and you're just adding the final touches before . Just in case it's not quite up to that stage, here's your friendly reminder to get a move on! You've got until midnight on Monday, February 28 to submit your entry. So that gives you one more week and two weekends to get it done. Have you seen just how cool the nuxV 1600 rackmount server is? This one is definitely worth the effort. What?! You're still here?! Go on. Off you go..... Order by noon, get it shipped todayOur same-day shipping deadline is now 12PM (midday). So if you order in the morning, and pay by credit card, we can ship your order in the afternoon. Of course, not all orders can be shipped same day (due to stock availability and processing requirements), but you get the idea. |
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