Sorry to have gone so long without an update. We won't do THAT again.

Here's what's new. The best Minecraft server of all in our opinion is Cuberite, which is also the only one written in C++ instead of Java. Cuberite extracts far more performance from our hardware than any other server, which is why we chose to make it our de facto installation. We’ll also support Vanilla, Spigot and Tekkit Lite (you can switch between them), but Cuberite will be the first server to compile on the machine.

The only problem with Cuberite is that the off-the-shelf admin application we discovered doesn’t support it. Or didn’t. The very cooperative admin developer in the UK is extending his product to support Cuberite. This should be done soon and waiting for Cuberite is a major reason why we haven’t shipped. We’re hoping to have it in a few more days.

But waiting for Cuberite wasn’t our only problem. We had to develop a dynamic DNS system, WiFi support, and make sure the units were totally reliable.

Oh, and our laser cutter burst into flames (again).

Understand that for a Mineserver or Mineserver Pro, the sysadmin also typically goes by another title — Mom. Our administration tool allows her to control the server from any Internet-connected computer including Android and iOS mobile phones. She can bump or ban players from the frozen food aisle, monitor in-game text chat, reboot the server — anything. It’s a very powerful and easy-to-use tool.

While we were waiting for Cuberite support we've added something else for Mom to worry about, a Mumble server. Mumble is open source voice chat with very low latency. We were able to add Mumble to Mineserver because the CPU load is very low with all encoding and decoding done in the client and the server acting mainly as a VoIP switch. If she wants to, Mama can listen to the Mumble feed and step-in if little Johnny drops an F-bomb.

Every Mineserver has its own individual name chosen by the customer. This server name, rather than an IP address, is how whitelisted players find the game. Consulting with dynamic DNS experts prior to the Kickstarter campaign this sounded easy to do with a combination of DNS A records and SRV records. But it’s not so easy because Mom doesn’t want to have to do port forwarding, so that meant adding other techniques like Universal Plug and Play (UPnP), which is tough to do if it’s not turned-on in your router. We eventually developed what the boys believe is a 95 percent solution. In 95 percent of cases it should work right out of the box with the remaining five percent falling on the slim shoulders of some Cringely kid.

Every Mineserver is assembled by a specific child who is also responsible for product support. His e-mail address is right on the case and if something doesn’t work he can ssh, telnet, or VNC into the box to fix it.

But still there were problems, specifically WiFi.

WiFi was something we’d rather not do at all, but it has become the new Ethernet (even Ethernet inventor Bob Metcalfe pretends WiFi is Ethernet, which it isn’t but we still love Bob). Many home networks are entirely WiFi. We feel the best way to use a Mineserver even in WiFi-only homes is by plugging the included CAT6 cable into a router or access point port and using the router’s WiFi capability. But some customers don’t want to plug anything into anything, so we’ve included native WiFi support in some Mineservers and all Mineserver Pros. That sounds easier to do than it actually was.

Mineservers are headless so how do you set an SSID or password the first time? Good question, but one we finally solved. Mineservers can now be configured and administered entirely without wires if needed. In most situations the customer will plug-in their Mineserver to power and it will just work. If it doesn’t, then an 11 year-old will fix it. That first power-up will involve downloading and compiling the selected server software, which can be changed at any time. It’s a process that takes 5-10 minutes and then you are up and running.

What we hope is our final technical problem has been particularly vexing. We now have three Mineservers and three Mineserver Pros running at the sonic.net data center here in Santa Rosa. All six servers plus a power strip and a gig-Ethernet switch fit on a one foot square piece of plywood. The truly great folks at Sonic gave us half a rack and we fill perhaps one percent of that, meaning you could probably put 1200 Mineservers in a full rack — enough to support up to 60,000 players. But operating in this highly-secure facility with its ultra-clean power and unlimited bandwidth we began to notice during testing that sometimes the servers would just disappear from the net. One minute the IP would be there and the next minute it would be gone.

We’re still waiting for Cuberite support of course, but we even if we had that today we still wouldn’t ship a product that disappears from the net. We’ve tried swapping-out boards but the problem still occurs. Maybe it was the gig-Ethernet switch, so we got a new one, then a bigger one, then an even bigger managed switch. We changed cables. We started fiddling with the software. Each Mineserver board has a serial port so we converted an old Mac Mini to Linux, added a powered USB hub and six UART-to-USB adapters so now our consultant in Texas can use six virtual serial terminals to monitor the test Mineservers 24/7 without having to rely on their Ethernet connections. Everything is being logged so the next time one goes down we’ll know exactly what’s happening.

We’re also in touch with other users of the same board like Lockheed Martin and Lawrence Livermore Lab where they have a cluster of 160. But that’s nothing compared to three kids in Santa Rosa who are right now burning-in 500 boards.

It’s the final bug, we’re approaching it with planning, gusto, and plenty of Captain Crunch, and fully expect to solve this last issue and start shipping next week when the kids are off school for Spring Break.