Category Archives: Networking

Networking

IoT Security And Local Control

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IoT Security And Local Control

PSA for today. Home Automation. And this will be quick.

There are so many smart devices out there. Almost all operate with an app and many of them are from a place called Tuya. There are shelves full of this stuff at Walmart, Target, BestBuy, etc.

Tuya has an awful security record. You can easily see all manner of vulnerability reports out there on your Google searches. I recently reviewed an item and mentioned it was from Tuya and that the app required access to your cellular data among other things. The company came back and lambasted me for saying that. Reasonably sure they will never send me anything else to review.

The norm out there in the past was to buy a device with an ESP8266 or ESP32 chip. The consumer then had the ability to reflash the firmware to ensure your smart device wasn’t a network security threat. Or you could buy some smart devices pre-flashed.

IoT Security

In the past week or two one of my smart devices seemed to be acting up. An outdoor outlet that controls landscape lighting here. I decided to just buy a new device and flash the firmware.

I couldn’t find one to buy. Actually it is more accurate to say that I couldn’t find the SAME ONE to buy. There is an identical looking device with the same part number but with a -1 at the end. Guess what? You can’t use it for local control. It has to have that app. They have locked you out from putting a 3rd party firmware on their device.

After looking around at other similar smart devices it sure seems like it is trending in that direction for many home automation items.

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Zimaboard 2 – Intel N150 Single Board Computer

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Zimaboard 2 – Intel N150 Single Board Computer

Zimaboard 2

I’ve been eyeballing this Zimaboard 2, Intel N150 based single board computer since it hit the scene.

Suffice to say though I am a Raspberry Pi Geek, through and through. I have a server rack with 8 of them. Then I have a mini rack with 3 more of them.

Additionally, I have a couple of those N150 GMKtec mini computers. I need another single board computer like I need another hole in my head. Which of course means that I broke down and got the Zimaboard 2 1664 version.

“Someone finally found the middle space between a single board computer and a mini-PC. Kudos to IceWhale.”

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Syncthing

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Syncthing

Syncthing

I’m going back to my roots here with Syncthing. My tech blog started as a way for me to record my projects so that when they blew up I could reconstruct them.

When you crack that code and then six months later you realize you forgot that code you have to start back at square one. Here’s my back story.

I have a QNAP server and use Qsync Client to back up my important files to that NAS. I just deployed another NAS (Beelink Me Mini with TrueNAS) recently. Additionally, I thought that Qsync Client software could be used to back up to TWO NAS devices. It couldn’t. Well technically it can but not from the same computer. That won’t do.

So I hit the Google and one name for synchronization software kept popping up. Syncthing. So I installed it on my Mac which was no problem at all. Then I went to set it up on TrueNAS. Not as easy. Read on for more fun…..

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Beelink ME Mini NAS Review

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Beelink ME Mini NAS Review

Beelink Me Mini

This may be one of the best pieces of tech I have seen come down the pike in some time. Having a Network Attached Storage (NAS) device has become fairly standard in a lot of households and is darn near required in the office or business space. Enter the Beelink Me Mini NAS ($259 for the 16GB version) device.

This is a unique device based on the Intel Twin Lake N150 chip. The N150 is a 4 core, 4 thread chip with a max turbo boost speed of 3.6 GHz. It also sips power at about 6 watts.

Storage consists of a 64GB eMMC onboard and 6 NVME M.2 slots for a max capacity of 24 TB. The downside though is that 6 – 4TB NVME drives are EXPENSIVE. Also due to limitations on the PCI Express Lanes (9 total) it is possible that populating all six drive locations MIGHT cause some power or bandwidth issues. If possible, low power NVME drives could be utilized.

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GL.iNet Beryl AX Review

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GL.iNet Beryl AX Review

GL.iNet Beryl AX

GL.iNet Beryl AX

I’ve just gotten my hands on a GL.iNet Beryl AX (GL-MT3000) travel router. Cost was approximately $100.

I’m rapidly becoming a fan of GL.iNet offerings and the Beryl AX is no exception.  I also own and have blogged about the Mango V2 and the Slate Plus.  I love both of them.

The major claim to fame with this router is that it does WiFi 6 and the WAN port is a whopping 2.5 GB ethernet port.  That is really pushing the limits of a device that can fit in your pocket.  Additionally,  it barely takes up any space in a laptop bag or backpack.

The router is based on OpenWRT 21.02 firmware.  After taking mine out of the box I discovered that mine did need a firmware update from version 4.2.2 to 4.4.5.  OpenWRT is an Open Source router firmware that is extremely powerful, and has greatly improved security over OEM router firmware.

GL.iNet Beryl

Firmware Update

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GL.iNet Mango Travel Router Review

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GL.iNet Mango (GL-MT300N-V2) Travel Router Review

GL.iNet Mango

GL-MT300N-V2

I just recently got my first GL.iNet travel router, the GL-A1300 Slate Plus.  It’s a wonderful device and I blogged about it here.   On a whim I purchased its little brother the GL.iNet Mango (GL-MT300N-V2), $30.

On their page they refer to it as the N300, with the 300 standing for the max wifi speed of the router of 300 Mbps.

In this day and age of Wifi 6 you might be wondering why anyone would get something that ran at 300 Mbps.

The answer to that is FORM FACTOR.  It is a super tiny, and lightweight device that could easily slip into a pocket.   The mission of this device is mostly to connect to free wifi hotspots and then automatically connect to an OpenVPN or WireGuard VPN connection.  This makes that very unsecured wifi portal safe to use.   A VPN is a Virtual Private Network that creates an encrypted tunnel between your devices and the VPN service.  No one can see what you are doing.   After I blogged about the other GL.iNet travel router a friend of mine sent me this:

“Staying at a hotel right now that touts each login has their own VPN, because “your privacy is important to us.”I open Spotify and it asks if I want to join a random persons listening group that is listening to music on their Xbox. Sure.“
That about sums it up.   Even when they claim security, you cannot trust that there is security.

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GL.iNet Router Review GL-A1300

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GL.iNet Router Review GL-A1300

GL.iNet Router

GL-A1300 Slate Plus

Before I retired I had a job with extensive travel involved.  I would sometimes take a full sized router with me to hook up at the hotel.  Back then most hotels had an ethernet jack in the room.  I’d simply push my own wifi network to my computer, phone, and many times an audio streaming device like a Chromecast or Raspberry Pi.  Oh how I wished they would have had a GL.iNet Router back in those days.

I only found out about them recently on a Discord Forum. Some of the guys are using them for all kinds of amazing networking hacks.  Even though I barely leave the house these days I wanted to get one just to see what I was missing out on.
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Metronet Static IP On OPNSense

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Metronet Static IP On OPNSense

As luck would have it, fiber internet has made its way to our house out in the boonies.  Most cable/internet companies charge an arm and a leg for a static IP and call it a “business account”.  When the sales rep came by I asked how much a Metronet Static IP cost.  The reply was $10 a month.   I was sold on that for sure.

Otherwise, Metronet uses Carrier Grade Network Address Translation (CGNAT) for IP addresses.  What that means is that your router or firewall will pull one address, but that your actual IP address is something else.

What that really means is connecting back to your home network via VPN can be a lot more complex.  Also, Murphy’s VPN Law, states that you will pull a new DHCP address only while you are away on vacation rendering your ability to connect to your network null and void.
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QNAP NAS Review TS-433-4G-US

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QNAP NAS Review TS-433-4G-US

I’ve never bought an off the shelf NAS before and have always opted to build them on my own.  There is no better resource for NAS building than this website.  I currently have two home brew NAS’s in operation but had a need for a 2.5 GB NAS for a new, faster network I was setting up.  I settled on a QNAP NAS for a couple of reasons.

Reason number 1 was that initially my 2.5 GB network was only going to be in the downstairs part of my home.  Reason 2 is because since it was downstairs it needed to be somewhat attractive to appease my wife, and something somewhat quieter than my home brew NAS builds.

QNAP NAS

QNAP NAS

After a considerable amount of research I opted to get the QNAP TS-433-4G-US.($379)

4 bays is enough for me I have four 4TB Western Digital Red drives in a RAID 5 array.

This NAS is simply for file storage and I won’t be asking it to run any media servers or anything else that might overtask it.

I have a super NAS upstairs with a Xeon processor and tons of RAM and storage with Unraid as the OS.   It does all that heavy lifting.

I do use the QNAP for Apple Time Machine backups for several Macs I have in the house.

I also run another server which is located in my back yard shed which is a Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 with a SATA PCIe controller and a couple of 6TB hard drives.   It runs OpenMediaVault (OMV).

This will NOT be a technical review.  No specs, no stats.  Just me talking about whether buying a NAS off the shelf is something a NAS user would want to do or not. 
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Mokerlink Review 2.5G Managed Switch

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Mokerlink Review Of 2.5G L2 Managed Switch

Mokerlink Review

Mokerlink L2 Managed

When upgrading your home or small business network you will quickly discover that 2.5G switches are not cheap.   Today I do a Mokerlink Review of their 8 port, managed 2.5G switch.

I ordered the switch from Amazon at a cost of $175.  While that might be inexpensive for a 2.5G switch it isn’t inexpensive for a network switch.  It will definitely make you question whether upgrading your network to 2.5G is worth it.   I understand that a 2.5G switch is going to be more expensive than a 1G switch but there is a huge chasm in pricing between the two.

First Impression

The first thing I noticed wasn’t about the actual switch.  As soon as I buy something I head to the internet to download the manuals for it.  When I went to the Mokerlink website their https certificate was expired and my browser was telling me it might not be safe.   The next day I tried and the website was down.  This morning, I finally was able to get to their website and download the manuals.

So my first impression is not a good one.  Someone is not minding the store at Mokerlink and keeping track of their web host.   Heck, at John’s Tech blog and my other web site I get a ton of emails from my host months in advance of an expiration of a domain name or a certificate.
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