Introduction and first questions

["Steve Elsbury" <steve.elsbury@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi everyone,

Just joined the group, so thought I'd introduce myself and fire off a quick
question.

My name is Steve and I am an HA addict :-)

I use X10 throughout my house, controlled by a Homevision unit. I have a PC
constantly connected to it so I can use the built in web-server to control
the HV from any PC in the house. The PC uses wifi to connect to my main
network.

Now my problem is that I run a public facing web-server, but only have a
cheap hardware firewall, which is capable of routing port 80 traffic to one
machine only (i.e. no clever stuff with http headers, etc.). So on my
internal network, I can browse to the machine name of the HV PC and the web
works fine, but I have no way of getting to those web pages from the
internet - i.e. when I am not at home - as all the internet can 'see' is my
public facing web server.

Does anyone know of a way I can achieve this without buying a more
expensive
firewall?

Second question: I am planning a full home automation system for my next
home, and am trying to find motorised radiator valves so I can have my HV
control individual rooms. The only motorised valves I can find are heating
zone valves, and are far to big to be fitted in each room. I realise I
could
put them under the floorboards, but the next house may not have an under
floor gap and I want to keep my options open.

Final question: I want to interface my security system to the HV, and am
looking to find one which has a serial interface using standard protocols -
i.e. not using hardware flow control lines, etc. Know ye of such a beast?
Note: I want to avoid X10 based security solutions, as power line
collisions
can cause significant events to be lost. What I'm actually trying to
achieve
here is to be able to hit my goodnight button on my remote, and have the HV
arm the alarm in certain zones only. Hitting a going out button would arm
all zones, and the HV could monitor for alarm trigger events and send
emails/sms/voice calls, etc. The HV could also maintain a central log of
alarm events, which I could make available on the web-server.

Thanks in advance for your input on any or all of the above!

Happy automating

Regards Steve