Smart Home, Network & Security Latest Topics

Factory Reset Old Nortel BayStack 5510-24T Switch

Mon, 15 Jan 2024 06:50:48 +0000

So I got this old 24 port Nortel switch a few years back for free in a pile of old computers and stuff that was given to me by a local school that was getting rid of old equipment. I sold all the computers for scrap but held onto the switch as one of those "just in case" kinda things. I never used it myself and just had it on a shelf until earlier today my brother mentioned that he was thinking of buying one to wire up his house, so I gave it to him.

It's working mostly fine, other than it needs new fans, but we've found one or two ports that have some kind of configuration applied to them where devices plugged into them can't talk to other devices. Some kind of VLAN or port security or something. I was wondering if anybody knows the method for performing a factory reset on these switches. I don't have a serial/rollover cable because it's been years since I worked with enterprise equipment, so I was thinking that it may have a CMOS battery inside that might store some of that information, and that perhaps removing that battery would reset it, but I'm not sure.

Anybody got any advice? I could always pick up a rollover cable if I have to, but all he really needs is for it to act like a 24 port unmanaged switch so he ran run his router into one port and then branch out to the other rooms of his house.

Is it possible to use wired and wireless networking at the same time?

Sat, 06 Jan 2024 21:13:06 +0000

I am really curious about it, can you use the ethernet connection and a wireless connection at the same time on a computer? Is it even practical to even think about doing?

Netskope client to disable

Sat, 09 Dec 2023 13:47:50 +0000

Guys, is there any way to disable Netskope client on a corporate notebook under Windows 10? Obviously admin access is not available.

They filtered out the Spotify access, and that's a problem :)

Is there any way to control my Mac via IFTTT?

Sat, 09 Dec 2023 00:05:01 +0000

As the title says. I just want to be able to mute and unmute my Mac Mini M.1 using my voice, with Alexa, GA and IFTTT.

Suspicions activity thru router .

Fri, 08 Dec 2023 00:31:13 +0000

I m using the computer when the network with out a prompt started a slow flashing blue no net work connection occurred . . Spectrum said it was a update ,,without out a prompt no answer . My self believe it was being remotely hacked , since there seems to be a filter an pages I normally would be able to access no longer work . Spectrum acted suspicious an blew me off till I asked for a supervisor . I thought it was odd they weren't taking my concern serious an wouldnt address the issue . Do I make sense or am I paranoid , this issue has never happened before . Is there a way to expose a hack into the system, Appreciate any advice or direction I might go . Thank you .

Smart light issue

Fri, 01 Dec 2023 19:08:41 +0000

I purchased this https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09ZL45898 back in June, wired it into the ceiling, and it worked flawlessly for months until last Sunday. Something happened with our internet connection (ISP issue) and when it came back up, this light seemed to have forgotten that it is a smart light. Voice control via Google or Alexa yields a message that the device is offline. I can still access it via the app, but it takes a few seconds for the app to 'connect' as it usually states that it is offline, after 2 or 3 seconds, it magically shows up, but the smart home devices still can not access it. Of course, the app suggests that I put it into pairing mode and re-pair it, but that is not possible since it is hardwired into the light fixture. This is putting me in a bit of a position as I have it scheduled to turn on and off at specific times, which it does, but barring that, I have almost no control of the device. I have turned the light switch off for 30 seconds and then turned it back on, but that does not put it into pairing mode. The app that it uses is Tuya Smart, and I can not figure out how to regain control of the light! I also have reset the modem and router as a test, and all of the other smart lights work flawlessly, it is only this light. If anybody has any suggestions on what I can try to do it would be much appreciated.

Iperf 3.16 Windows build

Tue, 28 Oct 2014 11:14:28 +0000

So there has been an on going thread about powerline adapters, well the OP finally got some - and I was curious about speed he is seeing, etc. So told him would post up links to some tools.

This lead me to compiling the latest version of iperf3 I could find for windows Since I couldn't find one. So figured post it up if anyone is interested.

Got the source from here https://github.com/esnet/iperf

Found a blog post how to compile on windows here http://www.embeddedsystemtesting.com/2014/08/how-to-compile-iperf3-for-windows.html

So few minutes later I end up with a copy of the current iperf3 that works on windows. Needs a few cygwin dlls, included in the zip. But other than that unzip and go.

It has lots of new options compared to the older versions

Been a fan of iperf for years, so will prob keep this current when new versions come out since doesn't seem like anyone else is posting up the windows builds, etc.

You can grab all my compiled versions here https://files.budman.pw/

Any questions on its use, just ask -- post up some tests as well!!

edit: updated this on 02/25/17 new build 3.1.6

http://software.es.net/iperf/news.html#iperf-3-1-6-released

This version of iperf3 contains two minor fixes. Notably, one of them unbreaks JSON output with UDP tests.

edit2: 5/23/17 Thanks to @Datalink for letting me know site was down. Back up now, if your having issues flush your dns had to move it to different host. Added site to my monitoring so next time it goes down will know right away

BTW 3.1.7 just typo's so no reason to compile it

2017-03-06: iperf-3.1.7 released

This version of iperf3 contains two documentation fixes, but is otherwise identical to the prior release.

edit3: 7/6/17 Updated to new 3.2 build

http://files.budman.pw/iperf3.2_32bit.zip

CRC32: 9e4b913c
MD5: ff7fc42f6ba29e9f83c8bb8e0066f722
SHA-1: 68ad3a0f0c2f30c1756f0a5eb39e1062e6beb6f4

http://files.budman.pw/iperf3.2_64bit.zip

CRC32: add96290
MD5: 7a014ff67b1d678f546ead2360820d47
SHA-1: 98ed98ac6d392a4484e5151ab2f714390c99b52e

edi4: 11/18/17 Updated to new 3.3 build

https://files.budman.pw/iperf3.3_64.zip

MD5: 49095ccb2442101d2a1ffc6213f3d1b9
SHA-256: 1fea7ae97b8ec5ab1c61ef1afcf7afd491d37ef41061a845f9bb8477425c66db

https://files.budman.pw/iperf3.3_32.zip

MD5: b6ad4c094a18196e0798e1a2825bc609
SHA-256: 919978ac0b574d7662d5b0e58174a6107002db96e7592929a9a28938516a2c5f

edit5: 02/16/2018 Updated to new 3.4 build see post in thread

https://files.budman.pw/iperf3.4_32.zip

MD5: 3b805d0895e7bb4d005429ed5859dd00
SHA-256: 82a933bbf96731a615ee5ae40bc1e6986ffcdd0b83c7c4e9cd024a996b3c0808
https://files.budman.pw/iperf3.4_64.zip

MD5: e4c0d2d8bda22ebbb710a9a65aacddf9
SHA-256: 7a3f83d211d22102d05dcf0eb24f4ff8cd3d9083aada9a27c88ba7ced0a0eccc

edit6: 03/05/2018 Updated to 3.5 build, see post in thread

https://files.budman.pw/iperf3.5_64.zip

CRC32: 18962237
MD5: 840a2d5e0f81d8a6dc0d8be854caf61a
SHA-1: 1a18185c79645b082392dcd024b7e53900dc38bd
SHA-256: 94a0ec4e486904a6a8ebe390eca37871f47a097599908c3647d6ad1d0bbdff59

https://files.budman.pw/iperf3.5_32.zip

CRC32: 21d8a0eb
MD5: dd79fe69c86e62c780e45e6e0d2ec66d
SHA-1: 2c63c1f9ef35be23170869a6a7eb048241aa2f14
SHA-256: bf4b95a58e54ceda101e33b0b908c581df1ce4a217f233e1092dc3278572de43

edit7:

https://files.budman.pw/iperf3.6_64bit.zip

CRC32: A9B23E64
MD5: 3530BD3C837EA146C8F98106FA94E395
SHA-1: 7E09239B207739714294A4EA1DA9C69623374740
SHA-256: DE958C4CF72DBC64DCBB42130BD466D9FD367E4519C5C3F78A6675CA87E12B7D

edit8: Updated 7/6/2019 New 3.7 build, see post in thread

https://files.budman.pw/iperf3.7_64.zip

CRC32: 13EB9AD9
MD5: 96C2C058B0128BEC346BD0D034D7B31E
SHA-1: 83978F54B7EDDA073CC4E865493AA6544862879A
SHA-256: 93FB4641810C06DE554E97FD4E6B44CEFBD8ECB8EA8CFEA3CC550B823C3E89CE

edit9: Updated 3/11/2020 updated cygwin, guess there was some bug in the cygwindll, see post in thread.

https://files.budman.pw/iperf3.7_64_updated_cygwin1dll.zip

CRC32: ABCA3CAA
MD5: C3594A08967FD57BF36F757980480F9D
SHA-1: DF6C8B3D18941DABBC5AB21ACB5844A062620092
SHA-256: B1A14F8B2435AAA98D26F8499DF23BF6532B5F0EA2288DA04E0C28333EDBC48E

edit10: Updated 6/9/2020 New 3.8 build, see post in thread

https://files.budman.pw/iperf3.8_64bit.zip

MD5: 38A01DC0D4CC67058B094A96274A6F49
SHA-256: E37B0885EFA60106A3333CDAE878815B2306B434175F2BFBAF2DBF709BAB2049

edit11: updated 6/10/2020 New 3.8.1, see post in thread

https://files.budman.pw/iperf3.8.1_64.zip

CRC32: 69CE7B06
MD5: 1157B038DC04646B074A822A171E77A7
SHA-1: A692D6E5FAD3004A229C92661EC4448004EA269E
SHA-256: CD337C2EEB5ACF02713867990E4F9F0656CC0CAEA850F3B3C289DD79305DF1A1

edit12: updated 8/17/2020 New 3.9, see post in thread

https://files.budman.pw/iperf3.9_64.zip

Name: iperf3.9_64.zip
Size: 1542276 bytes (1506 KiB)
SHA256: 15D2D3C2A8B9A69EFD9991FEFE5206E31D6055399F7A4C663C3CB6D77B6770F8

edit13: updated 5/31/2021, see post in thread

https://files.budman.pw/iperf3.10_64bit.zip

SHA256: 098f276552939acec2a9a7d6990e79bac17e45fb951d32ce59c2d764cdcaf15a

edit14: updated 6/4/2021, released a new build

https://files.budman.pw/iperf3.10.1_64bit.zip

sha256 2cf3ff3671f9f4f57cf01ab8b2d960feb9e087d450f3b58aaf4ab82333262be0

iperf 3.10.1 fixes a problem with the configure script that made it make not work correctly in some circumstances. It is functionally identical to iperf 3.10.

I didn't seem to have any issues with my 3.10 build, but redid to keep with current version numbers.

edit15: updated 2/2/2022 - see post in thread about 3.11 being out and new compile of 3.10.1

https://files.budman.pw/iperf3.11_64bit.zip

sha-256

166F815BEEC86DE38CC26C243C344C67143575F380974EE0033C6CEF90398F84

https://files.budman.pw/iperf3.10.1_64bit_compiled_2-2-2022.zip

sha-256

212A5E346D018A63BD35212EFA1387CDEE1248979D89DB0DE3BADCAA897257CE

edit16 updated 10/1/2022

https://files.budman.pw/iperf3.12_64.zip

SHA-256: 24222F681219D3814880D0E3FAB2165C1A88628D1DBD89CCBFADD4A853DD8AC7

edit17 02/16/2022

https://files.budman.pw/iperf3.13_64.zip

MD5: CE3AD0A3F1BFACDDCB8253BE0A5B4264
SHA-256: 28AD4F9146B112FE4AAFC092042A1769F38E4031E6FE9C5790BFFE56B696028C

edit18 updated 7/1/2023

https://files.budman.pw/iperf3.14_64.zip

MD5: F2E950606D42EDC33BAEDC2A475791F7
SHA-1: DD1810A0A76A428274B45BBE97FDA8E026B3C552
SHA-256: A4D01475E70CB78352D1754A24A8DBF71DB848AF985CFAF5FB75D1E65F0FA664

edit19 9/15/2023

https://files.budman.pw/iperf3.15_64.zip

MD5: 368FDF957DA41124515BC56131B014F4
SHA-1: D23EA253A73F24812087A05EAEC3C5E1653ADF63
SHA-256: 15BCAE86ED07FAFBB6CF0A91D5ECED2CEEE65077C05059927C707D87077D3618

edit20 12/1/2023

https://files.budman.pw/iperf3.16_64.zip

CRC32: AA6A0862
MD5: 5F7F24A0BB135DDE38C6182A9F60D6D4
SHA-1: 2C24A2499A1EFECC0B7F592705CB460864FE6072
SHA-256: 52063FF7CC8570A86A0AAAEF8221370AFB4A4EE93ACA2029B7DF4BAAD7032B15

E-Mail forwarding not working for some senders

Sat, 25 Nov 2023 12:46:51 +0000

I am suddenly having issues with e-mail forwarding, this has worked great for years then in the past few months I don't get all my e-mail.

What I have is my ISP e-mail account which has spam filtering turned off completely. Then I have a custom domain that I purchased years ago which is currently hosted via google domains (yes I am aware it's transitioning to squarespace, ironically this issue started about the time of the sale completion)

So two examples, I have an account with walmart.com which I always was able to get emails from, then suddenly nothing, no order notices nothing, then I also have an account with slickdeals.net which sends a bunch of emails a day to me, got them fine in the past with this e-mail forward. Then out of no where nothing from these two sites.

I made a new account on both sites using my ISP e-mail directly and I receive the e-mails fine from there, so it's not the ISP email, it has to be something to do with forwarding?

I get e-mails from a lot of other sites just fine on the forwarded e-mail address, so it's not like it's a MX issue, SPF DKIM all the other records are correct not that it would be an issue with this.

So the setup:

I have an e-mail with my ISP, which works correctly, it receives e-mail fine from the domains that this isn't working with.

I have a domain forwarder with my google domain account that forwards e-mail from my custom domain to my ISP email. When these domains send to this email address I never get them.

So why would I suddenly stop getting e-mails from a couple sites and not be able to from them to the forwarded address domain? Even if I make new addresses on that domain with the forwarder and make new accounts with it on these sites, the e-mails still never show up when using that domain.

The domain doesn't appear on any blacklists that I've checked. There also is no SPAM or filtering settings available for the domain on the forwarding side.

To see if it was the forwarder, I ditched that and converted it to a google workplace account for that domain and set it up with Google email services... and I still get nothing from these specific sites using that domain.... I'm stumped

Any ideas?

Can Asus RT-AC86U be removed from setting with FRITZ!Box 7590 with and TP-Link Deco M4R

Fri, 24 Nov 2023 10:30:07 +0000

I currently have my fibre internet setting setup as:

FRITZ!Box 7590 & Asus RT-AC86U. Internet signal is done via RT-AC86U. FRITZ!Box has WIFi turned off, and is in some sort of 'bridge mode'.
I also have on each floor a TP-Link Deco Mesh pod.

The setup of the RT-AC86U is relatively basic with no real customizations (that cannot be done on the FRITZ!Box).

My question: can I, for signal-sake, remove the Asus-router and still have stable and fast internet within the house?
[so everything will be handled by the FRITZ!Box 7590]

Or can I leave it just as it is?

Updating Realtek 8118 Ethernet Driver?

Thu, 09 Nov 2023 22:52:11 +0000

Lately have had some crashes in Games, wondering if i should update my Ethernet Driver, but not sure which one to go with

*Namely Secondlife Game--Crashing at about every sim change lately)

Tried Clearing the Games Cache, Restarted Desktop, Restarted Comcast Gateway XB7-A, running out of ideas to try lol

**Windows Update finds no updated Ethernet Drivers** (already tried that)

There is Windows 11 One on Realtek Site (NDIS) version or Net Adapter CX (Not Support Power Saving)

Right now running one from Gigabytes Driver page, but its kinda old now, came out in 2021.

Any advice or suggestions appreciated in this matter

Help me create an Alexa routine

Thu, 02 Nov 2023 20:01:05 +0000

OK, I have two routines, Morning, triggered when I say Good Morning, it turns on the lights in my room and tells me the weather. The other simply turns off the lights. What I want to do is have the morning routine turn off the lights after a certain amount of time, i.e. 30 minutes. Is this possible to do? If so, can you provide me the steps necessary? Thanks!

Remotly modifying Group Policies & User Accounts on Windows 10 Pro.

Tue, 31 Oct 2023 13:53:56 +0000

Hello,

A have a couple of Windows 10 Pro computers at home for the kids and I was wondering if it is possible to manage those computers Group Policies & Accounts from my personal desktop.

I mainly want to develop a small interface that will allow me or my wife to block user login between specific hours and/or block some specific applications from running when (Fortnite).

Right now, I have no problem doing this, but I need to login on the PC to set the rules.

Is there a way to manage those things from command line on a remote desktop?

I would prefer to use an official approach than writing a server with a privileged account to do so.

All PCs are on the same network, and I am an administrator on all the PC.

Any Idea ?

Thank you

What's the name of your Wi-fi?

Sun, 12 May 2013 09:03:13 +0000

I'll start:

updated thanks to BudMan ;)

Network location setting?

Mon, 23 Oct 2023 12:31:58 +0000

I set up a new Asus gaming router a few days ago. Ever since, my Pixel tablet and google home devices think they are in China or something so weather, news, etc. is all messed up. Would there be some setting in the router that is maybe setting my location to somewhere else? I'm not exactly sure where the devices get their location data from. I also switched my ISP to a new fiber company. Router is the ASUS ROG Rapture GT-AXE16000

Proxmox networking for a beginner, with virtualised router

Sat, 14 Oct 2023 12:36:16 +0000

I'm trying to consolidate a lot of mini-PCs I have around the house running fairly simple tasks (Homeassistant, Arr stack, Jellyfin etc) as well as setting up a new pfsense instance as my home router - in VM form. My NAS will remain a separate machine. I have dual WAN connections (1000/1000 and 1000/100), but I don't do anything particularly heavy on the router side. I'd like to setup some decent ad-blocking capabilities, but I don't think that's particularly taxing.

I've opted for one of the Intel N305 mini-PCs with multiple (6) LAN ports running Proxmox and I'll have a pfSense VM with 1 or 2 cores and 2GB RAM, and everything else I'll try to use containers and have them speak to each other directly. I have some experience with Proxmox and pfsense, but the networking side of both together has made me scratch my head.

I'm trying to get my head around the network side of the actual proxmox machine. I've been "advised" (i.e. told best practice) to use a PVE Management port, a PVE LAN port, then my two WAN ports and a normal LAN port are passthrough to pfsense. I understand the PVE Mgmt port is to access Proxmox if the router is down for whatever reason, but I'm struggling to see the difference between the PVE LAN port and the normal firewall LAN port. Would the PVE LAN port be bridged into pfsense and both the bridge and the passthrough port are assigned as LAN??

I'm also on the lookout for best practices... networking really isn't my thing. Should I give Proxmox an IP in my normal home networking range, or do I keep it well away from that? If I keep it separate, would I be able to access Proxmox from the LAN or would I have to plugin?

Sorry for what probably seems like some very simple questions I really should already know! I'm just a bit excited by how powerful these new little Alder Lake-N chips actually are!

Guest Network

Wed, 04 Oct 2023 09:59:00 +0000

Hello...

I need to create a Guest Network where the user must login with the e-mail.

After that I need to see all the users e-mails that connected.

Is there a router that does this ?

Thank you !

System Cleanup Prior to September 26th--Do I Need Microsoft Defender for Individuals that Came with Office 365?

Sat, 23 Sep 2023 18:45:36 +0000

Hello All

Windows 11 Pro Desktop

22621.2283

Question: Do I need Microsoft Defender for Indivduals app? Activated it a while back to try out, but wondering if i really even need it activated for This Desktop, Gaming Laptop and Android Phone?

Thank you all

Awaits answers, and goes from there

Unable to connect to PC on same network, says wrong password but it is correct

Tue, 12 Sep 2023 16:18:49 +0000

I have two PCs on my network, Upstairs-PC and Downstairs-PC. Both run Windows 11.

I recently had to reinstall Windows 11 on my downstairs PC.

Since then, even though I believe I have set up sharing as normal, when I try to access \\Downstairs-PC, it tells me my credentials are incorrect.

Both computers are logged into my Microsoft account.

I have tried entering my Microsoft email address as my username, as well as Downstairs-PC and .\Downstairs-PC.

For the password, I have tried both the system password and the password to my Microsoft account. Neither are working.

I have disabled the firewall on both systems, just in case.

Any ideas?

OneDrive can not login

Tue, 29 Aug 2023 17:53:29 +0000

I just attempted to open OneDrive and a message popped up saying that you are logged out, You need to log in again, I chose OK, but it brings up the window for login, but all I get is the is the infinite loading screen, it never progresses past that point. I have tried rebooting and it still does not login

One of my email accounts keeps getting massive amounts of SPAM, haveIbeenpwned says that the account is not in any list

Wed, 23 Aug 2023 13:29:51 +0000

So my Comcast.net account, which I never use, keeps getting these obvious SPAM messages and I always mark them as such, but I am trying to figure out why and where these messages are coming from. When I checked haveibeenpwned it says that my address is clear, nothing found. At this point, it is simply an annoyance/inconvenience to have to login to the web interface to mark the message as SPAM. Most of the time, all my email is retrieved via my cell phone so that I can see all of my accounts, but I have to login to the web interface to mark the message(s) as SPAM, which takes close to 2 minutes to load.

Assigning DNS4ME to pihole only for specific clients

Tue, 15 Aug 2023 09:13:12 +0000

My pihole is setup on my local network as 192.168.178.11 (same as NAS) and it is a static address.

My router is 192.168.178.1 and has the default ISP DNS.

Clients on my LAN are assigned address in this range from the ISP router.

However, I have a smart TV that I want to have DNS4ME DNS for UK television. It is a Samsung QN90B and I can only edit 1 DNS address.

In pihole I have set the two DNS4ME addresses as custom 1&2 Upstream DNS Servers and then I have manually set the DNS on my TV to 192.168.178.11.

iPlayer and ITVX already works (indicating that the smart DNS is being used) but Channel 4 and My5 don't. I'm in The Netherlands.

Anyway, I wanted to confirm if my setup is the correct way. I don't want DNS4ME as the global DNS, just when I manually select it for devices like a smart TV for geo unblock.

Right now I am using the 7 Day trial of DNS4ME to see if it is any good. I also have Unlocater, but that can suddenly stop working.

I prefer to have pihole as a choice for geo unblocking, because if I use the smart DNS globally services I'm subscribed to like Disney and HBO Max stop working (using Unlocator).

Broadband upgrade need 2.5gbe card/adapter

Fri, 11 Aug 2023 07:36:20 +0000

I've just upgraded my broadband speed to 1200mbit and now need a 2.5gbe network card or adapter to take full advantage of it. My router has a couple of 2.5gbit ethernet ports, and my 16 port switch is also 2.5gbe so no issues there. My desktop and laptop however only have 1gbe ports. For the laptop I don't have much choice except to buy a 2.5gbe ethernet adapter. My question is for the desktop I use for gaming, should I buy a type-C adapter or a PCIe card? Would a proper card be more reliable or would a good type-C adapter be fine? If I used a card I may have to lose or put the soundcard on a riser/extension cable due to having an mATX board and side mount it, which is fine if necessary. These are what I have in mind:

https://www.scan.co.uk/products/asus-usb-c2500-usb-type-a-to-rj45-25g-base-t-ethernet-network-adapter-100-1000-2500mbps

https://www.scan.co.uk/products/1-port-asus-xg-c100c-v2-10gbe-workstation-network-card-pcie-x4-10gbe-rj45-port-built-in-qos

Static route to update my DDNS - what am I doing wrong?

Tue, 11 Apr 2023 06:07:10 +0000

I have been trying to setup my NAS so that it is permanently connected to VPN, this is working over OpenVPN configuration from PIA and I can confirm when I use qbittorrent docker that the VPN address is being used, in this way I can use qbittorrent over my LAN instead of my client PC.

However I also have things like Plex, Emby and other services that I would like to connect to externally, for this purpose I setup DDNS, which was working fine so long as I was not connected to the VPN adapter. I found this tutorial to do some routing so that the external DDNS updated to my ISP IP, but it is not working. I sent a support ticket to ChangeIP.com and they told me they only use one IP to update the DDNS, which I added to a static route.

When I press update with the above configuration, the VPN IP is getting used:

Other notes: I wanted to use tcpdump to confirm the IP addresses being used to update ddns.info (ChangeIP.com) but the CPhub.net package source for Synology apps no longer works, so I couldn't install that. If we assume that ChangeIP.com really does only use that IP for checking DDNS updates then it should work.

When I go to Router Configuration it says "Your gateway settings is invalid" why? The service order is VPN > LAN (IP address of my ISP router) and enable multiple gateways is checked (enabled).

The NAS has a static LAN IP address.

YAMon is such an amazing bandwith monitor.

Fri, 05 May 2023 15:16:41 +0000

There is a program that you can add to certain router firmware such as OpenWRT, DD-WRT, and a few others called YAMon, which lets you monitor bandwidth by device.

It really quite amazing and I've tried every other option out there hoping something would get close but nothing ever does. On PFsense, I tried BandwithHD, ntopng.

Bandwith HD was just ok as it would only give a daily total but wouldn't allow you to rename the devices.

ntopng was complete overkill and I could never really find the chart I wanted.

Upon a friend's recommendation, I installed "Untangle" and tried its plethora of charts, and ... meh, it was definitely the best of the alternatives I've tried but all I really want is exactly what is shown in the screenshot.

After installing it you are left with a plethora of "new Devices" with IP addresses and MAC addresses. This is a great time to go audit your network and find out what every device is, add it to a category, and give it a name.

I have Open-WRT x86 running on a 2nd Intel i3 computer plugged with a new Intel 4 port nc which at the moment is only connected to my guest network to test it out and make sure it works. I won't actually be installing it until I get home tomorrow or Sunday as I didn't want to leave for a few days with the reliability of a new router untested.

The Funny thing was, as I was auditing my guest network, (The guest network is an isolated 2.4 GHz network setup on my Ubiquiti AP made for IOT devices) there was 1 device I could not account for. It was using a sizable amount of data .. which was only 250 megs but that's a lot for a device that I couldn't account for. While leaving home, I still couldn't account for the device. So I logged in to that router via a computer I left on when I left, and noticed "New device 14" The device I couldn't account for, was last seen online, at 11 am and hadn't come back online since.

I thought, well that tells me whatever it is, left the house with me. I suspected it was my iPhone connecting to the guest network, but when I checked the MAC address it didn't match. turns out I checked the previously connected network list on my phone and sure enough, for whatever reason it was periodically reconnecting to "Repair desk" and disconnecting. I had suspected it was an IOS device because when looking up the MAC address it didn't match any vendor, which made me think it was from "MAC address randomization" from an iOS device.

What's cool in that view, is you can see when a device is using the internet. For instance, the one labeled "Desk Lamp" is a smart outlet that just turns on my desk lamp. You can see it there was a brief connection blip at 2 am..and it was dormant most of the morning until I used it to turn on my light at 7 am.

"Adam's iPhone", which use to be called "New Device 34" (the one I couldn't account for), and I could see it was using bandwidth all morning, but when switching to the next page 12 pm and onward it used zero traffic.

It doesn't show minutes just hours, so all it tells me is that it briefly connected at some point between 11:00 am and 11:59 am, the same goes for each hour.

I just think it's nice to keep an eye on Bandwidth even though I have unlimited. If one day you check and your smart outlet is chugging 5GB of data, you know something is up.

Update

Got my router put into service and named most of my devices except for a couple .. and here is the story it tells.

Can I use the Tp-link Deco X80 in this case?

Wed, 02 Aug 2023 09:36:19 +0000

Hello. I have been asked to upgrade the WIFI for a friends house with two floors. Currently the only good internet availability is in the living room and rooms around the living room are either low speed or no coverage. Also, their is a small one floor building next to the house which currently having the internet throw the power-line TP-LINK AV2000 that's gets the internet from the house.

Giving that their is no cabling to all the rooms, except one. The plan is to change all the devices in the house to the TP-LINK Deco X80 plus the small building next to the house, it is possible that we may go with 5 to 6 devices to cover the whole area. But I am wondering:-

How the Mesh work? Is it the same as the powerline? or like a range extender? as I mention the rooms are either slow or no coverage. Plus the one floor building next to the house. How it will work in this case?

One of the rooms have a device that works with the network cable only (No WIFI). After the Deco device been setup in that room, can I get the internet throw the network cable from the Deco device?

Please advise and thank you in advance.