RadioCuba Tech Tips (RTT)

Best Free Public DNS Servers Here is a list of a few free DNS services that you can leverage for your home network instead of your default ISP servers. These will generally be faster and in some cases, help block phishing sites and other questionable content.  Many offer paid/premium tiers as well. You can test the speed of each DNS service by using tools such as: GRC DNS Benchmark Google Namebench Provider Primary DNS Secondary DNS Google 8.8.8.8 8.8.4.4 Control D 76.76.2.0 76.76.10.0 Quad9 9.9.9.9 149.112.112.112 OpenDNS Home 208.67.222.222 208.67.220.220 Cloudflare 1.1.1.1 1.0.0.1 CleanBrowsing 185.228.168.9 185.228.169.9 Alternate DNS 76.76.19.19 76.223.122.150 AdGuard DNS 94.140.14.14 94.140.15.15

For prosumers and the SMB market, there are an increasing number of networking solutions, many with gaps in their respective stacks.  Few can provide a SPOG (single pane of glass) view and provide a complete and unified network ecosystem. While I have remained a relative satisfied Ubiquiti user for my home/lab, I do frequently get the urge to explore/test other solutions that deliver more options and flexibility. Here are my personally curated lists for your consideration: Netgear Pro Series Router: https://www.netgear.com/business/wired/routers/pr60x/ WAPs: https://www.netgear.com/business/wifi/access-points/listing-filter/ax-wifi6e1/ax-wifi6/smbnet-wireless-accpoi-remgmt/ Switches: https://www.netgear.com/business/wired/switches/smart-cloud/ Cloud Mgmt: https://www.netgear.com/business/services/insight/ Grandstream Routers: https://www.grandstream.com/products/networking-solutions/routers WAPs: https://www.grandstream.com/products/networking-solutions/indoor-wifi-access-points

Here are three of the latest/best AMD powered mini-PC's for home lab or gaming use.   MoreFine M600 - https://morefine.com/products/morefine-m600-r9-7940hs-mini-pc Beelink GTR7 Pro - https://www.bee-link.com/catalog/product/index?id=493 Minisforum UM790 Pro - https://store.minisforum.com/collections/amd-%C2%AE-ryzen-%C2%AE/products/minisforum-um790-pro

Throwback Wednesday?  I was doing some random Googling and stumbled across this old gem. I vividly remember playing NOLF back in fall of 2000 and spring of 2001, during my freshman semester at college!  Can't wait to give this another try. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Operative:_No_One_Lives_Forever http://nolfrevival.tk/ https://unityhq.net/ https://www.play-old-pc-games.com/2012/05/23/no-one-lives-forever/

Looking for enterprise class networking speeds for your homelab or business? Mikrotik has you covered with exciting options such as: CRS504-4XQ-IN - $799 Your most affordable, compact, energy-efficient doorway to the world of 100 Gigabit networking. This switch is the next step in upgrading existing 10 or 25 Gigabit networks. Multiple powering options, dual hot-swap power supplies. There are four 100 Gigabit QSFP28 ports. Use them to connect other 100 Gigabit devices or grab a breakout cable to connect multiple 25 Gigabit devices: each port is connected to four 25 Gigabit lines, allowing you to connect 16 x 25 Gigabit devices. In fact, you can mix and match all kinds of connections this way: 100 Gigabits on one port, 40 Gigabits on the other, 4x25 Gigabits on the third, and maybe even some 10G or 1G cables on the fourth. The mighty Marvell DX4310 switch-chip will handle everything without breaking a sweat! https://mikrotik.com/product/crs504_4xq_in   CRS510-8XS-2XQ-IN - $999 A versatil

Use any of these to replace the OS on your QNAP or Synology device, or just use standard x86 hardware or an old PC to build a more powerful storage appliance.   TrueNAS Scale https://www.truenas.com/truenas-scale/ UnRaid https://unraid.net/ Xpenology (ARPL or TCRP) https://xpenology.com/forum/forum/31-loaders/ OpenMediaVault (OMV) https://www.openmediavault.org/ XigmaNAS https://xigmanas.com/xnaswp/ Rockstor https://rockstor.com/ Starwind SAN & NAS https://www.starwindsoftware.com/san-and-nas

 Placeholder for full post content.  Live notes atm.   Distros to Evaluate ZorinOS PopOS Manjaro SteamOS 3 (HoloISO) Ubuntu Game Pack (UALinux) Garuda Gaming Edition RegataOS EndeavourOS Helpful Resources: https://usebottles.com/ https://linuxconfig.org/improve-your-wine-gaming-on-linux-with-dxvk https://linuxhint.com/install-lutris-linux/ https://www.protondb.com/ https://areweanticheatyet.com/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaH05lLUPRk Suggestion: Use Wayland instead of X11

Reloading my home PC on a new NVM drive and figured I would give this a shot. Revision OS https://revi.cc/ https://revi.cc/docs/ https://revi.cc/revios/changelog https://revi.cc/revios/download/ https://github.com/meetrevision https://www.reddit.com/r/RevisionOS/ Will post back post-install and testing.

 Whenever I deal with a fresh install of Windows 10/11 at home or at work, there are inevitably a number of tweaks to improve performance by disabling unnecessary services/features and undoing the schizophrenic design and UI changes by Microsoft. Many of these offer similar/duplicate features/functionality, but I've listed them here for people to try based on your needs or personal preferences. WinUtil - Chris Titus Tech (CTT) https://github.com/ChrisTitusTech/winutil Run in Powershell via:   iwr -useb https://christitus.com/win | iex irm christitus.com/win | iex Windows10Debloater https://github.com/Sycnex/Windows10Debloater Run in Powershell via:  iwr -useb https://git.io/debloat|iex This Is Win11 https://github.com/builtbybel/ThisIsWin11 XToolbox https://github.com/xemulat/XToolbox Windows Debloat Tools https://github.com/LeDragoX/Win-Debloat-Tools Debloat Windows 11 https://github.com/kdpuvvadi/debloat-windows11