@Johann said in DIY router build:
Can you tell me more about the Intel NUC option, please? I'd just need a case, memory and SSD, yes? Any good sample builds that come to mind?
There is nothing to build. It's often sold as a barebone, meaning you buy whatever memory you need and whatever SSD you want, plug it in and you're good to go. Youtube is your friend for stuff like that.
@AdamF said in Unattended remote access utility/ computer:
I would like to have a tiny network device where I can install at a remote location so I can always connect to it and then get to any other connected device on the network. The remote location would not have a static IP. What are some good/inexpensive solutions out there to accomplish this. I thought of a RasberryPi of some flavor, which would work fine. I just want to brainstorm some ideas/software to install on the device so that I can remotely connect to it at any time via SSH, or an agent, or something else.
Any ideas?
I don't like the idea. It's basically a hidden backdoor into the LAN. Shadow IT.
Why not use the firewall/router instead? Every site must have one. Have it establish a tunnel to a hub of your choice.
It's more transparent and the one in control of the firewall can decide what you are able to access. I'm thinking liability and what not.
If you are hell bent on the idea of bypassing perimeter security, why not use something like an edgerouter? Set it up as a router on a stick and have it dial out.
@Dashrender said in DIY router build:
As for your learning - physical hardware is really mainly good for learning hypervisors, beyond that you could do everything in a VPS provider like Vultr. No upfront fees, no power drain on you at all. I'm not sure what they offer on the networking side, i.e. you setting up your own private network playground where you setup a router on the edge, etc... but the other typical server stuff they can definitely provide like any other VM would.
While providers such as Vultr would be good for running production I don't think it's ideal for a homelab. You really want to be able to spin up many VMs without the cost immediately running away.
You could potentially sign up for a bare metal server but then it's from $120 per month from Vultr. I know Hetzner (Europe) has among the cheapest bare metal servers and you could probably find something for $50 per month.
Just checked and found something:
But latency might be a killer from the US.
@Johann said in DIY router build:
I think I should specified that my current router died a few days ago and that's one of the reasons I wanted to start with a DIY router. Because a few people said that I should not tinker on my network edge, I went ahead and bought a ASUS WiFi 6 Router (RT-AX3000) on Amazon. At the same time, others said that a DIY option can be around or a little more than a COTS router, so it's worth it to just go that route and dump the COTS router.
No, you need a working internet connection first to build anything. Any router would get that job done though.
Pros in general prefer a standard router/firewall with no wifi and then one or several access points to provide wifi. For example Edgerouter ER-X and any access point (if you need wifi).
In your case with that small space I'd probably just buy a $50 wifi router and be done with it. No point in buying a more expensive wifi router - better to buy the pro stuff in that case.
So I'd just cancel the amazon order and order a cheaper wifi router instead or go the pro route.
@Johann said in DIY router build:
@Pete-S - Are you referring to something like this?
https://metebalci.com/blog/home-lab-server-2022/
If so, this may be a bit much for me personally. The cost isn't a big issue even though this is expensive, but rather having to build an entire separate PC tower unit is likely not an option for me currently. My studio is less than 160 sq ft, so space is very limited here. Also, a server like in the link above would very likely consume a ton of wattage and my building only allows a certain amount of total wattage from each studio. This server would eat too much power unfortunately. But I can definitely return to this after I have moved into a new place (or ideally, have purchased an apartment/house). OR if you have a low wattage idea, then, nevermind what I typed above.
No, something like this:
Any Intel NUC. They're small and all models are low power. You just need to put in enough memory and SSD to run some virtual machines. 32GB RAM will do it.
For homelabbing and learning you need a home lab. That means you need a "server" where you can put virtual machines so you can learn about many different things.
Your first project should be to build the homelab server. Not the firewall/router.
When your "server" is up and running, you can learn and run different firewalls/routers on your server - such as pfsense, opnsense, vyos, openwrt etc etc.
If you still want a dedicated physical firewall/server at that point, go ahead. But not now. Now you need to use your hard earned cash so you can get as much learning out of it as possible.
PS. I'm writing "server" because you need a PC that will act as a server but not necessarily a server like the ones you'd find in a datacenter.
You should expect 3 years from batteries in standard cheap budget UPSes.
That's the service life of universal lead-acid battery technology.
But if you have a larger UPS (like a 3 phase) where the batteries are specifically made for UPS use, you should expect 10 years of service. It's usually in the specs for the batteries you buy. Some batteries have a 20 year service life.
@gjacobse said in PS ISE: Unsaved Projects:
As for setting up a Git Server? Yea,.. I don't know anything about those - or if one would be permitted in our environment.
You can use free git "servers" in the cloud, like gitlab.com and github.com, so no need to host your own. Your code doesn't become public because you store it there.
However you must also install git on your local machine where you are editing the scripts. So that might be a problem for you if you have restricted access over your workstation.
Git has limitations that adds a lot of complexity in some scenarios.
@Dashrender said in Fiber Connection Termination Question:
@BraswellJay said in Fiber Connection Termination Question:
Not that I really think I need it, but out of curiosity, if I were to get appropriate fiber connector for each end and insert into the same port on both sides is that all that would be needed to make another pair active?
Maybe yes, maybe no - it depends if there is fiber behind ports 2 and 3. If there is fiber between your building connecting ports 2, and port 3, then yes, just install a fiber patch cable on each side and you have another connection.
Besides what @Dashrender said you can also turn your current fiber pair (transmit and receive) into two separate fibers with send and transmit on every single fiber. You just have to change your fiber transceivers in your switch to the bidi type (bidirectional).
Works like this:
Bidi tranceivers looks like this (notice the single fiber connector):
If you want even more fiber communications running inside your single fiber pair you can use optical multiplexers and demultiplexers.
Looks like this:
This is what you use when you need to expand your communication without actually running new fiber pairs.
Every communication channel uses a different wavelength of light so they don't collide and every channel will run at maximum speed.
Has anyone started to look more at increasing the energy efficiency / lower power consumption of your current servers and infrastructure?
I've made some test and could save more than 50% power on idling servers by tuning BIOS and OS power management (linux).
Some of these things could be scripted to bring down power consumption during low use periods, for example outside business hours.
@travisdh1 said in NoMachine Server running, not found:
@gjacobse said in NoMachine Server running, not found:
This is a bit frustrating - It seems that NoMachine is 'hit and miss' being being able to receive a connection. Searching for a device that is online find none, and the device shows running. Restarting the service may fix it, but many times doesn't seem too, and restarting the computer leaves the same issue - not found.
Some threads suggest re-installing it - which I will do, but seems like a poor fix on a service that should run on boot.
It's it just my aggravation is causing this or am I looking for something else?
That's why I never ended up using NoMachine. Too many issues like that.
And it's not free for commercial use - at least the last time I looked.
@gjacobse said in Facebook at Work (Meta Workplace)?:
WHY,.. Why would you do that. That is ten times more poison them Sharepoint.
I don't know. Don't companies use Sharepoint?
I guess I'm wondering in general if companies use internal social sites. Or perhaps they just use messaging apps like Teams and Slack or just...nothing.
I wonder if your assumptions are correct. They are probably just using gethostbyname() / getaddrinfo() to find the IP and then it's the OS (Windows) that is responsible for the behavior you're seeing.
As I'm sure you know those function are part of socket programming functions of the OS. Based on BSD originally but Microsoft must have added code to deal with netbios, wins and whatever they've been doing since the days of Wfw.
Linux by comparison only deals with name resolution by DNS and manual hosts files. I can't think of anything else right now at least.
Has anyone ever seen a company in the wild that uses Facebook at Work (Meta Workplace)?
It's their social media site for internal company use, built on the Facebook code.
@PhlipElder said in Mikrotik software firewall/router?:
@Pete-S said in Mikrotik software firewall/router?:
@PhlipElder said in Mikrotik software firewall/router?:
@scottalanmiller said in Mikrotik software firewall/router?:
The same sales tactic is used to sell expensive "you have to pay the vendor extortion rates for support" over open source products that are known to be far better for decades. It's probably the best known scam in our industry. And once people overpay and get too little, the vendor has customers over a barrel and they feel that they can't expose to management that they spent a fortune and got less than they would have gotten for cheap or for free. And so the spending spree continues because no one up the chain wants to expose what they've done.
Three cluster setups:
1: Cisco Small Business Pro series Gigabit and 10GbE
2: NETGEAR Gigabit and 10GbE
3: Ubiquiti Gigabit and 10GbE
4: Mellanox/NVIDIA 10GbE, 40GbE, 50GbE, 100GbEGuess which ones we've had the most grief with? Which one's the least?
I can't stand the suspense. Please tell!
In order of stability and longevity:
4 1 2 3.
Thanks, I suspected something along that line. Interesting!
@PhlipElder said in Mikrotik software firewall/router?:
@scottalanmiller said in Mikrotik software firewall/router?:
The same sales tactic is used to sell expensive "you have to pay the vendor extortion rates for support" over open source products that are known to be far better for decades. It's probably the best known scam in our industry. And once people overpay and get too little, the vendor has customers over a barrel and they feel that they can't expose to management that they spent a fortune and got less than they would have gotten for cheap or for free. And so the spending spree continues because no one up the chain wants to expose what they've done.
Three cluster setups:
1: Cisco Small Business Pro series Gigabit and 10GbE
2: NETGEAR Gigabit and 10GbE
3: Ubiquiti Gigabit and 10GbE
4: Mellanox/NVIDIA 10GbE, 40GbE, 50GbE, 100GbEGuess which ones we've had the most grief with? Which one's the least?
I can't stand the suspense. Please tell!
Basically if you're running Zimbra and haven't patched it yet, you should consider yourself compromised. Servers needs to be taken off-line, re-imaged and set up with new account credentials.
@scottalanmiller said in How to Backup Patterson Dental EagleSoft Software:
This is a perfect example of how backup software cannot be universally application aware and why IT must always understand how the applications work under the hood to safely take backups.
Yeah, good example!
@pmoncho said in POTS line replacement:
I have been pushing my clients with MFP's scan/print to PDF and send via encrypted email. Just cannot seem to convince the remaining clients to change.
You can convince people with incentives, but not with reasoning and logic.
For example by offering them to send documents through email (free) and through fax (surcharge per page).
It's the same as what the operators are doing to you. They are giving you an incentive to move away from POTS by increasing the cost.
Would you look at options if the cost didn't go up?
@scottalanmiller said in Zoho Zillum - family oriented mail and cloud storage:
It's just hard imagining the family use case for this, and hard to imagine there being a cost advantage.
Not all families are the same. Our kids use computers in school so our family needs are basically the same as any small organization of entry level office workers.
To avoid chaos we want to provide them with a "digital home" if you will. That's the use case.
Cost advantage is that Zillum is 50% cheaper for us, compared to just Workdrive Starter and Mail Lite.