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Tour of My Home Network (and More!)

So I have had a ton of requests over the years to give a tour of my home network. Honestly, I never gave the tour because I just didn’t think people would be that interested in what I had. Well I have had enough requests to get the idea that some of you really do […]

What does 1U, 2U, 3U Mean? Rack Units Explained

What does 1U mean?

If you’ve spent any time in data centers or around IT people, you’ve probably heard talk of something being a “2U server” or a “1U switch”. In my most recent video I built a really cool 1U server. I was a little surprised by how many people were not aware of what this “1U” thing […]

XEON vs Core i7

XEON vs Core i7

I recently did a video and article on Building a Bad Ass 1U Server.  I chose to build this server with an Intel Core i7-6700K.  The YouTube comments immediately erupted with naysayers commenting on my CPU choice with the likes of “That’s not a server, its 1U Desktop”, or “No ECC RAM, not a server.”  These […]

Venting a Server Closet (The Right Way)

A lot of people these days are building homes or buying homes that have network or A/V closets in them. On many of the higher end homes, these builders will hire audio-visual companies to actually do the installs and many times they will install a ductless mini-split air conditioner on the closet.  This will be […]

Review of the Synology NVR216

Surveillance systems are something that used to be considered a nice-to-have. With today’s crime rates, and lawsuit happy customers it just makes sense to have something like the Synology NVR216 in your personal or small business arsenal. There are many surveillance systems on the market, and let me tell you, there are some real turds […]

pfSense Rules not Working?

pfSense has to be the greatest thing to ever happen to the open source firewall movement. It’s a one of those open source products that’s truly a game changer. It runs on just about any hardware, whether it be a PC or an old XBOX. Companies have even built custom designed hardware around pfSense with […]

pfSense Road Warrior IPSec Config That Works

If you’re like me you’ve tried a to find a pfSense Road Warrior configuration for IPSec that actually works and you’ve banged your head against the wall for hours because its one giant problem after another.  Every pfSense mobile configuration on the pfSense site has a different box checked and every website has a different […]

pfSense not Recovering after WAN Failure

pfSense is probably the best open source firewall/router software package I have ever used. It’s packed full of professional feature sets and has a very polished and clean user interface (web based GUI). And its FREE. That’s right. It’s 100% free (you can buy a support agreement if you want to). pfSense will run on […]

Ethernet Switch Between the ONT and the Router (FiOS)

When FiOS was first launched by Verizon it was a glorious time. The city I live in (Keller, TX) was the first city in the nation to get FiOS!  It was fantastic.  The fastest stuff on the block was DSL from Verizon or AT&T at 1.5Mb/s down and 128 Kb/s up and it wasn’t reliable […]

Installing a 19″ Network Rack (at home)

Home Network Rack

The story of installing a home network rack in our house is a great one, but first you need to know the backstory! When we built our new home a year ago (we started it in 2013) one of the things that was very important to me was that the home was designed with structured […]