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 ‘Network-and-equipment’ Category

LAN/WAN network building: test and know how to locate your cabling

Posted by jpluimers on 2025/09/04

I have seen too many sites where cabling was laid en never tested before actual use, which meant locating the cabling and faults was a nightmare.

Be sure to have good (which can be very simple, but more complex when Power over Ethernet is involved) testing hardware and use it during installation. You will thank yourself later.

A few videos that can be helpful:

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Posted in Development, Ethernet, fiber, Hardware, Hardware Development, Internet, Network-and-equipment, PoE - Power over Ethernet, Power User | Tagged: , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

If I have not found pfSense hardware by now: Gowin R86S mini PC offers 2.5GbE and 10GbE networking for $310 and up – CNX Software

Posted by jpluimers on 2025/08/15

I have been contemplating on pfSense hardware as there has been a large shortage on that market especially for having more than 2 ports (similar to for instance Mikrotik PoE router unavailability).

If by now I have not found any, I might want to revisit [Wayback/Archive] Gowin R86S mini PC offers 2.5GbE and 10GbE networking for $310 and up – CNX Software has 3 RJ45 ports and 2 SFP+ cages.

They found it via this 4 page review:

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Posted in Ethernet, Hardware, MikroTik, Network-and-equipment, pfSense, Power User, routers | Leave a Comment »

In case I need a small 5-port managed switch that can do port-mirroring: GS305E | Easy Smart Managed Essentials Switch | NETGEAR Support

Posted by jpluimers on 2025/08/13

[Wayback/Archive] GS305E | Easy Smart Managed Essentials Switch | NETGEAR Support which can do many-to-one port mirroring.

This is a newer and cheaper hardware revision than the:

  • GS105Ev2 (which is managed and can do port-mirroring, and is confusingly sold as GS105E-200) which in Germany already is end-of-life
  • GS105Ev1 (which is unmanaged and cannot do port-mirroring and is confusingly sold as GS105E-100) which is end-of-life but still sold

Via [Wayback/Archive] Everyone Should Have One of These – EASY Packet Capture! – YouTube who explains very well why you need a switch that can do port-mirroring, then recommends the GS105E but forgets to mention:

  • there are different revisions of the GS105E with the above drawbacks
  • there is GS305E

Related:

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Posted in Blue team, Communications Development, Development, Ethernet, Hardware, Internet protocol suite, Network-and-equipment, Power User, Red team, Security, Software Development, TCP, UDP | Leave a Comment »

How to change the ringtone on your doorbell – The Verge

Posted by jpluimers on 2025/07/14

[Wayback/Archive] How to change the ringtone on your doorbell – The Verge (quote for my Ring camera as I always forget their link):

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Posted in Hardware, IoT Internet of Things, LifeHacker, Network-and-equipment, Power User, Ring Doorbell/Chime (Amazon) | Leave a Comment »

[OpenWrt Wiki] MikroTik

Posted by jpluimers on 2025/07/09

I wasn’t aware that [Wayback/Archive] [OpenWrt Wiki] MikroTik was available. Many devices are incomplete in support, but it is good to know there is an alternative to the buggy scripting interface of RouterOS.

For the hEX series, support seems good enough to give it a try this summer, but I need to figure out of the hEX PoE RB960PGS is supported. I have good hopes as other models of the RB9* series are.

A few warnings from the below links:

  • First Things First: Don’t Lose Your RouterOS License
  • OpenWrt is not compatible with the bootloader of RouterOS v7. Do NOT upgrade the firmware on your device to RouterOS v7 or, if you did, downgrade to RouterOS Firmware v6 before installing OpenWrt. RouterOS doesn’t allow to downgrade below factory firmware version, but OpenWrt boots and works fine with versions up to 6.49.10 or beyond. Confirmed working: 6.47.10 (tested on SXTsq 5 ac), 6.49.10 (tested on SXTsq 2nD).
  • If the installation fails, you might need to upgrade/downgrade to RouterOS 6.49.2
  • Warning: Don’t upgrade RouterOS packages & bootloader to 7.2.1 otherwise ‘sysupgrade image’ install will fail!
  • If latested release of RouterOS does not work, try an older version. 6.45 is reportet to work as a first debrick, you can upgrade later with the Winbox Software to latest release

These hEX related models are supported on the web-site (which also explains major differences with Fast Ethernet (100 Mbit/s) and Gigabit Ethernet (1 Gbit/s) models:

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Posted in Development, Hardware, MikroTik, Network-and-equipment, Power User, routers, Scripting, Software Development | Leave a Comment »

Charging the Battery on Your Ring Video Doorbell 2 – Ring Help

Posted by jpluimers on 2025/06/30

Your Ring Video Doorbell 2 is charged using a common micro-USB cable (an orange one is included in your Ring box). The micro-USB cable can be plugged into any USB power source such as a computer. Your Ring Video Doorbell 2 will take around five to 10 hours to fully charge depending on whether the USB cable is plugged into a USB port or into a wall outlet.

[Wayback/Archive] Charging the Battery on Your Ring Video Doorbell 2 – Ring Help

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Posted in Hardware, IoT Internet of Things, Network-and-equipment, Power User, Ring Doorbell/Chime (Amazon), Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

Software Downloads: Download UniFi Network Server – Ubiquiti: also known as UniFi Network application and apparently the successor of the UniFi Controller

Posted by jpluimers on 2025/06/02

After moving, I wanted to install new UniFi access points and upgrade the firmware of my existing ones.

The Cloud Key running the UniFi Controller software had long died (bringing that to market was a really bad idea from Ubiquiti in my view), so I started looking for UniFi controller software I could run locally.

From past contacts with other UniFi users, I knew there was some kind of Docker solution, but I hard a hard time finding it.

It looks like UniFi has been busy though and have three download lists coming back with essentially the same software, heck even point to the same release notes ([Wayback/Archive] UniFi Network Application 8.6.9 | Ubiquiti Community)

The actual download of the most recent version is at [Wayback/Archive] Software Downloads: Download UniFi Network Server – Ubiquiti.

If I understand [Wayback/Archive] Self-Hosting a UniFi Network Server – Ubiquiti Help Center correctly, what they mean is that the UniFi Network Application is an implementation of a UniFi Network Software that runs on MacOS/Windows/Linux.

You will likely have to download by hand as – especially on Windows – the package managers are versions behind. At the time of writing the version available above was V8.6.9 released 2024-11-06. This is what was on the package managers:

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Posted in Cloud Key, Hardware, Network-and-equipment, Power User, Unifi-Ubiquiti | Leave a Comment »

On Hanslow Stellare e-ink labels: Using e-ink (epaper) Price Tags (Shelf Labels) for everyday needs – YouTube

Posted by jpluimers on 2025/05/29

Interesting video: [Wayback/Archive] Using e-ink (epaper) Price Tags (Shelf Labels) for everyday needs – YouTube

It linked these:

Queries:

--jeroen

 

Posted in Development, Hardware, Hardware Interfacing, IoT Internet of Things | Leave a Comment »

H3/H2 Net Card – ODROID – wonder how well pfSense supports it

Posted by jpluimers on 2025/04/18

I wonder how well [Wayback/Archive] H3/H2 Net Card – ODROID is supported by pfSense. It is an M.2 based PCIe network card that adds 4 ethernet ports of 2.5 gigabit each to an ODROID H2 or H3 series (so you have 6 ports total), ideal for some hefty router.

Pictures (from the above link) of the board, cases and mainboard below.

But first: Realtek NICs is not vendor supported on FreeBSD (which pfSense and OPNsense are based on).

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Posted in *nix, BSD, Ethernet, FreeBSD, Hardware, Network-and-equipment, pfSense, Power User, routers | Tagged: , | Leave a Comment »

Some interesting tweets by @isotopp and others on home power measurement and what to do to optimise energy usage at home

Posted by jpluimers on 2025/02/26

For my link archive (browse back and forth in the tweets: lots of useful tips):

[Wayback/Archive] Kris on Twitter: “@mausdompteur @HildebrandtRalf … Tasmota Support P1-mqtt in Python, für den oa Zuidwijk Slimme Lezer Diese Lösung setze ich ein.”

A few of his power usage pictures:

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Posted in Development, Hardware, IoT Internet of Things, LifeHacker, Network-and-equipment, Power User, Python, Scripting, Software Development | Leave a Comment »