Root Access

12:42 AM

Wtf

This hostel has a internet connection speed limiter that's based on wireless connection time...

It's 70Mbps+ for the first 20-40 seconds, then caps to 2Mbps. Irrespective of what you're doing or how much data you've used

So I just use a script to disconnect and reconnect the wifi session every 30 seconds...

Obviously figuring out the commands to use from SU answers

Anyone reviewing their wireless connection or data usage logs will be rightly going "WTF"

allquixotic

1:00 AM

prrt1steamlocomotivetrust.org/index.php

Journeyman Geek

@bwDraco two reasons

In most cases, as a regular user, in public, you embarass them

It should never end up as "us vs them"

By making it general you address the behaviour, no matter who does it, rather than the person

Its worth thinking of meta as a soap box.

bwDraco

Thanks - asked because I was hoping to learn a lesson, not that anything in particular happened recently.

Journeyman Geek

in addition

bwDraco

I see people do things that seem odd to me, come to the realization that my approach may be wrong, and hope to get answers so I can improve myself.

Journeyman Geek

both as a mod and off, meta is a good place to influence policy

and policy is about communities, not people.

bwDraco

1:04 AM

I just wish I knew this community-building stuff better. It's sad that I don't have the sort of talent you have, but not having talent doesn't mean I can never learn these skills.

Journeyman Geek

@djsmiley2k heh, there's actually a specific reason/ruling related to that chat message I deleted. I just didn't want to hit you over the head with the word of shog, even if it had to do with good folk on our site getting hit with suspensions over stuff we could have handled like adults.

bwDraco

As someone who has been and continues to be isolated from the outside world, I can't help but think this isn't really my fault that I'm in a sorry state like this, being so socially inept.

I'll see if I can do some diplomacy with my parents so I can start going to bars, etc. and socialize more.

Journeyman Geek

@bwDraco why not local usergroups and maker spaces?

You're more likely to run into folk with similar interests

or heck, photography meetups

bwDraco

The reason for opposition still seems rather abstract to me and I have not been able to formulate any good objectives as a result.

@JourneymanGeek Father thinks it's useless. The only thing he cares about is my getting full-time employment.

Journeyman Geek

Which is a noble goal

bwDraco

1:07 AM

Nothing else matters, no matter how much it helps me in the future.

Journeyman Geek

guess what helps with that?

Networking

bwDraco

Father doesn't care.

Journeyman Geek

So. Get a job ;p

bwDraco

He only cares about the end result and consistently fails to recognize that intermediate steps are needed.

Come to think of it... it's not exactly a matter of talent.

You have learned to defy your parents and do stuff like this anyway. On the other hand...

My situation is very different and at least one of my parents is actively hostile to anything that might help me get better, to the point where I feel physically unsafe to go out.

Journeyman Geek

I've had social anxiety.

Sometimes you just gotta rise and walk. And fall down, and pick yourself up, and walk again.

bwDraco

1:18 AM

See this:

Feb 10 at 2:24, by bwDraco

To the community: Due to deteriorating relations between my parents at home, I expect to be exiled from my primary residence for an unknown period of time. My presence cannot be guaranteed, although I will try to stay in touch.

I fear that if I try to do my own thing, even if I know it's the right thing to do for myself, Father will not welcome me home.

To me, it's not social anxiety. It's living under the threat of eviction.

Father has no faith in me and sees any effort to improve as futile.

Stuff like going out to a bar is seen as dangerous, and I cannot leave the house without a valid reason. I cannot just say, "I'm stepping out for personal reasons and will be back in a few hours" without getting in trouble unless I can give a specific reason for the trip.

Again, it's not really Mother.

Also, Father has opposed allowing me to learn to drive, despite Mother's support, fearing that I will wind up in an accident due to my poor self-control.

This mindset does not help me get better. It only stunts my growth.

Journeyman Geek

@bwDraco If you spent half the energy you do complaining about it doing something about it.... you'd be fine.

Unrelatedly....

Sark

Sark (French: Sercq; Sercquiais: Sèr or Cerq) is an island in the Channel Islands in the southwestern English Channel, off the coast of Normandy, France. It is a royal fief, which forms part of the Bailiwick of Guernsey, with its own set of laws based on Norman law and its own parliament. It has a population of about 600. Sark (including the nearby island of Brecqhou) has an area of 2.10 square miles (5.44 km2). Sark is one of the few remaining places in the world where cars are banned from roads and only tractors and horse-drawn vehicles are allowed. In 2011, Sark was designated as a Dark Sky...

allquixotic

1:44 AM

@bwDraco I agree with everything you wrote from this message til the end, and have had similar (though apparently less severe) problems myself; I haven't found a solution yet except managing to find a stable, well-paying job... I've got stable down, working on the latter part

Journeyman Geek

heh, I've been jobless. AM at the moment too!. Buuuuut sometimes you gotta take the initiative

bwDraco

2:07 AM

@JourneymanGeek The issue is that I don't know what to do about it.

I've tried. Father just doesn't like it.

Journeyman Geek

@bwDraco Its not your father's life. Its yours.

bwDraco

Look, I cannot risk getting evicted.

The only reason I have to do this is the fact that I do not have the financial resources to support myself.

Anything else, and I will wind up on the streets.

I am under the impression that my parents are fearful of something about me that they do not want to let go of my hands and let me grow up in a controlled fashion. It seems like there is some primal fear involved, making it impossible for my parents to articulate the specific concerns here.

The question here is, "what general concerns do you have about me that are making you unwilling to give me more independence?"

If I don't know why mom and dad are hesitant to give me more agency, I won't be able to address the concerns.

Journeyman Geek

2:37 AM

@bwDraco if your parents kick you out because you're expressing some independance... that might not be the worst.

Journeyman Geek

3:01 AM

chances are they won't

Bob

3:16 AM

hi

CoderCat

hi

just bought a router, what settings should I check

Journeyman Geek

er

vtc too broad ;p

(change your password)

Set wifi password and security (WPA2 is kinda what you SHOULD be using, as a minimum)

I'd turn off anything old you don't need

bwDraco

@CoderCat Disable UPnP unless you have a specific need for it.

CoderCat

dont think so

bwDraco

31

Q: What are the security implications of enabling UPnP in my home router?

I found port forwarding entries in home router that I haven't manually configured. Is that because of UPnP? Are applications simply able to tell the router to forward ports on their own? Are there any security implications with enabling UPnP?

(though Xbox may require it; see support.xbox.com/en-US/xbox-one/networking/upnp-not-successful)

Journeyman Geek

3:27 AM

I'd actually lean towards "lock it down and open things as they break"

CoderCat

good strategy

I thought wpa2 was now insecure

Journeyman Geek

err, what's the new hotness? I might be out of touch but I wasn't aware of anything newer/better.

CoderCat

is there a fix yet for it

or something better than wpa2

Journeyman Geek

OH

The issue is client side

there's nothing you need/could do on the router side

CoderCat

ohh ok

Journeyman Geek

3:30 AM

I was thinking more how some folk still have 802.11b enabled and so on

We're running G and N gear, but basically turn off any standard you don't need for performance reasons.

allquixotic

"Uncle" Bob Martin - "The Future of Programming"

►

@JourneymanGeek The advances in standard beamforming, improved handling of traffic on the frequency (from BT, WiFi and other 2.4 and 5 GHz digital systems), and potentially smarter PHY stuff (like frequency hopping, etc.) has dramatically improved my perception of WiFi over the past 4-5 years

Journeyman Geek

@allquixotic my hardware is a little older

allquixotic

it's gone from an unreliable, flaky mess with generally horrible drivers, slow speeds when it does work, and so many conditions under which it can break...

Journeyman Geek

Also, my environment is essentially a worst case scenario.

allquixotic

to basically just a slightly slower gigabit ethernet that's mostly just as reliable

Journeyman Geek

3:36 AM

Yours is probably the best

allquixotic

to be fair my WiFi environment is pure 802.11ac 5 GHz with a Netgear Nighthawk X10

Journeyman Geek

Single family home/duplex made of wood vs large, high density, concrete and rebar structure

allquixotic

I may have one or two devices that are 5 GHz 802.11n

ah, yeah, my house is wooden frame

Journeyman Geek

@allquixotic 5ghz won't get past my walls ;p

yup

allquixotic

the Nighthawk X10 sitting on my desk in my room on the second story can reach outside into the driveway, into the basement, and into the kitchen on the first floor

Journeyman Geek

3:38 AM

man

allquixotic

my iPhone switches over to WiFi from the fiber to the premises when I pull into the driveway in my car

Journeyman Geek

I currently have a 802.11n router + a single band repeater for full wifi coverage

I probably would do better if i could shift my backup NAS into my room but ugh, I need a loooot of plugs

allquixotic

if 5 GHz is that badly blocked by your concrete, you might do better once millimeter wave tech is out that bounces off of reflecty surfaces

CoderCat

I got a question but its like finding a needle in a haystack

allquixotic

then put some mirrors in your house for line of sight bouncy bouncy under doors

Journeyman Geek

3:39 AM

lol

my big problem is a sliding glass door that acts like a faraday cage

so my bouncer is in the kitchen next to what used to be a counter...

allquixotic

well. my house's physical structure hasn't changed at all since the early 2000s; in fact, it's gotten worse, because it's WAY noisier on both the 2.4 and 5 GHz spectrum now: neighbors, tons and tons and tons of Bluetooth (I exclusively listen to audio via A2DP AptX now), multiple devices per person

Journeyman Geek

looool

allquixotic

but my reliability has gone WAY up, from "fuck wireless" to "this is amazing"

Journeyman Geek

@allquixotic I have 24 floors with 4 apartments each

between 4 users to 20 (._.) per apartment

allquixotic

wow

Journeyman Geek

3:41 AM

there's even worse buildings ;p

I was kinda debating mesh but its really pricy

600-700 sgd for a decent set?

allquixotic

we have 3 people with around 2 to 4 devices each in my house, but my WiFi devices can see about 12 wireless base stations that I could get at least sporadic signal from (that I don't own or operate)

90% of them are in 2.4 GHz, so 5 isn't so bad yet

Journeyman Geek

5ghz has a lot more channels

allquixotic

5 is FAR less likely to be able to penetrate more than one house's walls though

5 might get through a single house's wooden walls, but two or three, probably not

Journeyman Geek

Which is actually a feature!

allquixotic

so my neighbors might have 5 GHz hotspots I'm not aware of

but yeah, getting FiOS changed my life for the better this year, it's been amazing except for a few problems that I've since resolved

long uptime and great reliability on the Nighthawk now too

I now have an upstream and downstream to the public Internet that's faster than the 802.11ac PHY that most of my devices (except for the router itself) are capable of handling

Journeyman Geek

3:45 AM

;p

allquixotic

definitely my iPhone and Macbook don't have enough MIMO antennas to push gigabit

Journeyman Geek

Could do what I do

I'm debating sticking my torrent box straight off the router once I can add RSS feeds over the webui

allquixotic

I have ethernet to most things I regularly need faster than ~300 Mbit on, though

Journeyman Geek

hah.

I actually kinda am ok, other than my backup backups taking about 5-6 hours

allquixotic

I did a 30 gig backup today in about 24 minutes to backblaze

Journeyman Geek

3:47 AM

.... actually

ya, I probably should redesign the whole thing ;p

(even if I'm still debating sinking a fair bit of cash into a new build)

bwDraco

4:08 AM

Speaking of security... tomshardware.com/news/…

allquixotic

I wonder if I should grab one of those fancy motherboards with bluetooth on-board or if its proximity to other noisy chips on the board would cause too much interference

I have good results with a freestanding full-stack USB bluetooth transceiver that exposes a standard USB sound card to the PC; I can sit it near the edge of my desk for maximum range and it's several inches away from the nearest active electronic device

bwDraco

@allquixotic The motherboard on my system has Wi-Fi and Bluetooth - it comes with an external antenna that is attached to RP-TNC connectors on the I/O panel.

allquixotic

Avantree Priva III for the record

bwDraco

I have not had any obvious interference issues, though the network stack sometimes acts up and gives 2.5s latency spikes, requiring a reboot to resolve (this isn't a hardware fault, to the best of my knowledge).

@JourneymanGeek Any specs yet?

When do you plan to retire Nyx?

Journeyman Geek

@bwDraco kinda waiting on confirmation of a job

and this is kinda semi nyx +

lots of stuff would probably get moved over

Bob

4:16 AM

@JourneymanGeek @CoderCat Turn off WPS.

Journeyman Geek

My 'logical' build's coffee lake. My dream build's threadripper ;)

I'd like more ram, so 2 x16 seems like a decent basis. Water cooling is a definate. 256 or 512 gb NVMe book drive...

Bob

@JourneymanGeek mesh is meh, running eth to many APs is better :P

Journeyman Geek

case is likely to be a HAF XB evo or a cosair 650T

@Bob if I could run eth, I'd use Eth

bwDraco

@Bob The PIN IIRC is the vulnerable part.

Bob

@allquixotic afaict most of the 'on-board' ones actually have an external antenna

@bwDraco That's the one you turn off. Which usualy means turning off the whole thing.

bwDraco

4:19 AM

The PIN is disabled on my NETGERA R7800, but I'm not sure if WPS by button-push is vulnerable.

Journeyman Geek

(yeah, the HAF XB is a VERY small case but I'm actually debating if I need 6 hard drive bays)

Bob

@allquixotic Slightly slower? Nup. Far slower.

bwDraco

@JourneymanGeek If you're building around Threadripper, you'd probably want a case that can accept an EATX board.

Bob

On most devices anyway.

Journeyman Geek

@bwDraco eh, I'm probably running 2 addon cards at most

allquixotic

4:22 AM

@Bob well the Nighthawk X10 can push a theoretical 7.2 Gbps, which means in the real world 1 Gbps isn't impossible if you have the right client hardware

Bob

The X10's "AC2600" is up to 1,733Mbps half-duplex. And that's if you have a 4x4 client.

Most clients are only 2x2. Some are 3x3.

bwDraco

@allquixotic So... I'm on a Nighthawk X4S (R7800). Is there a good reason to upgrade?

Journeyman Geek

alternately, I could keep my current case

Bob

@allquixotic No it can't.

Journeyman Geek

and move my existing system into a smaller one

bwDraco

4:23 AM

Yes, there are ATX-sized Threadripper motherboards but the sheer size of the socket makes it a bit cramped.

Bob

@allquixotic That's false advertising at work.

It can push up to 4600Mbps on 60GHz, plus 1733Mbps on 5 GHz, plus 800Mbps on 2.4GHz.

bwDraco

Jun 5 at 20:31, by bwDraco

Gigabit Ethernet is quite literally bottlenecking 802.11ad.

allquixotic

It's not false advertising; they explicitly state that the 7.2 Gbps speed is a combined speed which means you'd have to use all the bands they offer

Bob

No devices exist that aggregate these streams.

@allquixotic They state it ... in the small print.

allquixotic

@Bob that's true, but if you have many devices, and at least one 802.11ad as well as some 802.11ac devices, your router could in theory be pushing up to around 7 Gbps over your LAN at least

in ideal conditions

it's not really false, it's just that someone who expects a single computer with a typical wifi card to get that speed will be disappointed

Bob

4:25 AM

Realistically? That 60GHz has basically no support or range.

allquixotic

but that's true of any Nighthawk product

Bob

That 5GHz is 1733Mbps half-duplex, while Gigabit Ethernet is full-duplex.

@allquixotic Then I can say my 8-port switch can push up to 16Gbps

bwDraco

@Bob We're not talking about 5 GHz. We're talking about 60 GHz mmWave.

CoderCat

whats wrong with wps

allquixotic

@Bob if it can, then sure! :P (though how many devices have a powerful enough core to actually drive that amount of traffic at once, I don't know. enterprise-grade ones, maybe, but consumer probably not)

Journeyman Geek

4:26 AM

@bwDraco asrock.com/mb/AMD/X399%20Taichi/index.asp dosen't look too bad.

Bob

50 mins ago, by allquixotic

to be fair my WiFi environment is pure 802.11ac 5 GHz with a Netgear Nighthawk X10

cough

Journeyman Geek

(and that's the model I'm looking at and I know has local availability)

but ya

that's maybe 6-8 weeks in the future so to speak

bwDraco

@JourneymanGeek Why do you insist on local availability?

Bob

@allquixotic You'd be surprised :P

bwDraco

@CoderCat Multiple vulnerabilities have been found, especially in the PIN-based version, that would allow an attacker to gain access to the network.

Journeyman Geek

4:27 AM

@bwDraco cause I like walking into a shop and buying hardware on the spot.

CoderCat

oh ok

Journeyman Geek

Especially for something like this. Also warranties are simpler.

allquixotic

@Bob which means the total upload+download speed on the wifi is limited to 1.7 Gbps, while an ethernet cable could in theory push 1 Gbps in each direction, if I understand you correctly -- but my FiOS gigabit subscription's advertised gigabit speed isn't "a gigabit in each direction simultaneously"; it's a combined 1 Gbps of traffic regardless of direction

Journeyman Geek

and I'm old fashiooned.

bwDraco

@JourneymanGeek When I was buying parts for Astaroth, I bought some parts locally but most were online. The case, in particular, isn't something I would be able to move onto the subway system easily if I were to head out to the local Micro Center to get it.

Bob

4:29 AM

@allquixotic This is the most basic dumb (unmanaged) switch, intended for consumer use, costs maybe $30: tp-link.com.au/products/details/…

allquixotic

if I had 802.11ac 5 GHz MIMO devices that could handle the NxM antennae supported by the router (which is like, 4x4, isn't it?) then I could reasonably expect gigabit-ish speeds (half duplex, sure) and be able to saturate my FiOS

Bob

Its switching fabric is capable of 16Gbps.

bwDraco

The liquid cooler and a few other parts were from Best Buy.

allquixotic

I guess that's all I was saying earlier: WiFi has gotten so good that I have a router where a single, properly supporting device could saturate my Gigabit Internet uplink

and a properly supporting device would basically be a ~$100 or so USB 3.0 WiFi adapter

since so many manufacturers of mobile devices and laptops stop their MIMO at 2x2

Bob

@allquixotic If, yea. And also assuming the hardware was capable of that (in a practical processing power sense, not a theoretical max)

bwDraco

4:31 AM

@allquixotic I'm on 802.11ac with 2x2 MU-MIMO and my Wi-Fi is always able to saturate my connection (120/12 under typical conditions).

allquixotic

@bwDraco until like July of this year, I would've been able to saturate my Internet uplink with a properly functioning 802.11g connection :/

I went from that, to being unable to saturate it on 802.11ac 2x2

bwDraco

Huh.

Bob

@allquixotic Basically, wired ethernet can trivially push full-duplex 1Gbps on each port. Wireless (5GHz) can maybe approach that in ideal conditions.

allquixotic

speed tests on my 2016 Macbook Pro cap out around 90-95% of the theoretical maximum of 2x2 AC

Bob

And that's before considering link aggregation, which a $50 smart switch can do.

allquixotic

4:33 AM

which is pretty good for not being in a lab

@Bob yeah, I mean I never meant to argue that we don't need structured cabling anymore, but I've been a participant in this chat in years that have gone by where I wouldn't trust WiFi to be able to reliably handle a 3G cellphone's Internet uplink

and now I almost take for granted that my WiFi is going to work and deliver more than adequate speeds

until I need to upload 30 gigs to the cloud, then I plug in an ethernet cable, since I don't have any 4x4 client devices

it's good to know that I might be able to keep this router for several years without really needing to swap it out for something better, though -- by the time they have $150 routers with the Nighthawk X10's capabilities I might be ready to upgrade or it may be showing its age

and eventually, one would think, we'll see commodity laptops, phones and tablets with 3x3 or 4x4 support

bwDraco

@JourneymanGeek Well, EATX doesn't allow you to put more expansion cards on the board. It's wider, which allows more features to be added, like an M.2 heatsink or added fan headers.

allquixotic

I don't know if Verizon has the capacity on their network (like, internally, in their DCs) to do this, but perhaps even in the next decade they might be able to upgrade our FiOS beyond 1 Gbps -- from my understanding of the technology, they install enough fiber to each person's home that could handle several gigabits, but provision you much lower

Bob

@allquixotic Oh yea, I just bought a whole new set of network equipment like two days ago :P

allquixotic

@Bob you did? what'd you get?

Bob

yesterday, by Bob

1x ER-X-AU, 2x UAP-AC-PRO, 1x TL-SG2008... $500 all up, oof.

@allquixotic Ubiquiti router and APs plus a TP-Link managed switch.

bwDraco

4:39 AM

@allquixotic I kinda suspect this is an ONT limitation.

Also, multi-gigabit gear isn't yet widely available.

Bob

Doesn't do 802.11ad (no loss, I don't have any devices anyway) and the extra AP gets me better range (and less dead spots)

allquixotic

@bwDraco it probably is, yes, but also their central infrastructure and peering with other tier 1s

from what I read on forums, Verizon has staggered their rollout of FiOS Gigabit this year, even though customers' on-prem equipment can handle it easily, because they have been adding capacity on the infrastructure side in phases

local field offices and the central routers haven't had the capacity to provision all their FiOS customers into gigabit at once

bwDraco

Hmm. That makes sense.

Journeyman Geek

@bwDraco but... I actually want a more compact PC

Bob

@allquixotic What did you say your range was?

allquixotic

4:41 AM

@Bob interesting

@Bob I have a 2 story freestanding wooden frame house with a basement; I get a reliable signal (with a minor, graceful, degradation in throughput around the fringes) from my desk on the top story all the way down in the basement on my Macbook Pro, 5 GHz, 2x2

and all the way from the back corner to the house to the front driveway on my iPhone

bwDraco

(the board I have, the ASUS ROG Crosshair VI Extreme, is the only AM4 EATX board on the market and it has an unholy number of fan headers)

Bob

@allquixotic Is the AP in the middle? What's the distance (in ft/m)?

bwDraco

Oct 19 at 20:09, by bwDraco

(to address some concerns regarding desk space, I've acquired a folding plastic table as a temporary expansion until renovations are complete)

allquixotic

@Bob the AP is almost exactly in the extreme back corner of the house, not in the middle

the topmost floor, in one corner of the house

but I can get good signal two stories down in the middle of the house

not sure on the distance

Bob

@allquixotic guesstimate? :P

I'm dealing with double brick, so dead spots are a pain

allquixotic

4:43 AM

probably about 100 ft to the car, through at least one floor and at least one wall

Bob

Hoping two APs at opposite ends will solve that

allquixotic

we have no brick or structural concrete aside from the foundation of the house

Bob

@allquixotic Hm. Yea, I think that's the distance my RT-AC68U is managing at the moment, give or take

allquixotic

I don't really have dead spots in my house, and I use my phone, tablet and macbook pro all over the house

Bob

It gets real iffy inside the (...double brick) garage, though

allquixotic

4:45 AM

my mom uses her macbook and work computer all over the first floor (ground floor), too

bwDraco

@Bob I can get a good signal up to about 80 ft away, but it gets very device-dependent.

Bob

@allquixotic Unfortunately the main network is (was?) 802.11n

The 802.11ac of that RT-AC68U is an extra piece I added for myself a bit ago

allquixotic

it sure is nice to have my entire infrastructure be so elegant though

Bob

But I'm going to upgrade the whole network to the Ubiquiti gear when it gets here ... Monday?

allquixotic

fiber --> ONT --> ethernet --> Nighthawk X10 --> clients

bwDraco

4:46 AM

My phone, for example, will often drop the 5 GHz signal in the first floor about 30 ft from the router, but my netbook will have no trouble communicating reliably at the same location.

allquixotic

and dad's is just on a separate circuit of the ONT, separate ethernet jack, to a separate router for his stuff, but he has way fewer devices. Mom uses mine

Bob

@allquixotic Basically my good ol' TL-WDR4300 lost its 2.4GHz radio, so I thought I'd do a proper upgrade :P

allquixotic

@Bob heh

bwDraco

@JourneymanGeek I kinda wanted "big iron" rather than an SFF machine, especially since this was my first build and I didn't want to do too much cable-management.

Bob

Also gonna remove the double NAT and use VLANs properly, hence the managed switch

allquixotic

4:47 AM

our last 2.4 GHz device fell into disuse when I purchased my mom a Kindle Oasis, which downloads books over a free, Amazon-sponsored 3G network that the device can use specifically for downloading purchases, branded WhisperSync, which uses Verizon and AT&T towers

all remaining devices are, at worst, 802.11n supporting 5 GHz, and most are AC

the Nighthawk's 2.4 band is off

Bob

@allquixotic To be fair, the 5GHz radio is still working. But I had it on a different SSID cause some devices were getting confused.

I think the UAPs can do band steering better, so going to give that a shot

The original stuff was set up before 802.11ac was really a thing :P

bwDraco

The result, though, is that Astaroth weighs, by my estimate, about 50 lbs and barely fits on this folding table.

allquixotic

based on your physical structure, similar to Geek's situation, I think having multiple APs and stuff might've NOT been avoidable for you -- I doubt a single nighthawk X10 placed anywhere in your house could cover the whole premises

typo there

Bob

@allquixotic tbh the WiFi is secondary here... I want that VLAN goodness :D

(also they can VLAN tag a guest network)

allquixotic

What does the VLAN practically buy you?

Bob

4:50 AM

@allquixotic Isolation. Guests go on their own little world.

allquixotic

hmm... I suppose I could VLAN out to my dad if I had the right equipment, and not have two separate FiOS accounts, and save money -- but then if his Internet goes down and mine doesn't (which has happened when his cheap plastic Arris router crapped out) he could blame me and I'd have to prove it isn't me to get him off my back

bwDraco

Jan 10 at 1:14, by bwDraco

I can generally get a good Wi-Fi signal pretty much everywhere in the house, except perhaps in the backyard (and a bit of antenna adjustment may very well help).

Bob

Two benefits: security (I don't trust the crap they install) and latency (oh I'm most definitely going to give myself QoS priority)

bwDraco

Not too familiar with setting up VLANs. My router supports it but how would I do it?

Bob

@bwDraco Do what? You really need a goal in mind for the VLANs... VLANs are not a goal in themselves

bwDraco

4:52 AM

Also, in my experience, the Dynamic QoS on my Nighthawk X4S works as advertised.

allquixotic

since the ONT is the telco's equipment and isn't inside the house, if his connection goes down he can't blame me -- SO much less stressful

bwDraco

I haven't really had any specific need for VLANs FWIW.

allquixotic

he can ask me to fix it, but he hasn't thought to blame me

back when we shared a single ADSL line, I'd get, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!?!?!?!"

Bob

@allquixotic Basically I'm using double (triple?) NAT as a poor man's VLAN right now

Also, Ubiquiti does CoDel so I can ditch the router(s) that don't :D

allquixotic

@bwDraco I think that "Dynamic QoS" in the Nighthawks (I'm using it, it's amazing) might be using fq_codel as part of the algorithm... I have no proof of that but based on the results it definitely seems like it

lol Bob and I both mention CoDel at the same time

bwDraco

4:54 AM

I can download or upload lots of data and nobody notices a slowdown, unlike what I got on any previous networking gear.

allquixotic

@bwDraco yup, it's amazing

sadly, the teensy weensy gimped SoC in the IQrouter can't handle gigabit speeds :P so even though that router sells an excellent principle ("we'll implement CoDel for you and we'll do it right") the hardware can't drive my connection; not even close

bwDraco

My parents continue to browse the Web or play their online games on their Android tablets and nobody complains about degraded network performance.

allquixotic

btw @Bob I linked this a bit ago but I'm starting to really think like this guy in this video, because I took a class and have worked with an employee of my customer (gov't) who was mentored by him... youtube.com/watch?v=ecIWPzGEbFc

bwDraco

Streaming video while I do a big Steam download? No problem.

allquixotic

I find it's making me a better developer; I'm using TDD pretty religiously in one of my new projects and its making a big difference already

even teaching a TDD class every few weeks now

bwDraco

4:58 AM

@allquixotic Well... I wish we were taught this stuff in college.

Aug 7 '16 at 3:07, by bwDraco

Unit tests, SCMs, release engineering, product planning, agile development, code review, all the stuff they don't teach you in college.

Aug 7 '16 at 3:10, by bwDraco

DevOps, DEV/TEST/STAGE/PROD, change control, QA, defect tracking, so much to learn!

Bob

@allquixotic I'll have to watch it when I'm home

allquixotic

@bwDraco add to that list: writing object-oriented software architectures in a way that's compliant with the Liskov Substitution Principle!

makes your code testable (whereas if you don't have LSP compliance, testability suffers or is impossible)

meaning, unit testable, I'm not referring to black box

Bob

@bwDraco They're supposed to teach you the foundations; everything else is up to you to learn.

Even if they taught you the sum of all human knowledge up to that point, it'll be out of date by the next month,

allquixotic

@Bob I think the problem is you don't get enough hours spent in CS courses to learn all the stuff you have to learn -- with all the electives, and only having four years, and learning math, physical science, humanities... no way

bwDraco

@allquixotic I got six years of college education, graduating with an MS in Computer Science. It's still not enough.

allquixotic

5:01 AM

to exit college ready to start on your first programming job without having to learn terribly much, you'd need a dedicated university that only teaches CS courses, and you'd need like 6 years, not 4

and every single course would have to be software related

Bob

heh

I spent ... 3 years?

(that said, I was doing this before and during uni)

allquixotic

yeah, I mean, if you start practicing as a hobby, that counts as extra time

but I mean if you wanted to absorb everything you need to know in a classroom

you'd need 6 years of class time with 100% software classes only

bwDraco

It honestly disappoints me that all these years spent in college for a graduate degree doesn't really prepare you for a job.

allquixotic

it doesn't surprise me at all... software is an extraordinarily specialized field, and our education system is still extraordinarily generalized

Bob

My EdgeRouter is at the post office now :D

just got the email

...unfortunately my UAPs and switch are still shipping :(

bwDraco

5:08 AM

@JourneymanGeek: I am kinda regretting going with a much larger case than was actually necessary:

Nov 18 at 11:44, by djsmiley2k

@bwDraco hense, under the desk!

Problem is, "under the desk" does not provide adequate ventilation.

The tower barely fits beneath the desk by my measurements.

Especially when the liquid cooler radiator exhausts heat upward.

Then again...

Jun 20 at 14:52, by Journeyman Geek

I like my big cases cause I have an easier time working inside them

allquixotic

holy crap @Bob, I just tried FF Quantum (yes, with the same extensions as I use on Chrome) and it's so much faster :D

bwDraco

@allquixotic Tell me about it.

Nov 14 at 16:24, by bwDraco

To summarize: Firefox Quantum takes about 8 seconds to load 21 tabs of varying complexity. Firefox ESR 52 requires about 50 seconds to do the same. This means that Firefox Quantum is a six-fold improvement over Firefox 52.

(on an 8C/16T machine, so you might not get that much of an improvement, but Firefox isn't the slow resource hog it once was)

One reason I picked the big 760T, though, was the big plexiglass door.

Bob

5:32 AM

@allquixotic what extensions do you use, anyway?

Journeyman Geek

@bwDraco ah, that's the nice thing about the HAF XB

It has a removable motherboard tray

bwDraco

I'm not a fan of "LAN box" form factors FWIW.

Journeyman Geek

Well, I usually wouldn't be

but this is something a little like @allquixotic's dream machine ;p

Something rediculiusly powerful, but you could actually move it around

bwDraco

Heh.

Journeyman Geek

(granted my rig's heavy enough my last desk was bowed

bwDraco

5:38 AM

Again, this was my first build, so wanted to stick with a traditional layout.

Journeyman Geek

this would be... number 5 I think

6 if you count the dell

bwDraco

Got the cable management done mostly neatly but still kinda messy near the power supply area.

bwDraco

5:51 AM

(reflecting case fan connections to the motherboard)

allquixotic

@Bob Enpass, uBlock Origin... used to be more, but I don't need OmniBar in FF anymore and I imported my bookmarks that very rarely ever change manually from Chrome so no Xmarks

and FF automatically disables autoplay so I don't need that one from Chrome

bwDraco

TIL CrystalDiskMark is available on the Microsoft Store

windowscentral.com/crystaldiskmark-centennial-windows-store

(the odd volume size is due to the way I tend to manage my disks, preferring to not use the full capacity unless needed)

Sep 15 at 13:48, by Bob

(@Bob's result from a 512 GB model, albeit with an older version of the software)

SSDs... are dangerously close to saturating the PCIe bus.

Sep 21 '16 at 5:44, by bwDraco

Many years ago, SSDs very quickly ran into the SATA barrier, first at 3 Gbps, and then at 6Gbps, which no rotating HDD could ever hope to attain. Now we've hit the PCIe 3.0 barrier. We now have consumer SSDs that are capable of saturating PCIe 3.0 x4. Now what?

That benchmark put 79 GB of writes to the SSD, lol

This time with a larger test file size:

It's, well, scary how fast SSDs are these days.

3.3 GB/s sequential read speed is quite frankly absurd.

Bob

6:59 AM

@allquixotic Oh, you switched from LastPass?

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