Installing Smokeping on Ubuntu used to be a total breeze. Since 14.04 however, it’s been a bit of a mission.

This guide assumes a fresh out of the box Ubuntu install. I’m using the 64bit Server variety, but this should work on any 14.04 system.

UPDATE - It also works perfectly on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS Server :~)

Quick and hacky - that’s the way you have to Streetpass in New Zealand, as you get so few legit matches out and about.

To setup your own home Streetpass service is easy.

When using a Mikrotik router (or any other decent home router) as your PPPoE client, it’s good to be able to keep access to the ADSL/VDSL modem in-line to allow diagnostics, additional configuration etc. To avoid a situation where the router is essentially double-NATing all the packets going across the WAN link, the ideal setup is a secondary IP address on the router’s WAN interface, that is handled separately.

Mikrotik make routers that are affordable enough for the home user market, but are quite powerful and come without too many training wheels. I’m using the RB2011UAS-2HnD-IN as a home router, wireless AP and firewall. It’s powerful and configurable enough to do pretty much anything I’ve thrown at it - but out of the box it’s probably a bit too open to attacks from randos.

If you live somewhere out of the way, like New Zealand, sometimes it pays to use a DNS-proxying service like Unblock-US. Reasons for this are circumventing some draconian geo-blocking rules, but I won’t go into that here.