The Wiert Corner – irregular stream of stuff

Jeroen W. Pluimers on .NET, C#, Delphi, databases, and personal interests

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Archive for the ‘Hardware’ Category

NEW Universal USB Type C Mod to Restore your older devices! – YouTube

Posted by jpluimers on 2026/01/22

Nice videos about  USB-C receptacles replacement that might fit old mini-USB and sometimes micro-USB ones.

Before applying, check out the tables in USB hardware: Compatibilities – Wikipedia and the table I copied from USB hardware: connector dimensions – Wikipedia to ensure there is enough space to fit the USB-C receptacle in:

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Posted in Development, Hardware, Hardware Development, Power User, Soldering, USB, USB, USB-C | Leave a Comment »

The Intel’s Management Engine Backdoor Nobody Can Remove – via YouTube

Posted by jpluimers on 2026/01/21

Interesting video explaining on Intel’s Management Engine which has been the Intel Inside part of about every Intel Chipset since 2008: [Wayback/Archive] The Intel Nobody Can Remove (Not Even You) – YouTube

This is very relevant as it runs on a lightweight operating system called Minix, and there is a move from attacks on end-user operating systems personal computers and mobile phones towards edge devices running lightweight operating systems (not limited to Citrix, Ivanti, Fortinet, Palo Alto, Cisco, SonicWall and Juniper – for a potential OS list see Category:Lightweight Unix-like systems – Wikipedia).

More sources have started warning for this, see for instance [Wayback/Archive] Network security devices endanger orgs with ’90s era flaws | CSO Online and [Wayback/Archive] Security Appliance Vulnerability Bingo 2025 – Google Regneark.

Hopefully [Wayback/Archive] Dr. Christopher Kunz | heise online will have created a cku.gt/appbingo26 this year.

--jeroen

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Posted in CPU, Cyber, Hardware, Infosec (Information Security), Intel CPUs, Power User, Security | Leave a Comment »

A WireGuard Docker Linux Container

Posted by jpluimers on 2026/01/21

This should stau stays pretty up to date over time:

–jeroen

Posted in Cloud, Containers, Docker, Infrastructure, VPN, Wireguard | Leave a Comment »

WireGuard on OpenWRT based GL.iNET: some notes on the `wireguard_watchdog` script

Posted by jpluimers on 2026/01/15

On OpenWRT GL.iNET based devices, the WireGuard client does not restart upon reboot, even if it was started before rebooting.

Hopefully the /usr/bin/wireguard_watchdog script will help with this as others indicates it should.

My first try was no succes, but since it is supposed to run from cron it does no output. The script on GL-SFT1200 firmware version 3.215, script /usr/bin/wireguard_watchdog is different from the one in the OpenWRT repository, so it needs some investigation.

Some links for checking this out:

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Posted in *nix, *nix-tools, ash/dash, ash/dash development, Development, GL-AR300M, GL.iNet, GL.iNET GL-SFT1200, OpenWRT, Power User, Scripting, Software Development | Leave a Comment »

Some WireGuard console tricks that helped me figure out a GL.iNET “status yellow” connection problem

Posted by jpluimers on 2026/01/14

TL;DR: the connection problem was because of a public key mismatch between the pfSense central location and GL.iNET peer.

Since the pfSense cannot export configuration in either text or QR format (see rcmcdonald91/pfSense-pkg-WireGuard: This is a port of the original WireGuard UI bits as implemented by Netgate in pfSense 2.5.0 to a package suitable for rapid iteration and more frequent updating on future releases of pfSense.), I made a copy paste mistake.

This resulted in the WireGuard client connection indicator on the GL.iNET to turn yellow instead of green. This means that the handshake is only partially completed (there is a WireGuard connection but there is no returning traffic on it).

GL.iNET VPN status explanation:

  • no color: no VPN
  • yellow: VPN not fully established
  • green: VPN established

How I found out

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Posted in GL.iNet, GL.iNET GL-SFT1200, Hardware, Network-and-equipment, pfSense, Power User, routers | Leave a Comment »

WireGuard site-to-site VPN between GL.iNET and pfSense

Posted by jpluimers on 2026/01/12

Some links and notes that might help me getting WireGuard site-to-site VPN working between GL.iNET and pfSense.

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Posted in GL.iNet, GL.iNET GL-SFT1200, Hardware, Network-and-equipment, Power User, VPN, Wireguard | Leave a Comment »

pierogi engineering – YouTube – search – hard drive

Posted by jpluimers on 2026/01/06

The algorithm got me to the first video of this list: [Wayback/Archive] pierogi engineering – YouTube – search – hard drive

It’s similar to a longer second video that also does balancing using the gyroscopic effect of the moving platters.

Nice!

Video links:

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Posted in 18650, Batteries, Development, Hardware, Hardware Development, HDD, Li-Ion, Power User | Leave a Comment »

A few pfSense quirks I got used to over the years

Posted by jpluimers on 2026/01/06

Everytime when installing a pfSense router from scratch, I seem to re-learn a few of the below quirks. So it was finally time to document them (:

Quite a few of my pfSense configurations are just doing routing between various networks, should not provide DHCP leases and do not always need or have a WAN connected (i.e. they are LAN-only).

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Posted in Communications Development, Conference Topics, Conferences, Cyberchef, Development, DHCP, Encoding, Event, Hardware, HTTP, Internet protocol suite, MikroTik, Network-and-equipment, pfSense, Power User, routers, Software Development, SSH, TCP, TLS, UDP | Tagged: | Leave a Comment »

Product Comparison – GL.iNet and their products I have

Posted by jpluimers on 2026/01/05

At the time of writing (during the Covid-19 Pandemic) the [Wayback/Archive] Product Comparison – GL.iNet contains the below products.

I got 3 of them (2 are variations of the same model) and their quality/price ratio is great, even with the prices that risen during the 2020-onwards global chip shortage.

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Posted in Ethernet, GL-AR300M, GL.iNet, GL.iNET GL-SFT1200, Hardware, Network-and-equipment, Power User | Leave a Comment »

Temperature controlled fans usable for DIGITUS Professional Network Wall Housing – Soho Wall Cabinet: Amazon.de: Computer & Accessories

Posted by jpluimers on 2025/12/26

TL;DR: avoid Digitus AC fans, but use DC case fans with built-in/external temperature controller plus 12V or USB-step-up power supply and optionally fan grilles/meshes.

A while ago, I bought a 7U shallow 19-inch rack cabinet to house some of our network equipment for the offices and other rooms at the top floor: [Wayback/Archive] DIGITUS Professional Network Wall Housing – Soho Wall Cabinet: Amazon.de: Computer & Accessories

Since it was to be mounted in the boiler room, which is on the top floor under a flat roof, it would get warm so I wanted fans installed in it under or over the air vents in the housing (the cabinet is delivered as flat-pack with parts pictured below and requires about half an hour assembly time):

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Posted in Hardware, LifeHacker, Network-and-equipment, Power User | Leave a Comment »