It has been a while since my WiFi is getting more and more unstable, and I finally decided to retire my NETGEAR R6300v2 which has served me well since in 2017. It was in used condition when I bought it, so this is a good time to get a “new” router. Because the ISPs in my area are very bad, I still have to stick with the low speed Internet for probably quite some time. So I decided to buy a used Linksys MR7350. ...
During the prime day, my friend grabbed a GL.iNet Flint 2 (GL-MT6000) for a fair price, thanks to the slickdeals community. The specs of this model feels like a beast to me, because I don’t have enough high-end devices and Internet plan to utilize that much of performance. But what I can do is to boost its security and stability for my friend. Note: For operational security, all initial settings should be done without physical Internet/WAN connection. ...
Since I was a teenager, I have started voluntarily helping people around me with my skill of technology. This time, I’m helping someone to build up a robust, secure and cost-effective firewall/gateway/soft router at home. It ends up on a $100 worth N100 mini-pc with dual Ethernet port, which can be a great pfSense box for home or even business use. Hardware Tweaks This model (T8PLUS) secured with 4 screws at outside, after removing them the outer case can be easily pried open (just a little bit more effort than Intel NUCs), and removing 4 more screws inside to get the access of the motherboard (way more simpler design of the power button comparing to NUCs). ...
There are many reasons why I’m doing this. In the days when Virtual Machine was the thing, VMware Workstation was the go-to option for a Windows host to run VMs. We have to find cracked version for personal use, since there was no VirtualBox neither Hyper-V. Many years ago, when I first decided to have a proper homelab in my household, I went blindly into ESXi just because VMware Workstation has already installed on all of my computers. Although I was pretty like Proxmox during that time, it was considered for not so serious projects. ...
Days before mini-PC become a thing, there was no NUC, MinisForum or Beelink. It was the time of thin client and SFF (small-form-factor), manufacturers such as Shuttle, Dell and Lenovo were made a lot of these. Back then, the performance of SoC was too weak so that even laptops wouldn’t use them. But my first dedicated home lab machine was an Atom D525, which was called embedded industrial computer. It served as a router rather than server due to its performance and heat. That was also the time when I got into the world of m0n0wall derivatives (pfSense/FreeNAS). ...