Thank you so much!

I have a Weller WLC 40w, I did a good bit of reading before I bought it but I might have missed the mark. I got a brass sponge that I stuck in an old metal canister, and some of those crappy plastic unpowered vacuum suckers off Amazon.

I did buy my solder on Amazon, I wonder if that’s been an issue. It’s this: Kester 24-6337-0010 44 Rosin Core Solder 63/37, and I don’t use flux with it.

The solder you have, is it regulated because of lead content? I can go buy a hunk of pure lead without question so it’s weird to me if that’s the case.

Can you post a gear list? I got an iron a while ago and some crappy Amazon sucker tubes but I really think I’m missing some stuff because I’m either missing stuff or using crappy solder. I like to try and just take components off boards for practice but even that is a huge struggle. I’ve fixed a couple things but it’s rough work for sure.

I know it’s probably a skill issue, but I think some other tools might make certain things a bit easier as well, but without someone I know to ask questions I don’t want to just buy some random stuff.

There’s a few ways to “detect” VPN traffic, and you’re missing some but port blocking is one of them. Rerouting over 443 is a possible workaround, but depending on the network architecture they can still detect VPN traffic using deep packet inspection.

Blocking ports is a very simple mechanism to prevent things and it doesn’t take long for a business to grow into IT management that involves more sophisticated methods like DPI.

VPN protocols have distinguishable packet headers/metadata/handshakes/etc. DPI can easily identify and block those, or any other known protocols, if they have it configured to do so.

Server equipment is not on any normal burglar’s list of items to nab. It’s such a low risk I think it’s completely not worth worrying about.

It’s incredibly unlikely they’ll know what they’re looking at in the first place, and won’t be assed to carry out heavy switches and PC gear “just in case” to look it up later. They want to get in, check rooms and closets, drawers, etc and GTFO before you come home or a neighbor notices. Computers aren’t as expensive as they used to be. Gaming laptops might look attractive, but other than that you’re fine.

They want jewelry, cash, guns, good tools, silver, modern game consoles, expensive bicycles, etc. These are all things that are easy to carry and pawn or sell well on the street. Nobody is selling switch gear at a pawn shop or to random people, so even if they know the value of what they’re looking at (extremely unlikely) they’ll leave it because it’s too hard to fence.

If you’re that worried about theft then set up good full disk encryption and have off-site backups of your data (should do that anyways) but you don’t need to worry about physical security at home, at least not specifically in regards to your home lab.

Businesses are at much higher risk for hardware theft, from employees or from others that are targeting the locations specifically because they DO understand the value and have a way to offload the gear, but those same people won’t be randomly breaking into people’s houses hoping they’ve got Cisco gear in a closet somewhere.

Probably less, yeah. Do you get them from the hopper style that drops from the bottom, or bins you scoop from?

If hopper I’d expect you to catch some sometimes because they settle down to the bottom, but if you scoop them from the top of bins I think it’s pretty unlikely you’d ever find any.

Your day may come. Be vigilant! Best to find them on the counter than in your mouth. Some brands, or bean types, have a lot more than others. Black and red beans have had the most for me, in that order. It sucks because it’s harder to spot the rocks in the black beans, too.

Yeah I find them more often in brands from foreign foods sections. Often times they’re better quality beans for a lot cheaper though!

I’ll take the couple minutes to scan for rocks if it means I’m getting better beans any day of the week. Fucking love beans, haven’t ever met one I don’t like.

Nice! Maybe I’ll try that. What else did you have in the pot?

Sure!

TLDR: mirepoix, garlic, ground mustard, ground thyme, basil, salt, pepper, bacon

I cut a pack of decent quality bacon into strips and start it a sizzlin

Then, dice equal parts carrot, onion, and celery (mirepoix) while the bacon is cooking

I crank the heat and sautee the mirepoix in the pan with the bacon, then I add the beans with the soak water and some salt (don’t go crazy, the bacon has salt too, and I add cheese at serving also)

Bring to boil and then reduce to simmer until the beans are mostly cooked, stirring and adding water as needed.

When things are cooked pretty well throw in a diced tomato (or a can), a bulb of crushed garlic, ground mustard, dried basil, and ground thyme. Let it cook a bit until the flavors develop, then adjust seasoning, salt, pepper etc. Sorry I don’t have measurements, I eyeball everything. I cook the soup a long time so by the end it will stick if you don’t stir fairly frequently because the lentils and some beans have dissolved. I like the soup thicc so that also contributes to it sticking.

The thyme and basil are the stars here, the thyme especially.

I usually eat it with some rice and some grated Monterey Jack cheese on top.

I use jasmine rice and put a small amount of olive oil in the pan, then crush a garlic clove per cup of rice I’m cooking and sautee gently (don’t burn it!) as soon as the garlic has cooked a bit I add a cup of dry rice to the pan and stir it around real good, add the water, and salt it. Rice should not be bland, motherfuckers!

I think it was more of an issue when I was younger for sure, but I still find them occasionally. I eat a ton of beans though.

Lots of bags of dry beans have rocks. Little black pebbles usually, like coarse sand.

Some brands have them more often than others but you can easily break a tooth on them so I always toss them on the counter and scoot them around to check.

They don’t. As I said in another post, the lentils break down first so it gets ugly but it’s nice and thick.

I’ve never pressure cooked them, just soak overnight but that might be a way to cook them without stirring too much, and keep the lentils formed correctly.

I dunno, the way I do it is a favorite so I’m not experimenting any more.

I fucking love these.

I just throw the seasoning packet away, never used it at all. Just use the bean mix itself, it’s really good, HOWEVER be aware that some of the “beans” are actually lentils, and they break down into a mush faster than others.

If you cook the beans a long time in your soup as I do then it gets REALLY bad looking. We call it “ugly soup” because it’s ugly AF but DELICIOUS.

Edit: I’ve NEVER found a rock in these also, not once in the dozens of bags, maybe hundreds, I’ve used.

I’d recommend using unifi/ubiquiti switches. They’re a bit pricey but they’re incredibly solid and you can manage them with a self hosted container of unifi controller software.

A good place to start is one of their 8port POE switches. I have a couple and they’re L3 switches (so you can do VLAN stuff like you want), and I’ve never ever had a problem with any of them. Even with the inexpensive ones their POE budget is pretty good, and great to power other switches or APs. They don’t power some cameras so you might need injectors for some thirsty gear.

The controller software is pretty good, and will let you manage the switches without getting into command line config at first (which can be a crutch so be cautious of that, especially if you want to branch out into other cheaper switches or take advantage of good 2nd hand gear deals you find).

But for your network I think an 8 port and a WAP are a good place to start. Get away from using your combo router as your wireless AP (or use both) and get some VLANs set up, and work on inter-VLAN routing and firewall rules.

How do you want to segment your network?

I recommend you have the following to start:

-management VLAN

-trusted devices

-guest/IoT devices

Just getting those three set up correctly will teach you a lot and let you environment. Firewall/routing rules to allow connections through in certain directions and not others is… fun to get the hang of if you’re new.

What are you planning on using as your router? Your combo router might tie your hands if that’s what you plan to use for everything. Combo routers generally suck at everything. You can get a cheap router also, edgerouter er-x is a fine choice but it’s not the best, but it’ll still outdo whatever you currently have, I’m sure. Put it behind your modem at your network edge and you can manage your vlan routing and your firewall on one device.

Additionally you can set up a VPN server on one of your PCs and set up static routes to allow you to tunnel in and access your network when you’re out (wireguard for the win).

Good luck on your journey! There’s a lot to learn so don’t get frustrated then your stuff doesn’t work. Back up your configs so you can revert back and be REALLY careful because it’s easy enough to make your stuff insecure by trying to make stuff work. Yeah it’ll function but next thing you know you’ve got a ransomware virus on your entire network… Not fun, I hear.

As you set up your VLANs look into VLAN traversal, it’s a means of network attack that allows attackers to cross over from one VLAN to another when you set up trunk/switch ports and VLAN tagging incorrectly. Again, your stuff will work but it’ll be vulnerable (not really a problem at home as long as your firewall works fine but still).

Edit: you can go with a router with several ports but I’d recommend you shy away from that if you have the money for dedicated devices. Routers are better at routing (L3) and switches are better at switching (L2). Their guts are built for different things and your network will be much faster if you use them for their intended purpose.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burden_of_proof_(philosophy)

There was this asshole teacher, one of his students stole his car and crashed it through a set of double doors into the building. Destroyed the entire entryway and both sets of heavy duty doors.

Epic, man. Everyone hated that teacher and he had bought one of the new VW bugs when they first started making the new ones and he thought it was just so cool.

BJJ is one of the most “useful” when it comes to actually fighting (along with boxing).

Karate and TKD are more of an art/discipline. A well trained karate fighter will very likely outmove an untrained assailant, but someone moderately trained in BJJ will likely be able to subdue/get away from a very well karate or TKD fighter.

Honestly, BJJ is an amazing skill to have in a pinch, and it trains you in grappling with opponents that have a size/weight disparity.

Not all gyms/dojos use belts, even in BJJ. BJJ belts follow a pretty good progression based on skill, whereas karate (can’t say for TKD, never trained in it personally) often relies on performance of kata in order to progress to the next belt. Kata is choreographed movements, it’s more like a dance that you practice than an actual measure of ability to spar/fight.

If OP wants to get their kid into a fighting sport that’s fun and relatively safe, they can pick any discipline. If they want the added bonus of their kid being much better equipped to defend themself from a real aggressor they would do best getting them into BJJ, boxing, and then wrestling once they’re in middle/high school.

I would personally avoid boxing for my own kids due to the repeated head trauma and risk of fractures, but it’s the best real world striking training you’ll get, at least in the USA. BJJ and wrestling help you immensely once you’re on the ground, which is where 90% of street fights go within the first couple seconds, but a real, dangerous, fight is often over before it starts and countering a sucker punch or landing a decisive one yourself before the opponent can react is often the most important thing.

One of the downsides of BJJ is that it’s culturally tied to MMA in the USA now, which means that if OPs kid does BJJ for a while in their youth they’ll be more inclined to get into MMA in early adulthood, which is not something I would want for my children. But it’s a great skill regardless.

Not trying to go down a rabbit hole, nor invade your teen’s privacy, but have you done any kind of packet inspection on what’s going out/in? Teens can surprise you with the kind of stuff they’re up to sometimes.

I’m not sure why your resolver started acting up but what you’re describing doesn’t sound like normal cause/effect. Four people on a residential connection, even if you throw in a ton of electronic devices and iot/crap that calls home constantly shouldn’t cause any kind of ISP engagement.

Not like it really matters, for 99.9% of people having a forwarder is easy and just fine and there isn’t good reason to troubleshoot it if there’s a working solution. I’m pretty privacy conscious and I don’t even think having my own forwarder is worth the hassle, I am just choosy about my upstream.

If pi hole is configured to use another DNS it will still forward your request, just not to your ISP DNS server. Essentially you’re providing your DNS requests to a 3rd party, for a slight boost to performance (because they’ll have tons of stuff cached and can do recursive queries faster if you’re requesting a site not in their cache.) Your web pages will load faster because you don’t have an SBC trying to manually figure out what’s the IP for bigfuckdaddyhairbrushemporium.net

The downside is you’re exposing your DNS queries to a 3rd party and it’s a bit of a privacy hit, as the upstream DNS server you select has your public IP correlated with your DNS requests. Doesn’t really matter to most, but it does for some.

Even if your ISP did have something in place to try and prevent abuse I find it unlikely it would trigger over normal traffic. Do you have a huge network/many hosts/exposed services?