Barracuda Web Filter 310 New enhancements?

Apparently, and I'm not sure when this went into effect, but there is an area under Block/Exempt-Applications that allows/disallows certain programs and/or protocols.

Well, a few months ago, email started to not flow in so in troubleshooting, I found that the web filter was causing this issue so I took it out of the chain and everything seemed to flow again. I left it out for a few weeks and tried to put it back in, thinking it was a cache issue or something bogging the filter down and with a couple weeks out of commission, we would be ok. Negative.

I had a chance to turn it on this past weekend and call barracuda if everything wasnt ok, so I did. And I called. Well the tech said he has seen this before so.....

By selecting the UnAuthenticated dropdown in the top right, I was able to see that all protocols were being blocked when they were unauthenticated, which email and all my SNMP traps were. I allowed all protocols while being UnAuthenticated and we are back in business.

Yeah. Wow.

AppleTV 2 and XBMC

I recently upgraded to an AppleTV from my Western Digital Live HD device to serve my movies. Granted i had no intention of doing anything with iTunes. I only wanted the device because it is practically a turn-key solution to a newer streaming device. XBMC allows for better movie info and just a much better user interface than the Western Digital device. Dont get me wrong, the WD device kicks butt. Its just that its not pretty! :) (note: i have never had a problem with this device. It plays everything that I need it to.)

So for $99 at Best Buy (yeah i know. I had a gift card so its ok), I bought one and jailbroke it to get XBMC on it. Here are the steps:

1. Jailbreak it: http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?t=99315

2. Put XBMC on it: http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=HOW-TO:Install_XBMC_on_Apple_TV_2

3. ????

4. Profit

I also used these two programs before even turning on the ATV2:

TheRenamer: http://www.therenamer.com
Media Companion: http://mediacompanion.codeplex.com/

TheRenamer is an EXCELLENT tool that will take all your movies, move them into their own folders, check them with IMDB.com and post a year at the end of that folder name and get them ready for a VERY quick scraping of all movie content.

Media Companion will import all those movies into its own database and then go out to IMDB.com and parse the movies page (that was correctly identified using TheRenamer) and bring down that movies info; actors names, plot, posters, fan art, etc.

After doing both of those, launch into XBMC and add a folder and make the scraper IMDB. It will then go through your local share for info that you have just downloaded with Media Companion.

Granted, this took me the better part of last week and the weekend only because my library wasnt ready for this drastic move but I can assure you that my work was not lost. This device is doing exactly what I want it to do.