Jun 19 2019
I’ve decided that I really have no reason to have Windows on my laptop since I don’t use it all that often so tonight I’m going to embark on installing funtoo Linux on it. It will most definitely be an interesting time but given the age of my laptop shouldn’t have to many surprises.
May 7 2019
My wife loves her crocheting. No big deal and not that weird. Me being the good husband I am however decided to write an app that will allow her to quickly generate a temperature blanket pattern. For those that don’t know, a temperature blanket is where you assign a color to a temp or range of temps and then track the high or low temp for a year. You use that to determine what color each day will be. Also means that even with the same color mapping, each year would be a different pattern. I am close to done and I cannot wait to have her use it.
Mar 8 2019
Well, due to Meraki not supporting IPv6 on their MX appliances I have removed it from my network. I am now back to running a Ubiquiti EdgeRouter, specifically the EdgeRouter X SFP. With a 1Gbe Fiber link between it and my Meraki MS220-8P just because I can (everything purchased from http://fs.com and working great). I have also replaced my Meraki MR33 AP with a Cambium e410 AP that I got for free. While it is still a cloud managed AP (for now at least as I have yet to get the on-premise controller working in KVM) there is no license fee which is nice. Although the cnMaestro software is a little harder to navigate than Meraki’s, I’m sure I’ll get the hang of it.
On the home server front, right now I have unRAID running on an Intel Core i7-4770 in a ASRock H97M Pro4 motherboard with 24GB of RAM. This will soon be upgraded to dual AMD Opteron 4280s in an ASUS KCMA-D8 motherboard with 128GB of RAM. I got gifted the motherboard, and the processors and RAM were very cheap. Just waiting on the adapters to be able to mount Socket AM3 HSFs on the board, the HSFs themselves & a new PSU as my current 500w one will not be big enough to power everything. The i7, its motherboard & RAM will go into our gaming desktop, giving it a nice upgrade from an i5-2500 & 8GB of RAM.
Nov 8 2018
Well,
I have come to the conclusion that I am in need of a new home server. My combination of a HP N40L for storage, a HP Laptop for Plex and a Raspberry Pi 3 as a Home Assistant machine just isn’t working well anymore. Of course, I can’t afford to go out and buy brand new gear (for the most part). I am considering “old” LGA 1356 Intel E5-2670 Xeons (around $80 each), a motherboard to support two of them, rackmount case (new Norco RPC-5224 and probably the most expensive part of the build), new PSU, an additional SAS/SATA controller so I can use the case properly, etc. Just need to determine if I want to do Ubuntu with ZOL & root on ZFS or if I want to go with FreeBSD and a beta install of Docker. I’ll run as much as I can outside of Docker containers, but some will need to be containers. I’m also thinking of putting the server in the garage, although I have no clue how hot it gets in there in the summer which worries me. I would love to be able to run two fiber runs out there to do a connection between my current Meraki MS220-8P and my old Dell PowerConnect 2724 (LAG between them just because I can), would also give me the ability to upgrade to 10Gig at some point in the future.
Jun 11 2018
Well,
I have been working to update my site for better searching. I think I now have an XML sitemap for Google ready to go. However, I’m not 100% sure if it is working yet.
May 30 2018
Well, I am starting to get frustrated with Meraki and their MX appliances. They have been promising to add IPv6 support to them for a while but they have yet to add it. This is an issue since most cell providers only offer IPv6 address to their phones & hotspots. This means that I am not able to connect to work via VPN when I am and about. Also means that I’m unable to connect to home via VPN and also check my personal site’s IPv6 address (I have a MX64 at home that I got for free). I most definitely will be switching back to Ubiquiti at home once my license has expired for my Meraki gear.
May 3 2018
Well,
A couple of weeks ago I managed to drop my phone and break the screen on it. I’m not at the Apple Store in the Mall of America waiting for them to finish replacing the screen and playing around on a nice shiny new iMac Pro. I love the screen and the touch pad on it, not sure about the keyboard and mouse yet. I think the mouse would be ok with its speed turned up. The keyboard just does not have near enough travel for me….
Apr 12 2018
Well,
I decided to try implementing Cloudflare again. Hopefully everything works and no one has any issues with my site (you know, all three of you that visit it).
Feb 12 2018
Well,
My web server sending people to the wrong domain seems to only occur at home. I have no clue what is causing it but it is rather frustrating 
Jul 13 2019
Home server
Well,
Last night I moved my home server from an old crappy tower case to a Rosewill RSV-L4500 4U rackmount case. No rack to put it in so it sits on its side but oh well. So much room in it, plenty of room for my ASUS KCMA-D8 motherboard. Will be really nice when I get the replacement board so I can use both CPU sockets and have 16 true cores and hopefully 128GB of RAM. If not, I’ll have either 64GB (like I do now) or 96GB of RAM. Both of which are a huge improvement over the 24GB I had before.
By Shaun • Server, smart house, tech • 0