Edit: Much of this is now obsolete. The home FTP server is long gone and the static site will be closed as of 2020.
Original post:
This information is dated; it could change significantly in coming days as the context morphs.
It turns out that the router I finally ended up with (Linksys WRT1200AC) is actually more powerful than the more expensive one (WRT1900AC) that first caught my eye. This one has a faster CPU, more RAM and a bigger storage “hard drive.” That’s the good part. The bad part is that, while the developers at DD-WRT are working on it, their only offering for this is a BETA release and buggy enough to generate a steady stream of reports for now. At least they do have one to test on, so that’s a good sign, but it’s not ready for prime time. So I am stuck with using what comes from the factory for awhile.
That means if I try to use some kind redirect DNS (DDNS) that associates this router with a domain name on the Net, I am restricted to what the manufacturer likes, and they have a deal with DnyDNS. Having done the research, the cost of $40/year is the least of problems. DynDNS demands an automatic draft on your bank account and is notorious for billing errors in their favor, plus turning a deaf ear to actual support requests. DD-WRT works with any DDNS service (I like the looks of DuckDNS), so until DD-WRT offers a stable release, we will be stuck using raw IP address links for the FTP service (electronic library) I’m trying to assemble.
I’m about to embark on assembling as much of my Bible studies books and related materials as I can find already in or close to HTML format. That’s a lot of stuff, and I felt led to give all that material its own landing page on the server. I’m taking all the old individual chapter pages and combining them into single webpages where possible. The Bible History series will be collected into single pages for each major period. The point is that you could download any of those pages rather easily and it would contain all the formatting instructions inside the file (it’s called CSS). Maybe you’ll get the idea that I encourage you to copy and distribute at will. The other file formats will be available at Smashwords and on my FTP library service (PDF, Word DOC and Libre Office ODF).
Our host for the new blog (Universal Networks run by Timothy R. Butler) noticed that we have some trouble using our email service with some ISPs because they are blocking the IP address but refuse to tell him why. He mentioned he would like to get a new IP number assigned to the server, but until we get a “clean IP address” I cannot recommend you asking for an email address on soulkiln.org.
For the techies, I would like to note that Linux Mint has released their latest version 17.3 “Rosa” with the XFCE desktop a couple of weeks ago. I’m testing it on my netbook and you probably wouldn’t notice any big differences, but it seems to work a little better, maybe a smidgen faster on my wimpy hardware. That and all the other desktops they offer are available here.
