[CentOS] Do I need a dedicated firewall?

[m.roth at 5-cent.us]

Matt Garman wrote:
> On Wed, Dec 11, 2013 at 11:00 PM, Jason T. Slack-Moehrle <
> slackmoehrle at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> So my electricity bill is through the roof and I need to pair down some
>> equipment.
>>
> If you are in the USA, get yourself a Kill-a-Watt power meter.  I'm sure
> other parts of the world have similar products.  It's a device that goes
> between your electrical product (e.g. server) and the wall AC outlet, and
> tells you what the power draw is.  It also keeps a cumulative total for
> number of Watts and Volt-Amps used in the time period it's plugged in.
> (If you have a 100% efficient PFC in your power supply, Watts will always
> equal Volt-Amps.  I believe this is mandated in Europe.  But a PFC below
1.0
> will cause Volt-Amps to be higher than Watts.  In the USA you are typically
> billed by Watts, but if you have a UPS, the Volt-Amp number matters.)
>
> The question is, are you sure it's all your computers causing the spike in
> your power bill?  For example, if you have an old refrigerator, those are
<snip>
That's a *really* good question. Did you get a plasma TV (baaad! they're
*always* on, and draw a lot of power). For that matter, if you have
electric heat or HVAC, have it checked. About 9 years ago, living in FL,
we had a deeply insane electric bill... and got someone from the electric
co to check, and then got maintenance on the HVAC... which had the board
go bad, and was running *both* heat and cool full out at the same time.