Don’t judge me dog, it’s been one of those days.

Speaking for all of these SAMIT videos...

If you would literally rip the audio from these videos, and put these on a podcast, my drive to the office could be more educational... :)

Setting one of these up for an office.

Hi Mangolassi! I've been stalking this site for a while and thought it's time for my first post here.

I'm currently hosting a FreeBPX box on a VPS. Lately, the performance has been subpar to say the least. Lots of jitter, and drops. The VPS provider is looking into it, but I'm looking for plan B. Does anyone here have any experience with FreePBX on a VPS? If so, which provider would be best? I am located in Pennsylvania, so NY, NJ, or better still, Ashburn, VA would be the best location for us.

I've been reading up on Linode, Backspace, Vultr, and DO. Ideally, the ability to upload my own ISO (the FreePBX distro ISO) would be the easiest, but I am open to other options as well.

I'll be using the VPS exclusively for FreePBX systems, so obviously, the main requirement is voice quality. Any suggestions?

Thanks!

2 things: First, Unifi makes some pretty nice looking phones. Android based) Second, Mangolassi displays just fine on this phone.

That is all...

th

I recently setup my EdgeRouter X as a L2TP server with local user authentication. We've been using this for the past few days without any issues. Connecting from various platforms/OS's works perfectly. Let me know if anyone has an alternative method or if this guide should be tweaked at all.

Assumes outside WAN interface is eth0

configure

set vpn ipsec ipsec-interfaces interface eth0
set vpn ipsec nat-traversal enable
set vpn ipsec nat-networks allowed-network 0.0.0.0/0
set vpn l2tp remote-access ipsec-settings ike-lifetime 3600

If you have a static IP from your ISP, issue the following command, where x.x.x.x is your IP:

set vpn l2tp remote-access outside-address x.x.x.x

Gateway/next hop for public IP above:

set vpn l2tp remote-access outside-nexthop x.x.x.x

set vpn l2tp remote-access client-ip-pool start 10.0.1.10
set vpn l2tp remote-access client-ip-pool stop 10.0.1.20

set vpn l2tp remote-access ipsec-settings authentication mode pre-shared-secret

set vpn l2tp remote-access ipsec-settings authentication pre-shared-secret horsebatterystaple

set vpn l2tp remote-access authentication mode local

set vpn l2tp remote-access authentication local-users username adam password adampassword

set vpn l2tp remote-access mtu 1492

set vpn l2tp remote-access dns-servers server-1 8.8.8.8
set vpn l2tp remote-access dns-servers server-2 8.8.4.4

commit 

To verify the server is setup, the following command can be used.

show vpn l2tp remote-access

Save to keep changes on reboot

save

Set firewall rules for VPN traffic:
This can be done via the GUI as well, but I used CLI. Just make sure to pay attention to your rule numbers and order.

set firewall name WAN_LOCAL rule 20 action accept
set firewall name WAN_LOCAL rule 20 description Allow_L2TP
set firewall name WAN_LOCAL rule 20 destination port 500,1701,4500
set firewall name WAN_LOCAL rule 20 log disable
set firewall name WAN_LOCAL rule 20 protocol udp
set firewall name WAN_LOCAL rule 30 action accept
set firewall name WAN_LOCAL rule 30 description Allow_ESP
set firewall name WAN_LOCAL rule 30 log disable
set firewall name WAN_LOCAL rule 30 protocol 50

That's it! Now setup the built in client on your OS of choice and you should be good to go.

Actual video of me programming my coffee pot to brew coffee...

Coffee Programming

@DustinB3403 said in What Are You Doing Right Now:

@Dominica said in What Are You Doing Right Now:

I'm about to throw my effing laptop across the room if wordpress doesn't let me start customizing my damn website template. Argh!

Isn't this a Wordpress issue, and not a laptop one?

Yeah, but she cant physically throw wordpress. The laptop is the closest accomplice.

Thought I would circle back on this one and give a review of OrangeComputers.

I purchased an R710 from OrangeComputers a few months ago. They were very willing to work with me on price and upgrade components for a very reasonable price. I believe they even upgraded the controller from a Perc6i to an H710 for little to no cost. The server arrived within about 2-3 days, very well packaged, and all firmware up to date. The condition of the server was great, and it has been running 24/7 ever since I booted it with 4-5 VMs on it.

In summary, after 3 months of usage, I would recommend this company for refurb servers, as long as warranty is not a huge issue for you. Their warranty is 90 days standard, but you can pay a little extra and get a 1 year warranty. If you want a 3 year warranty, then these are not the guys to go with. For home use, or even small business, I'd buy from them again. Their pricing is excellent.

Do we have a date and location for this yet? For planning purposes.

@scottalanmiller I've used BB for testing and it was fine. I'll give a Wasabi a fair comparison, but will probably go with BB.

Thanks for the input gents.

Who has experience with both of these? Which one is better and why? Who has the better API?

Thanks!

@travisdh1 I can't upvote this enough. We tried it for about a hot minute and immediately ditched it.

I have been tasked with doing a POC for using Azure for VDI. I am exploring multiple options, including other cloud providers and good ol' COLO. However, I am testing each option.

I have been using Zerotier for quite some time now and I love it. I use it everywhere. I recently created a new VM in Azure (the first one) and installed Zerotier on it. From that VM in Azure, I can ping out to my other Zerotier endpoints AND connect to those same endpoints via RDP.

From my local PC (zerotier endpoint), I can also ping the Azure VM via Zerotier. However, I cannot RDP to the Azure VM. I am thinking it must be some sort of routing or firewall issue, but have been banging my head against my desk for the better part of the day.

Does anyone have experience doing this with an Azure VM?

@scottalanmiller said in Inexpensive laptop recommendations:

@adamf said in Inexpensive laptop recommendations:

I have a user who just needs to RDP

This conflicts with....

@adamf said in Inexpensive laptop recommendations:

I didn't provide all of the details, because it didn't matter for a recommendation. However, the user does in fact need Windows on both the laptop

...this.

The recommendations are based on the original bit. RDP alone has essentially no requirements at all. But if they need to do other things, then that would be the driver of requirements, RDP is a red herring.

That's fair, it does conflict because I said "just needs RDP".

I pulled the trigger on a cheapo Dell Refurb. Will do great for this specific scenario. Thanks gentlemen!

@scottalanmiller said in Inexpensive laptop recommendations:

@obsolesce said in Inexpensive laptop recommendations:

@scottalanmiller said in Inexpensive laptop recommendations:

@dashrender said in Inexpensive laptop recommendations:

@scottalanmiller said in Inexpensive laptop recommendations:

@adamf said in Inexpensive laptop recommendations:

@scottalanmiller Yeah, It is interesting to see how organizations are going back to the thin client model where it makes sense.

No one ever left it, really.

Thin clients cost is so high, it's barely worth it unless the security side it that important.

Custom built thin clients are crazy expensive. But using regular computers as thin clients is super cheap.

You can use anything for this. But Raspberry Pis have become very popular for it.

I couldn't imagine someone asking for a simple Windows laptop they are used to using to connect to their Windows computer, but then getting a some kind of Raspberry Pi concoction instead.

I can't imagine letting a staffer who is only using RDP get any say whatsoever in an operating system they won't interact with.

I didn't provide all of the details, because it didn't matter for a recommendation. However, the user does in fact need Windows on both the laptop and the desktop for various reasons. (software used both on the laptop and on the desktop.)

Those acers and the refub dell units are crazy cheap! I've used refurb Dells in the last directly from Dell Outlet and they have been great.

@notverypunny

That site has some great options. I have used DellOutlet.com before, but the one you sent has a ton of great options to look at. Have you used this site before?

@scottalanmiller Yeah, It is interesting to see how organizations are going back to the thin client model where it makes sense.

@scottalanmiller I'm going to check them out. Never used Acer before.

@gjacobse Yep, It's the user and their specific needs. So it has to be Windows.