Tag: networking

SFP+ optics, DACs, AOCs, and fiber for home lab 10G networking, what to buy, what to avoid, and how to stop vendor lock-in from wrecking your wallet.

Ingress is the annotation-soup classic. Gateway API is the role-oriented future with proper L4/L7 separation. Here's when to migrate and when to wait.

Rootless Docker tuning deep-dive: network drivers, env vars, port drivers, cgroup delegation, and real troubleshooting, anchored to Docker Engine 29.x.

Boot any OS over the network using iPXE, covers dnsmasq proxyDHCP setup, HTTP boot menus, Talos OS live boot, and the quick netboot.xyz shortcut method.

Mikrotik routers cost $50, run a real OS, and humiliate prosumer gear. RouterOS basics, VLANs, firewalling, and why your homelab probably needs one of these.

Two FreeBSD firewall distros, one bitter fork. pfSense vs OPNsense in 2026, which one to pick for your home lab, and why the licensing drama still matters.

Zeek (formerly Bro) turns network traffic into structured logs you can actually query. The IDS that doesn't shout, it documents. Setup and use in a home lab.

traceroute lies. mtr tells the truth. Here's how to read packet-loss reports like an oncall engineer and stop blaming your ISP for the wrong hop.

Your gigabit link drops to 200 Mbps and you don't know why. iperf3 measures throughput honestly, nload visualizes traffic, together they find the bottleneck fast.

OpenConnect replaces the bloated AnyConnect client on Linux. Run ocserv for a self-hosted Cisco-compatible VPN server, no 200MB installer required.

TLS tunneling for legacy plaintext services, stunnel's X.509 cert model vs spiped's pre-shared key simplicity, and when each one actually wins.

Picking a recursive DNS resolver for your home lab, Unbound, Technitium, and BIND9 compared on speed, GUI, DNSSEC, and split-horizon.