The Generally Available Blog

Networking

The Internet Protocol v6 - The Digital Messiah

A deep dive into Internet Protocol v6 (IPv6). IPv6 will expand the number of addresses available on the Internet and provide improvements to its architecture, performance, and reliability and provide further innovation for our connected devices.

home automation

Automate Your Garage With Smart IOT Devices

A garage is a perfect place to get started with installing IOT devices for home automation.

keycloak

Security Best Practices for OAuth 2.0

This post will follow the guidelines and best practices detailed in the Internet Engineering Task Force article entitled "OAuth 2.0 Security Best Current Practice". In relation to the open source IAM software Keycloak.

pfsense

Home Networking Hardware Update

As 10G and Multi-Gig capable hardware becomes more affordable, I discuss how I am transitioning my home network to these newer and faster technologies.

Storage

The Status of Storage Within Linux

We evaluate LVM, Btrfs, and ZFS from the perspective of a desktop user. And we look at the pros and cons of the different storage technologies.

pfsense

Remote VPN Server with pfSense and a Dynamic IP Address

How to configure a pfSense router for remote access using OpenVPN. These instructions will target residents who have a dynamic IP address.

pfsense

Virtualize pfSense for Google Fiber - A Dream Networking Stack

This is a story of planning and executing on a networking re-design utilizing Google Fiber, pfSense virtualized in Proxmox, and Ubiquiti products.

email

Securing Email for Better Inbox Placement

Common security standards for email sending in order improve email delivery placement.

Proxmox

Proxmox - Keeping Quorum with QDevices

We will develop a way of maintaining high availability with a two or even node count Proxmox cluster deployment. To do this, we will be using what is considered a QDevice.

Linux

A Technical Overview of Smartmontools

Smartmontools is a very well known toolset for monitoring and querying storage health. We will take a look at the code of Smartmontools and see what we can learn from it. We will also take a look at the Linux storage system hierarchy and how communication takes place from a softwares perspective.

Python

Python - A House Divided

An in-depth history into Python 3. Changes in syntax, incompatibilities, and tip and tricks to convert and support the latest Python from prior versions.

Linux

Steams Proton Brings Gaming to Linux

Proton is a compatibility tool which allows running Windows only games from within a Linux desktop.

HTTP

Everything to Know About Web Security

It is becoming important to understand and implement enhanced security measures for serving web content. In this post, we will look at some of the common best practices and tools to keep your website safe from the newest vulnerabilities and attack surfaces.

Python

Deep Dive into Requests

One of the most popular libraries in the Python ecosystem is the infamous requests library. In this post, we will look at basic and more advanced usages of the library which will help write concise pythonic code.

Proxmox

Proxmox - LVM SSD-Backed Cache

We will be looking at how to setup LVM caching using a fast collection of SSDs in front of a slower, larger HDD backed storage within a standard Proxmox environment. We will also look at the performance benefits of this setup.

Linux

How to Create a Private Network in Proxmox

In this article, we will look at how to create an internal network within a single Proxmox host.

Esoteric Programming Languages

We will be looking at Esoteric programming languages. They can be used as learning tools to teach fundamentals of language design, mechanics, and toolchain functionality. In addition, they hilariously showcase the engineers great wit and prowess!

Unix

Useless Uses of cat

We will be looking at the misuses of the Unix cat command. The so called Useless Uses of Cat (UUOC).

Gitlab

Upgrading Major Versions with Gitlab

In this post, we will learn what is required when upgrading Gitlab and how to perform an upgrade from a major version.

pfsense

Tracking Blocked Firewall Events with pfSense & Elasticsearch

Learn how to configure pfSense to send firewall events to your Elasticsearch cluster and visualize them in Kibana.

Gitlab

Gitlab Installation Using an External Database

How to install Gitlab while using an external PostgreSQL database.

pfSense DNS Resolver and Private IP Ranges

Resolving an issue with the Unbound DNS resolver using private FQDNs within pfSense.

ELK Stack on the Cheap

Preface I began writing this guide early in 2017 to develop an ElasticSearch, Logstash, and Kibana (ELK) stack in the cloud on the cheap (less than $15 per month). The idea was to use my Google Cloud free trial to create as small of instances as I could to run

wifi

Asuswrt-Merlin Firmware

The modified Merlin firmware, for ASUS routers, is based off of the stock firmware but adds a few key components geared towards power users.

Arch

Install Pi-hole on Arch

How to install Pi-hole on Arch linux. Pi-hole prevents advertisers from tracking you. We will go over tips and trips for the perfect Pi-hole installation.