Crosstalk Solutions

2026-11-09 · open the original ↗

• The host pitches the BR1 Mini as a rugged entry-level vehicle router. His Crosstalk Mobile store sells it at $649, 10% off with a Crosstalk unlimited SIM, with a year of PrimeCare (InControl 2 and SpeedFusion). It is all-metal, fanless and ventless, rated −40 to 149°F, with dual SIM on one modem plus eSIM, Wi-Fi 5 and Wi-Fi as WAN. It lacks GPS; for fleet tracking he points to the BR1 Pro.
• Power options allow redundancy across vehicles, PoE and batteries. It takes 10–30 V DC on a locking four-pin Micro-Fit connector, so 12 V cars and RVs and 24 V trucks and buses, and PoE+ on the LAN port, with DC and PoE usable together. It draws about 13 W. A $19 Pepwave four-pin to dual USB-C Y cable (sold in his store) shares load across two power banks so one can be swapped live.
• Ignition sensing is the feature the host says most people miss. Always-on wiring drains a vehicle battery, and switched power hard-cuts the router on every stop. With Peplink's bare-lead cable, the orange wire goes to the ignition feed, and under Advanced > GPIO the router stays up for a set delay then shuts down cleanly. He recommends 900 seconds (15 minutes) to cover fuel stops; a brown wire takes general I/O sensors.
• Set the router up from InControl 2 rather than its local GUI. Fit antennas before applying power, scan the serial into InControl 2, then use Remote Web Admin. Change the default admin/admin password; firmware is pushed from InControl, which steps through intermediate versions and can schedule updates. The defaults (LAN 192.168.50.1, DHCP on) he says rarely need changing.
• Dual WANs only load-balance until you add SpeedFusion, which is capped. After he plugged in a Starlink Mini, flagging it under Orbit WAN showed dish firmware, obstruction and positioning stats in the Peplink. Equal priority gives simple load balancing; SpeedFusion bonds via Peplink cloud tunnels (he chose Seattle and San Francisco) so a live session survives a link drop. The bundled licence gives about 500 GB at roughly 60 Mbps, so he routes only key apps, SSIDs or clients through it.

2026-11-05 · open the original ↗

• The JetKVM Mini is a cheap, tiny KVM-over-IP the host recommends. It costs $39 for the Ethernet version and $42 for the Wi-Fi version, with three-packs also offered. At recording it was sold out until the end of November. The host calls it small enough to keep in a tech bag. The maker sent him an Ethernet and a wireless unit free; he says the video is not sponsored.
• The hardware is basic, but the remote session was responsive. The unit is about postage-stamp size and roughly an inch thick, with full-size HDMI, Ethernet and two USB-C ports. Its screen is not a touchscreen and is driven by two side buttons. Testing against a Raspberry Pi, the host found the session impressively responsive, with stats for video stability, playback delay and packet loss.
• Firmware updates arrive fast, and Tailscale support landed this way. The host says the maker emailed him new firmware two or three times a week. When he asked about Tailscale, the maker added it in a firmware update later that same day. The host's idea: pre-join a unit to your tailnet, ship it to a client, and it connects once plugged in.
• The KVM's Tailscale client supports at most 64 tailnet devices. Login worked, but the KVM then refused to connect because Crosstalk's tailnet holds hundreds of devices. Crosstalk uses Tailscale to reach its customers' PBX systems without opening firewall ports. The host says most users will not hit the limit; he would need a second tailnet to test it fully.
• The web interface covers the usual KVM tools. It offers paste and copy-from-screen, Wake-on-LAN, a virtual keyboard, keyboard macros, compact and full-screen views, and a dark theme. It also has virtual media, which the host guesses uses the second USB port to mount a thumb drive or external disk to the connected machine.

2026-11-03 · open the original ↗

• Smart wall lights can be made into a live network-throughput display. The host adapted an LED network display project from adamslab.io to the smart wall lights in his studio office, switched on from a Stream Deck button. One half of the lights shows upload and the other download.
• Light length and colour scale with throughput up to the line's capacity. On his gigabit symmetrical office connection, a speed test drove the lights out to their maximum length from the centre as traffic neared 1 Gbps. They turned progressively more orange as speed rose, and went back to normal once the test ended.

2026-10-26 · open the original ↗

• The host rates the Comet X a solid four-machine KVM. He recommends GL.iNet's 4-port KVM over IP, $279 in the GL.iNet store, for home labs and small-business networks: one PoE cable, one IP address, one browser tab and two-factor login replace several single-port KVMs (such as GL.iNet's Comet Pro and Comet PoE) each taking a switch port. GL.iNet sponsored the video and sent the unit.
• It covers pre-boot work a VPN and SSH cannot reach. On a Minisforum mini PC running Ubuntu, the host restarted the OS through the KVM, pressed F2/Delete and reached the BIOS, then booted back without losing control. He cautions that this needed a responsive OS; a fully locked-up machine needs GL.iNet's ATX power control board or Fingerbot to press the power button.
• Each machine gets its own HDMI and USB-C pair. HDMI captures video and USB-C sends keyboard and mouse; four USB-A ports serve GL.iNet accessories, and an HDMI out with USB-A gives local console use. It has one gigabit Ethernet port with PoE plus USB backup power, a 3.69-inch touchscreen, and 10-inch and 19-inch rack brackets. The bundled cables, about 3 ft, suit a 10-inch rack but not a 42U one.
• The 64 GB internal storage doubles as remote virtual media. Files copied onto the KVM can be mounted to a server as a USB-style drive or as an ISO image, which the host demonstrated with a video file. The app center adds Tailscale, ZeroTier or NetBird for secure, shareable access, and TOTP two-factor authentication protects the browser login.
• Switching between machines is not instant. The host found switching takes a few seconds, sometimes 5 to 10 seconds before keyboard and mouse fully work; ports can be renamed and switched from the browser, touchscreen or front-panel button. One of the connected machines, a Mac Mini, is a test box for bringing Crosstalk's own Project Nomad to Mac, which he called a spoiler.

2026-10-13 · open the original ↗

• Smart TVs fingerprint viewing and may leak your device inventory. Citing Gamers Nexus, the host reports that LG TVs scan the LAN for device names, MAC and IP addresses, and scan nearby Wi-Fi to fix location. One used only as an HDMI monitor sent location about 20 times a minute, and LG's ad business claims about 33 million US TVs. That the device list is sent is his suspicion: the traffic is encrypted.
• UniFi allows traffic between VLANs by default, so isolate them. The host recommends three VLANs: default for trusted gear, guest with internet only and Wi-Fi client isolation, and IoT for the TV. IoT gets network isolation but keeps client isolation off, because smart devices need to see each other. Default stays un-isolated, so it can open connections into IoT (e.g. Home Assistant) but not the reverse.
• Wired device isolation fails on switches without ACL support. UniFi lists the switches it does not cover, such as the USW Flex and Ultra. A TV on a Lite 8 PoE downstream of a Pro Max still sees everything on that small switch. Isolation also breaks casting, so he advises casting only within one VLAN and turning mDNS forwarding off: a forwarded device shows up across VLANs but times out.
• Locking DNS to your own Pi-hole best blocks TV telemetry. The host's tool sets DHCP to hand out the approved servers, opens UDP/TCP 53 to them, and blocks DNS and DNS over TLS (port 853) everywhere else. Streaming still works while telemetry domains fail; Roku is the noisiest device in his Pi-hole. DNS over HTTPS cannot be blocked, hard-coded DNS breaks, and clients need a DHCP renew.
• The host's own free tool applies these settings in one click. House Arrest is a new, open-source part of his UniFi toolkit, runs in Docker against a UniFi API key, and offers per-device presets (internet only, LAN only, no internet, quarantine). It shows the JSON before applying and rolls back with a click. He says he "vibecoded" it with Claude Code and warns it is not for beginners.

2026-10-06 · open the original ↗

• Nomad's dashboard can now link to services it doesn't run. Version 1.35 of Project Nomad, Crosstalk's own free, open-source offline knowledge server, adds link tiles: a name, URL, icon and colour placed beside installed apps, such as Home Assistant, Pi-hole, a NAS or a router admin page. The host stresses they are shortcuts only; Nomad does not install, update or monitor them.
• Offline map pins finally get a management panel. Pins can now be searched, sorted by name, icon or visibility, hidden, and clicked to fly to their location, each with its own colour and icon for water, fuel, medical supplies or campsites. The host says exporting pins to share with another Nomad box is coming soon, not yet shipped.
• Kiwix library downloads are no longer English-only. A language picker in the content explorer lets users browse content published in dozens of other languages, prompted by international interest, with English still the default. Nomad's own interface and buttons remain in English only.
• A new Translated Library app translates articles without an LLM. Installed from the Supply Depot, it wraps the library content with one-click language switching (shown with French, German, Spanish and Swedish); further languages are added by appending a code, such as "hi" for Hindi, to the container's languages setting. It runs on the CPU, so needs no graphics card or AI install.
• The AI assistant now accepts images with vision-capable models. Up to four JPEG, PNG or WEBP images per message are downscaled, used for that message only and not saved; the models page now labels models "text only" or "text and image", such as Gemma 3. The host warns small models are poor at identifying images but expects local models to match today's online frontier models within a year or two.

2026-09-30 · open the original ↗

• Sangoma agreed to be bought out, ending speculation about its future. BRC Group Holdings signed a deal on September 28 to acquire Sangoma for about $204 million, roughly $5.22 a share including BRC stock — a 47% premium over its trading price. The deal needs a shareholder vote, court approval and regulatory clearance; directors holding about 27% of shares have already agreed to vote yes, with closing targeted for early 2027.
• Sangoma's sale caps years of deteriorating financials, the host argues. In fiscal 2026 (ended June) revenue fell about 4% to roughly $200 million, EBITDA dropped 30%, and free cash flow was cut in half; the company booked a $68 million goodwill impairment and an $81 million loss. It sold VoIP Supply for $4.5 million in 2025 and hired advisers in May 2026 to find a buyer.
• BRC is buying Sangoma's recurring revenue, not FreePBX. The host estimates the deal buys about $184 million a year in low-churn service revenue, mostly from Star2Star, which runs on FreeSwitch rather than Asterisk. Phones, servers and FreePBX/PBXact licensing combined make up less than 10% of Sangoma's revenue, with FreePBX itself only a tiny slice of that.
• The host expects FreePBX to land in maintenance mode, at best. He sees a small team handling only security patches as most likely, followed by free features being pushed into paid commercial licenses; a community fork or fresh BRC investment into the project are both long shots in his view. He advises FreePBX users to track their version's end-of-life date, know which commercial modules renew and when, test backups, and start planning a migration within a year or two — advice he flags as personal, since his own company, Crosstalk, sells FreePBX-based phone appliances.

2026-09-25 · open the original ↗

• The host is testing Project Nomad on Mac OS. His rack includes a new Mac mini running as the Project Nomad test box ahead of the software's coming macOS release, alongside two Minisforum boxes also serving as Nomad test servers.
• An Omada switch is too wide to fit the rack itself. The rack is a Geek Pi 10-inch 8U model costing about $120, plus roughly $20 for a pair of shelves; the Omada switch is about 2mm too wide to mount inside and currently sits on top, which the host calls disappointing and says he'll probably replace it with one that fits.
• One Raspberry Pi in the rack runs Pi-hole for the office. A second Pi sits unused. He also has a Comet X four-port KVM he started testing the week before and says he's enjoying so far.

2026-09-24 · open the original ↗

• The Synology Active Backup restore failed over a drive-size mismatch. The new 1 TB NVMe drive formatted slightly smaller than the original Kingston drive, so restoring the backup image directly, or via a VM with a shrunk partition, never worked.
• He abandoned the restore and reinstalled Windows from scratch. He still used the Active Backup image to pull specific files off it afterward, mainly his OBS and Stream Deck configuration, which he called relatively painless to recover this way.
• He rebuilt the fresh Windows install using two third-party tools. He ran Beard of Knowledge's win-optimizer.bat script, seen on TikTok, to tweak the new Windows 11 install, then used the Chris Titus Ultimate Windows Utility via PowerShell to batch-install his usual applications.

2026-09-24 · open the original ↗

• His Minisforum MS02 Ultra recording PC died from a failed NVMe drive. The unit, which Minisforum had sent him for free, stopped detecting its drive entirely in the BIOS; he attributes this to the low-quality stock NVMe drives used to keep the price down.
• He swapped the OEM Kingston drive for a Samsung 990 Pro. The failed drive was a 1 TB Kingston NVMe PCIe Gen 4; he replaced it with a 1 TB Samsung 990 Pro, which has onboard DRAM and is, in his view, a much higher quality part.
• A pre-failure Synology Active Backup let him attempt a full restore. Anticipating the drive's failure, he had already made a complete Synology Active Backup for Business image with a recovery USB, and booted from that USB to a complete backup dated roughly 9/26 to restore onto the new Samsung drive.

2026-09-22 · open the original ↗

• Two Omada Flex Bridge 5 units make a point-to-point wireless link. Each costs about $120 in the Omada store; this is the host's first-impressions unboxing, not a throughput test, though he says he already likes much of the design, especially the large, glove-friendly port cover.
• It accepts three power types, including 12 V DC for solar. Besides the included PoE injector and 24 V passive PoE, a barrel connector takes 12 V DC directly, which the host plans to run off a battery in his own solar setup; the unit also passes PoE out to two other devices like a camera or access point.
• DIP switches set the unit's role and let two units auto-pair. A blue DIP switch designates one unit as sender and the other as receiver, while red DIP switches act as a shared password: units with matching red-switch settings find and pair with each other automatically.

2026-09-17 · open the original ↗

• He built a separate solar test bench for gear testing. It's meant for powering whatever he's testing at the time — an access point, Starlink, point-to-point wireless, or cameras — and currently runs off a single Renogy 175 W panel and one 100 amp-hour 12 V battery.
• He still trusts a decade-old Victron charge controller. The Victron Energy 75/15 MPPT solar charge controller is about 10 years old and, he says, still looks and works like new; a Bluetooth dongle on it lets him check input/output stats from his iPhone.
• He plans an ESP32 bridge into Home Assistant. The ESP32 board would connect to Wi-Fi and to the controller's Bluetooth dongle to pull its charge and battery stats into Home Assistant; as of the video he hadn't built it yet and asked viewers whether they wanted to see it done.

2026-09-16 · open the original ↗

• Project Nomad is a free, offline knowledge base. It bundles survival, medicine, agriculture and cooking references, a complete copy of Wikipedia, global street-level maps, and K-12 Khan Academy courses, plus an optional local LLM that can reason across all of that downloaded content.
• A new "supply depot" feature extends Nomad into tools like Meshtastic. The host used this integration on a trip to the Modern Rogue Compound, where Project Nomad received and answered questions sent to it over Meshtastic.
• The Nomad Deck packages Project Nomad into a fully offline, portable kit. It includes a battery, server, monitor, keyboard and travel router for broadcasting Wi-Fi, all housed in a Pelican case with no internet required; a full build guide and 3D-printed STL files are posted at projectnomad.us/deck.

2026-09-11 · open the original ↗

• Shipping damage to the original build forced a full rebuild. Several 3D-printed pieces and the Pelican case itself broke during a flight to Modern Rogue HQ in Texas, so the host is tearing the build down and reinforcing weak points — thicker pegs on the server pedestal, thicker supports on the router stand — as "Nomad Deck 2.0," and asking viewers for better fixes to parts that still failed.
• The host regrets upgrading to the Pelican case's padded dividers. The bare Pelican 1510 costs $240 direct from Pelican, versus $355 with the padded dividers and a mesh lid organizer he says he barely used; he's asking viewers for a cheaper way to get about an inch of wall padding instead.
• An EcoFlow River battery powers the deck but can't fly. The River 2 (300W max output, 240Wh capacity), bought with his own money and not sponsored, reportedly runs the idle server about 9–10 hours, drops to roughly 7 hours under normal screen-on use, and to about 2 hours when the LLM pegs the server; because large battery banks must ship by ground, he had to buy a second unit for the Texas trip.
• A free Minisforum server runs Project Nomad's offline LLM. The UM890 Pro (Ryzen 9 Pro 8945HS, 64GB RAM, 1TB NVMe), sent to him at no cost by Minisforum, lists at $1,319 as configured; he reports the full Project Nomad dataset fits with about 500GB of the 1TB drive free, answering a recurring viewer question about how much storage the offline knowledge base needs.
• The monitor's shipping-damaged mount still isn't the host's favorite design. The 16.1-inch, 180Hz QHD Arzopa Z3FC monitor ($129.99 on Amazon) sits in a 3D-printed bracket that broke in transit; rounding out the build are a GL.iNet Beryl 7 travel router ($130, with the larger Slate 7 offered as an alternative with a QR-code display) and a ProtoArc XK01 TP folding keyboard/trackpad ($56.99).

2026-08-31 · open the original ↗

• The Pepwave 5G adapter is the cheaper option at checkout. Both list at $399, but UniFi adds a $31 memory surcharge plus $16.90 shipping (totaling $446.90 from UniFi's own store), while the host's Crosstalk Solutions store sells the Pepwave at $399 with free shipping, a roughly $48 savings; he notes other UniFi distributors may not charge the surcharge.
• The Pepwave is smaller, DC-powered, and GPS-equipped for vehicles. Both devices run 2.5 gigabit Ethernet and can take PoE, but the UniFi 5G Max needs a separate PoE+ injector (about $19) if PoE isn't already available, while the Pepwave ships with its own AC adapter and also accepts 12V or 24V DC directly. The Pepwave includes a GPS puck for vehicle tracking via InControl 2; the UniFi 5G Max has no GPS, reflecting its fixed-deployment design.
• UniFi's carrier certification gaps caused real SIM activation failures. Both devices are dual-SIM, single-modem with eSIM support, and the Pepwave works with any carrier, while the UniFi 5G Max was, as of recording, certified only for T-Mobile and AT&T (Verizon promised in a future version). The host reports at least half a dozen customers' Crosstalk Mobile (T-Mobile MVNO) SIMs were misidentified as Verizon and failed to activate in the 5G Max, a bug he says a recent firmware update has since fixed.
• UniFi's easy setup only works if you're already on UniFi. On an existing UniFi gateway, the 5G Max simply plugs into a LAN port and gets adopted like any UniFi device, with seamless failover in the same dashboard; the host calls this the 5G Max's biggest advantage. But it only works with UniFi gateways, while the Pepwave is network-agnostic and takes about 10 minutes to configure on any router, and (via a Crosstalk Mobile Unlimited SIM) supports a static IP passed through to the gateway.
• The Pepwave alone lets you swap antennas and exclude bands. Both devices expose SINR, RSRP and RSRQ readings, but the UniFi 5G Max has fixed built-in antennas (move the unit or buy the outdoor version if signal is weak), while the Pepwave has four external SMA ports for swappable or directional antennas and fits Peplink's Antenna Max vehicle enclosure. Only the Pepwave lets you manually exclude a congested cellular band; the host, whose store sells the Pepwave, recommends the UniFi only for all-UniFi networks with known-good signal, and the Pepwave everywhere else.

2026-08-27 · open the original ↗

• Good signal strength can still give bad speeds. Signal strength and signal quality are separate measures, and the host says most consumer gear shows only one; he demonstrates on the Pepwave 5G Adapter, which Crosstalk sells, running a Crosstalk Mobile Unlimited SIM.
• The host gives thresholds for reading the three key cellular figures. SINR: 20+ great, 13–20 good, below that mediocre or bad. RSRP (raw strength, in negative dBm): his −85 dBm is excellent, −100 okay, −110 or worse bad. RSRQ (quality, in negative dB): −10 or better good, −15 rough, −20 really bad.
• Good RSRP with bad RSRQ points to a congested tower. The host says Peplink lets you exclude specific bands under the SIM's custom band selection, for example blocking 5G band n41, to force the modem onto a different tower; he presents this granularity as the reason to buy Peplink.

2026-08-25 · open the original ↗

• The host pitches the Pepwave adapter as a grown-up UniFi 5G Max. At $399 it adds 5G WAN to any router over one ethernet cable, and he says it has more features and flexibility than the 5G Max with no memory surcharge; the Crosstalk store sells it and cellular antennas for it.
• Four SMA connectors allow a remote external antenna. The unit ships with antennas, but the host notes the connectors let you keep the device indoors and mount an external antenna high up outside.
• Power and SIM options are broad. It has a 2.5 Gbps ethernet port with PoE in (the host runs his from a UniFi UCG-Fiber's PoE WAN port), an included power adapter, and direct 12 or 24 V DC; SIM options are two physical slots, eSIM, remote SIM from a LAN injector, and cloud FusionSIM for fleets.
• Every unit ships with a bundled eSIM and a GPS puck. Per the host, the included 1 GB eSIM means a unit can be set up and connected to InControl 2 without a cellular SIM; the GPS puck tracks the equipment's location. A full comparison against the UniFi 5G Max is promised in a later video.

2026-08-20 · open the original ↗

• The host calls the Pepwave adapter a fuller UniFi 5G Max. It costs $399, adds 5G WAN to any router over one ethernet cable, and he says it has more features and no memory surcharge; the Crosstalk Mobile store selling it offers free shipping and 10% off equipment paired with its 5G unlimited SIM.
• Hardware covers antennas, power and SIM options broadly. It has four SMA connectors for an external antenna, a 2.5 Gbps PoE-in port (the host powers his from a UniFi UCG-Fiber's PoE WAN), a 12 V 2 A adapter or direct 12/24 V DC, two SIM slots, eSIM, remote SIM, FusionSIM, a GPS puck, and a bundled 1 GB eSIM.
• Fit antennas before power, then demote the bundled eSIM. The host warns powering up first can cook the radio. Default IP is 192.168.50.1, login admin/admin; out of the box it ran on the included eSIM ("Webbing USA"), so he moved SIM A to priority one and the eSIM to three. As of recording firmware was 2.0.3.
• Read SINR, RSRP and RSRQ, and exclude congested bands. His thresholds: SINR 20+ great, 13–20 good; RSRP −85 dBm excellent, −100 okay, −110 bad; RSRQ −10 dB good, −15 rough, −20 really bad. UniFi's GUI exposes only RSRP; good RSRP with bad RSRQ signals tower congestion, which Peplink's custom band selection (e.g. dropping n41) can avoid.
• Add it to InControl 2 before enabling IP passthrough. Once registered by serial number it phones home and stays remotely manageable even with no local access. Passthrough (on VLAN 1 here) ends double NAT, giving the router a routable IPv4 address; with Crosstalk Mobile's static IP, the host says forwarded ports keep working on 5G backup without CGNAT.

2026-08-10 · open the original ↗

• Most RV owners don't need a Peplink; the Spitz AX suffices. The host calls the Peplink MAX BR1 Pro 5G his favourite for mission-critical mobile use but notes it is almost $1,000; the $379 GL.iNet Spitz AX, which he uses in his own RV and Crosstalk Mobile now sells, is his best-value pick.
• Three WAN sources cover unpredictable campgrounds. He runs a Crosstalk Mobile 5G unlimited SIM (dual SIM slots and eSIM, but one modem, so one SIM at a time), a Starlink Mini wired into the ethernet WAN over 50 ft cables, and campground Wi-Fi via repeater mode, reordered by drag and drop in failover or load balancing.
• UniFi fails for RVs mainly because it lacks Wi-Fi as WAN. The host also cites cost: the UniFi 5G Max alone costs more and still needs a router, and the $500 Dream Router 5G Max sits upright with no real wall mount and no external 5G antenna. The Spitz AX also takes 9–36 V DC directly, which UniFi cannot.
• Roof-mount the cellular antenna; keep Wi-Fi antennas indoors. Of six antenna connectors, he runs cellular to a low-profile roof antenna so the signal avoids the RV walls, but uses the included Wi-Fi antennas inside because they mainly serve client devices; a roof Wi-Fi feed would help Wi-Fi as WAN at the clients' expense.
• Step up to Peplink only if even a brief drop matters. Failover on the Spitz AX costs about a second offline, unnoticeable for browsing or Netflix; Peplink's SpeedFusion bonds links for seamless failover, which the host says suits live broadcasts or Zoom calls that cannot drop.

2026-08-05 · open the original ↗

• This Project Nomad release is its biggest update ever. Version 1.34 of Crosstalk's free, open-source offline server, installed on your own PC, brings 70 features, fixes and improvements; the host says it has no subscription and does not phone home, and serves offline Wikipedia, Khan Academy, street-level maps and an optional local AI.
• Creator packs bring curated videos offline in one click. They play through Kiwix; the launch packs are a Project Nomad pack, a Crosstalk Solutions pack of 30 of the host's networking videos, and a Modern Rogue pack of 37 videos, with more promised.
• The local AI can now answer from one document collection. Uploaded documents used to sit in one pile; collections let it answer from a single group, such as equipment manuals. A user-editable nomad.md file adds standing instructions and a reasoning toggle is off by default, but the host warns offline mini-PC models feel like frontier models of about two years ago.
• A community contributor added an offline, searchable FDA drug-label database. It carries open FDA label data on uses, dosage, warnings and interactions, organised by condition and with common remedies; Nomad requires acknowledging a not-medical-advice disclaimer first.
• Benchmark version two uses real sysbench numbers, uncapped. It adds live telemetry and an Nvidia GPU-utilisation overlay; old scores were converted mathematically, so the host advises re-running on 1.34 and expects rankings at benchmark.projectnomad.us to shuffle. Other fixes: resumable downloads, four dead Wikipedia links repaired, old Docker images cleaned up, and AMD integrated graphics used for AI.

2026-08-03 · open the original ↗

• Project Nomad is running on a Raspberry Pi 5. The host's test unit has 8GB of RAM and a 1TB NVMe drive attached via a Pimoroni NVMe base rather than microSD; he says it's working well but not yet ready for primetime.
• The ARM platform is too weak for Project Nomad's AI inference. Users will need to skip the AI feature entirely or point it at a remote Ollama host to use the LLM; everything else — full Wikipedia, global street-level maps, K-12 education, and hundreds of survival, medicine and agriculture books and guides — still works.
• ARM support is targeted for Project Nomad's next major release. Version 1.34 ships this week; the host says Nomad will remain 100% free and open source as ARM compatibility is added.

2026-07-27 · open the original ↗

• The WisMesh Tag is a cheap GPS tracker for off-grid mesh networks. At $39, the credit-card-size LoRa radio with GPS comes pre-flashed with Meshtastic and can be reflashed to MeshCore. It is rated IP66 and has a 1,000 mAh battery. It has no screen and does nothing on its own: it must be Bluetooth-paired to a phone running the Meshtastic app.
• Real battery life is shorter than the spec sheet's. The spec sheet rates it in days, but with GPS on and broadcasting position the host has seen about one to two days per charge. It charges over magnetic pogo pins rather than USB-C, which is how it stays waterproof.
• The host pitches it for tracking a team with no cell signal. In his demo a WisMesh Ethernet gateway acts as home base, viewed over the LAN in MeshMonitor on a private channel, and the tag's position updates live on the map while in range. He says to give the gateway a good antenna mounted high for line of sight, and to add more gateways as repeaters for wider coverage.

2026-07-10 · open the original ↗

• Starlink replaced a dead dish with its rare Gen 3 Performance Dish. The lake house's backup WAN, an older-generation High Performance dish, died about six months before the video, stuck pointing straight up with no signal and not fixed by power cycling. Starlink judged it dead and sent the Gen 3 Performance Dish free of charge, about four years after the owner bought the original. The host calls that "not a bad RMA".
• The dish targets boats, businesses and remote sites, not homes. Starlink rates it at about 470 Mbps down and just under 50 Mbps up for now, and says gigabit download is coming later this year through a plan update with no new hardware. It costs around $2,000. The all-metal case is rated to sit under a meter of water for half an hour.
• The host sees fixed phased-array steering as more reliable. He explains that the dish steers its signal in software across a 140° slice of sky instead of being aimed by a motor, and is mounted at a fixed angle. He thinks losing the servo means one less part to fail, and he rates the casing and pole-mount engineering a clear step up from the Gen 1 dish.
• Swapping in the Gen 3 dish needs a new cable and pole mount. The dish end uses a proprietary click-lock connector that looks almost like XLR, so an older dish's cable cannot be reused; the crew had to pull a new one through the conduit. The new mount sits on top of the pole rather than inside the old roughly 4-inch mount, so they reused part of the old mount and drilled through it to stop it twisting.
• The power supply is not a router. It takes AC or DC input, which the host says suits RVs and ships, and has two Ethernet ports: one to the dish and one to a third-party or Starlink router. It has no Wi-Fi. In a temporary test on the dock, feeding UniFi as WAN 2, it reached about 250 Mbps down and 30–40 Mbps up before final mounting.

2026-06-30 · open the original ↗

• Replacing Meraki with Peplink saved the client money over three years. Crosstalk, which designed and installed the network and sells Peplink, says RLL Racing faced about $100,000 in Meraki licensing plus about $30,000 to replace end-of-life hardware, roughly $130,000 for another 3 years. Peplink gear, its PrimeCare licences (which the host likens to an extended warranty plus InControl access) and Crosstalk's install fees came in $80,000 cheaper over the same term.
• The headquarters core was swapped overnight, chosen for SpeedFusion capacity. A team of three spent an 18-hour day replacing the Cisco firewall with a Peplink Balance 1350 EC (rated over 5,000 users, 25 Gbps, dual hot-swappable power supplies) and 19 switches one-for-one with Peplink 48-port units. The host says the real reason for the 1350 EC was its 2 Gbps of SpeedFusion VPN throughput and 800 SpeedFusion peers, enough for every truck, stand and fuel rig.
• Two cutover problems needed workarounds, one still unexplained. Access-control readers on the switches' rightmost 2.5 Gbps ports would not negotiate; moved to 1 Gbps ports they settled at 10 Mbps half duplex. The two switches carrying about 40 Meraki MR44 access points pegged at 100% CPU for unknown reasons; diagnostics went to Peplink, and one Meraki switch stays in the rack for the MR44s until RLL replaces them with Peplink access points before their licences expire.
• Layer 2 SpeedFusion bridging puts every trackside site on one subnet. Each track gives a team one fiber feed carrying VLANs for telemetry and IP camera feeds; every truck, stand and fuel rig gets its own router with two or more WANs (track fiber, Starlink, 5G, Wi-Fi as WAN), tunnelled back to the 1350 EC hub in one broadcast domain. The host claims bridging is not unique to Peplink, but doing it reliably over bonded, failure-prone mixed links is where other vendors cannot keep up.
• Lab and live-race tests showed the feed reaching every site. In a garage demo, a stream pushed through a Balance 310X on a Starlink dish appeared on a timing stand (Max BR2 Pro on a separate Starlink Mini), a viewing stand (Max BR1 via Wi-Fi as WAN) and the Indianapolis operations centre. At the Long Beach Grand Prix an RLL crew member said the Indy 500's infrastructure is solid but street tracks are "bootleg", so Starlink backup matters; the video was sponsored by Crosstalk Mobile.

2026-06-25 · open the original ↗

• Nomad's new Supply Depot is a curated Docker app store. It arrives in Project Nomad 1.33; the host, whose company makes Nomad, says each app is a tested open-source container with its own setup docs, and installs check for port conflicts first; apps include Jellyfin, Vaultwarden, CyberChef, Stirling PDF, Excalidraw, Homebox, IT Tools, Flatnotes, a file browser, an ebook reader, and Meshtastic Web and MeshCore Web. Version 1.33.0 was the latest at recording, updated from 1.32.1 via Settings, Check for updates.
• The old Kolibri container has no direct migration to the new one. The previous Kolibri education platform (TED Talks, Khan Academy K–12) ran a very old version, so Supply Depot offers a second-generation Kolibri. Users with the old one must install the new version and follow the project's docs to move their content over.
• Any Docker image can now be installed as a custom app. Users can paste an image and set custom port mappings, volume mounts and environment variables, and can edit, restart, reinstall or set a custom launch URL for installed apps. The host says this makes Nomad a home-lab server as well as an offline knowledge stockpile, a feature he had long wanted.
• Automatic updates now cover Nomad itself, apps and content. Each of the three runs in a user-set update window; content means Zim files such as Wikipedia. The intent is a box that keeps itself current while online, so the moment it is disconnected is its point-in-time snapshot; manual content updates remain available.
• A custom online check fixes networks that block Cloudflare. Nomad decides it is online by reaching Cloudflare's 1.1.1.1, so networks blocking that made it think it was offline; a new Advanced tab lets users set their own HTTP check. Other user-requested fixes: maps remember the last view, a rescan-library button picks up Zim files copied in, and knowledge-base ingestion jobs (manual by default) can be cancelled.

2026-06-22 · open the original ↗

• Project Nomad can answer questions sent over Meshtastic, fully offline. The host's demo used a Nomad server, a travel router and a PoE injector powering a RAKwireless WisMesh radio; a handheld radio paired with an Android phone sent "/nomad how to purify water", which the local Ollama model on the Nomad box answered back radio to radio. He says the whole setup can be made portable, as in his own Nomad deck, a product his company makes.

2026-06-19 · open the original ↗

• Gray-market 5G SIMs risk being shut down by the carrier. The host describes them as SIMs not authorized for resale that resellers dodge the rules to sell. His example: in 2023 Nomad Internet (no relation to his Project Nomad) bought Verizon business SIMs wholesale under fake identities and reprogrammed them; Verizon throttled them to near nothing while customers kept paying, and the company went bankrupt.
• The host pitches Crosstalk Mobile as the authorized alternative. He says his company's SIMs come through a direct carrier agreement as an authorized MVNO, with truly unlimited data, month-to-month contracts and an optional static IP over 5G. Unlimited plans start at $119 a month, which he concedes is not the cheapest.

2026-06-16 · open the original ↗

• Crosstalk Mobile runs on T-Mobile as an authorized MVNO. The company, launched about two months before the video, has a direct agreement with T-Mobile, its only carrier for now, with multi-carrier SIMs planned "in the near future". The host contrasts this with gray-market resellers buying wholesale SIMs without a carrier agreement, which he says get shut down when caught.
• The unlimited SIMs really have no caps or overages. Plans start at $119 a month, and the host says no amount of data changes that. Cheaper limited tiers are planned as a priority, for backup links, IoT and RedCap devices such as Netgear's $99 5G backup device and the GL.iNet Comet 5G, with no date given.
• The SIMs suit 5G routers, not phones or tablets. The host says they work well in Netgear 5G and Peplink gear and he has not yet found a router they fail in, but phones and tablets are hit and miss and discouraged. He cites a reseller who got a Peplink router chosen, preconfigured on InControl 2 and drop-shipped with the SIM installed, all by text in a few hours.
• The SIMs get real public IPv4, not CGNAT. The host argues CGNAT makes 5G failover incomplete, since inbound services such as a VPN server for remote staff stop working when the office fails over. Crosstalk SIMs get real IPv4 addresses, and a static IP is $5 a month extra; he personally tested port forwarding through the UniFi 5G Max and the Dream Router 5G Max.
• There is no contract lock-in. Plans are month-to-month, or year-to-year if bought annually, and can be cancelled at any time. The host presents engineers answering customer calls and texts directly as the service's most underrated feature, contrasting it with Verizon Business or AT&T support.

2026-06-10 · open the original ↗

• Project Nomad will support both, leaving users the choice. The video opens with the claim that MeshCore is far better, one local area having switched months earlier; the host says he has only ever used Meshtastic and is not a heavy user, but has heard the same. Much of the same radio hardware runs either, and both will be in the Supply Depot.
• The host's goal is asking Nomad's local AI questions over the mesh. He is most interested in a Meshtastic API container, so a message like "!nomad" plus a question, picked up over 915 MHz by an Ethernet-connected radio, gets answered by the server's local LLM over Meshtastic or MeshCore. He describes this as his "dream", not a shipped feature, letting someone many nodes away query a distant Nomad server offline.

2026-06-09 · open the original ↗

• ARM support for Project Nomad has no timeline. Answering a viewer with an M5 Pro MacBook Pro who wanted to run it under Parallels, the host says ARM is on the radar but the priority is making the project solid on x86 first. Native MacBook support will come "at some point", he says, but is not a focus.
• Mac users can get GPU-backed AI by running Ollama natively. A dockerized Ollama on a Mac cannot use the GPU, so the workaround is to install Ollama natively on macOS, skip Nomad's own AI install, and point Nomad's remote-Ollama setting at the Mac's IP and Ollama port, which the host thinks defaults to 11434. He notes Apple silicon machines hold some of the top 100% scores on Nomad's benchmark leaderboard.

2026-06-04 · open the original ↗

• A small solar panel can cover a Nomad server's normal load. The host, building a Pelican-case Nomad deck around an EcoFlow River 2 he bought himself (not sponsored), gives it about 256 Wh for about $199, or $367 with a 110 W solar panel. In good sun the panel charged it at about 77 W, while his Minisforum server draws almost nothing idle and 30–50 W for ordinary computing.
• AI processing is what drains the battery. The server jumps to about 85–90 W during local AI work, above the panel's measured charging rate, which the host says is where the battery starts to drop noticeably. He gives no measured runtime.

2026-06-02 · open the original ↗

• The Comet Q is a USB-C KVM powered by its target. The host shows the GL.iNet Comet Q KVM controlling a Linux mini PC, an iPad and an Android device; it joins local Wi-Fi, serves a browser interface, and supports Tailscale or ZeroTier for remote access. A second USB-C port passes power through to the controlled device.
• It is crowdfunding on Kickstarter at an early-bird price. It starts at $69 on the super-early-bird tier; the host gives no other pricing or shipping date.

2026-05-28 · open the original ↗

• A beach club's Ubiquiti point-to-point network is laid out sensibly. The host reads one antenna as a wireless ISP feed, with a newer pill-shaped NanoStation below it, and NanoBeam and NanoStation links fanning out to outbuildings; he singles out a single-gang wall-mount enclosure with a pole for the NanoBeam as a clean mount.
• Indoor-rated gear is used outdoors, which the host would avoid. He spots an indoor antenna and a non-outdoor camera on the site, the antenna sheltered under a roof; he guesses an old NanoStation M5 was left in place beside its replacement. He would not have used the indoor gear outdoors himself, but calls the install a nice job overall.

2026-05-26 · open the original ↗

• The host bills this as unbiased, but tests with his own SIM. He says he has left the Ubiquiti creator program, no longer gets free devices and has no affiliate codes; the review uses a Crosstalk Mobile 5G unlimited SIM, which his company sells as a T-Mobile business MVNO, and pitches its $5-a-month static IP and non-CGNAT addressing along the way.
• The hardware is a standard UniFi gateway with dual-SIM 5G built in. It has two nano SIM slots, with slot 2 also able to take an eSIM, plus four 2.5 GbE ports, a 10 Gb SFP+ port, a microSD slot, a touchscreen and a fan. Only port 1 has PoE, standard PoE at 15.4 W rather than PoE+, and it can be assigned as a WAN so a PoE-powered WAN device needs no extra brick.
• Setup worked out of the box, with two quirks the host hit. The SIM came up as WAN 3, and he measured 150 Mbps down and 48 Mbps up untuned in mid-office. Setting the custom APN for a static IP (iot.cc.static) took the console offline until he rebooted. The APN setting is only in the web interface, not the phone app, and the LED colour is only on the touchscreen.
• Ubiquiti says T-Mobile Home Internet SIMs are not supported. Some commenters on his earlier 5G Max video said theirs did work, which the host has not tested. He reports port forwarding through the separate UniFi 5G Max add-on modem only started working after its most recent update, and expects it to work on this device too.
• The host recommends it for small businesses needing 5G, if in stock. At $499 MSRP against $399 for the 5G Max add-on, upgrading an older gateway costs little more and is fully integrated; it was out of stock at recording. Home users with a UniFi gateway should instead add T-Mobile or Verizon home internet as WAN 2, at about $50 a month or less ($25 on promotion), since CGNAT is usually fine at home.

2026-05-22 · open the original ↗

• Project Nomad now supports AMD GPU acceleration for its AI features. Version 1.32.0 of Crosstalk's free, open-source offline server runs Ollama on AMD GPUs with ROCm support, where only Nvidia was supported before. The team tested it on a Radeon 780M iGPU and an RX 6800.
• Knowledge-base ingestion was redesigned and now defaults to manual. Users pick "always" or file-by-file ingestion in the setup wizard or on first AI chat; manual is the default because a CPU-only install can peg the CPU for days. Only text is indexed, so ZIMs heavy with images or PDFs show errors, and deleting an entry removes only the ingested data, not the file.
• Indexing a ZIM can take 5 to 10 times its size on disk. The host says ZIMs are compressed, so a 10 GB file could become 50–100 GB once indexed. Nomad now warns before ingesting anything over 50 GB or more than 10% of remaining free space.
• Maps and content sources were extended for international users. Maps now show coordinates and take named, coloured pins, with pin notes slipped to a 1.32.1 due within days. Maps can be downloaded by country at a chosen zoom (15 is street level; Nicaragua was about 125 MB), and the content explorer adds Kiwix mirrors and custom ZIM libraries.
• AI handling got more robust and is now fully optional. Nomad auto-recovers Ollama when Docker changes drop its Nvidia passthrough, and switching models mid-chat now unloads the old one so it doesn't spill out of VRAM into slow system RAM. Leaving AI unselected in the setup wizard skips every AI step.

2026-05-20 · open the original ↗

• The client was paying twice for poor 5G at two nearby offices. A Southern California catering company had a Verizon 5G home internet connection in each of two offices about six units apart, getting 40–60 Mbps with the modems buried among stainless-steel kitchen equipment. Charter Spectrum offered wired service billed separately per site at well over $150, and that only as a first-year promotional price.
• Crosstalk's design put one 5G router on the roof feeding both offices. It uses a Crosstalk Mobile SIM, the firm's own product, in a Peplink Max BR1 Pro 5G inside an IP67 Antenna Max enclosure magnet-mounted on the roof. It is powered by PoE++ over a single cable, clear of the kitchen, with outdoor Cat 6 run across the roof into the second office.
• A cheap TP-Link Omada switch and Wi-Fi 7 APs finished the build. The host found a $75 unmanaged DS106GPP with one PoE++ port for the router and three PoE+ ports for EAP772 access points, which adopt by QR code in the Omada app with no on-site controller. The team hadn't realised the APs came without PoE injectors, and bought a TRENDnet one locally for $30 for the second office.
• Both offices now share one LAN and one connection at mid-300 Mbps. The host puts that at about eight times their previous roughly 40 Mbps, with a single bill. He and a Crosstalk engineer add that Crosstalk Mobile SIMs have exceeded 700 Mbps elsewhere, in Pasadena.
• A neighbour's parking-lot link uses APs not built for point-to-point. The host spotted a pair of Ubiquiti U7 Pro Outdoor omnidirectional APs, presumably meshing across about 60–70 ft of clear line of sight. He thinks it probably works at that distance, but would not have chosen them, and worries about their RP-SMA connectors being left uncapped in the weather.

2026-05-12 · open the original ↗

• Peplink is raising list prices on select hardware. The increase takes effect June 1, making May 31 the last day to order at current prices; it covers select hardware models, not service plans, and the full list of affected models was not expected until mid-May.
• Crosstalk, which resells Peplink, offers a May purchase incentive. Buyers of Peplink hardware through Crosstalk in May can choose 25% off a two-hour support block or 50% off the first month of a Crosstalk Mobile unlimited 5G SIM, and the host offers to lock in current prices for pipeline projects emailed in before May 31.

2026-05-04 · open the original ↗

• Project Nomad can run on Windows 10 or 11 under WSL2. The host says this route is community-supported rather than official, but he has tried it himself and it works; his write-up on projectnomad.us has separate instructions for Docker Native and Docker Desktop, aimed at users without Linux skills or a spare server.

2026-05-01 · open the original ↗

• Crosstalk Mobile SIMs work in the UniFi 5G Max, the host reports. Pitching his company's own SIMs, he says the 5G Max plugs into a LAN port on PoE and, once adopted, is set up automatically as an extra WAN. Sitting in his window it gets 475 Mbps, and he says speeds up to about 800 Mbps have been seen elsewhere.
• The UniFi 5G Max will not accept every SIM. The host says a T-Mobile Home Internet SIM moved from its modem "absolutely will not" work, and nothing from Verizon works yet, though he says Verizon support is on the roadmap.

2026-04-29 · open the original ↗

• A small mini PC runs Project Nomad as well as a big workstation. On Nomad's own benchmark, the host's Minisforum UM890 Pro (Ryzen 9 8945HS, Radeon 780M, 64 GB RAM, 1 TB NVMe) scored 75 against 73 for his roughly 6-year-old Threadripper with 128 GB RAM and an RTX 3090 Ti. Project Nomad is Crosstalk's own offline server.
• The big GPU still wins for local AI. The host concedes the 3090 Ti is better hardware for LLM inference and chat, but says the mini PC is all you need for the knowledge-base content (Wikipedia, Khan Academy, offline maps), so a large, expensive server is unnecessary.

2026-04-21 · open the original ↗

• Starlink residential plans now tier by speed, not data caps. As reported, plans are $50/month for up to 100 Mbps, $80/month for 200 Mbps and $120/month for Max, with promo rates of $35, $65 and $105 for the first 4 months through the end of April; promo pricing appears unavailable in saturated areas. The host prefers speed tiers because customers do not understand data caps.
• The Gen 3 dish is now a free rental. It costs zero down plus a $20 shipping fee and $0/month in perpetuity, but must be returned in good condition within 30 days of cancelling or it is billed at full price. The Max plan adds a free Starlink Mini rental and 50% off Roam plans.
• The host rates the $50 tier as small-business backup internet. He calls 100 Mbps for $50/month an excellent plan for redundant internet. He discloses his own referral code (first month free for both parties), which does not stack with the promos, and says it beats the promo for the 200 Mbps and Max plans.
• The $5 standby plan no longer works in motion. RVers and long-haul truckers who used it while moving must now take the minimum Roam plan at $50/month, which the host calls a 10x increase for the same use.
• Reactivation can now cost $100 to $1,500 in high-demand areas. The surcharge hits seasonal users bringing a dish off standby and also applies when moving the service address. The host notes Starlink has changed plans and prices more than 15 times in 2 years, so none of this is guaranteed to last.

2026-04-14 · open the original ↗

• Crosstalk has launched its own 5G data SIMs, Crosstalk Mobile. The company says the SIMs are truly unlimited on a nationwide 5G network, month-to-month with no hidden fees, and sold as an authorized MVNO with a direct carrier agreement rather than through gray-market resellers. Billing starts at activation, not at shipping.
• Its pitch is support from network engineers, not a call centre. The company says it will help choose hardware, diagnose failed 5G failover, decide on directional antennas and aiming, lock to the best cellular bands for a site, and design bonded field deployments with Peplink SpeedFusion.
• MSPs get volume pricing and out-of-band management. A partner program lowers pricing as more SIMs are deployed across client sites, and the company argues each SIM gives the MSP a back door to troubleshoot when a client's main internet is down, avoiding a truck roll, while earning recurring revenue.
• Static IP addresses over 5G are available. The company says it can provide static IPs on cellular on request; it does not give prices for any plan in the video, and says more plans are coming.

2026-04-09 · open the original ↗

• Design starts with a fixed set of customer questions. In this free module from Crosstalk's paid UniFi Network Masterclass, the host and Dave Barger ask about business type, wired and wireless device counts, the internet connection (cable, fiber, Starlink with CGNAT, multiple paths), building construction, floor plans and VPN needs. They also inventory existing gear, since layer 2 switches can often be reused to save budget, and record pain points to test after deployment.
• Budget and timeline often decide the shape of the quote. For an existing network they may offer one quote to replace everything and a phased quote replacing only key elements. Schools may only be able to change the network over summer, and Crosstalk's own booking backlog factors in too.
• Plan two Ethernet drops per desk, for PC and VoIP phone. Where only one drop exists, the switch on the back of most VoIP phones can pass through to the PC, but some are 10/100 and will bottleneck it. For their 20-employee example office, about 60 drops go to two 48-port switches, so critical drops can move to one switch if the other fails.
• Simulate Wi-Fi first, and avoid too many access points. They use Hamina Planner, which is vendor-agnostic, over UniFi Design Center, which covers only Ubiquiti; exterior walls must be set to concrete, and two U6 Pros covered the example office. A Crosstalk engineer explains that clients choose the AP, so too many APs cause roaming problems; fixes are cutting power or 2.4 GHz radios, staggering channels and minimum data rates, then waiting a week.
• Use as few VLANs as make sense. The example uses four: management on default VLAN 1 for switches, router and APs; office PCs, printers and servers; guest, which also holds employees' personal phones; and IoT, or alternatively VoIP or cameras. Both presenters say too many VLANs makes administration get out of control.

2026-04-07 · open the original ↗

• A 1 TB drive holds a fully loaded Project Nomad. The host says all of Wikipedia plus detailed world maps is about 250 GB, the biggest downloads, and the curated content collections and education platform add about 150 GB, putting a maxed-out install at just over half a terabyte. Project Nomad is Crosstalk's own free, open-source offline server.

2026-04-03 · open the original ↗

• Project Nomad 1.31 adds worldwide maps and remote AI hosting. Crosstalk says its offline server can now download a map of the whole planet, with named pins saved to a database, connect to a remote Ollama server for AI, and read EPUB files in the knowledge base. It also claims a large performance boost to the interface.

2026-04-02 · open the original ↗

• Share Project Nomad over Wi-Fi with a travel router. The host says turning the Nomad box itself into an access point is possible but finicky: Linux AP mode is driver-dependent, many adapters do not support it, internal PC wireless cards give poor range, and the box would also have to run DHCP and DNS. A travel router adds proper antennas, DHCP, DNS, a firewall and a WAN port. Project Nomad is Crosstalk's own offline server.
• The GL.iNet Beryl 7 is more than this job needs. It lists at $139 MSRP, is about the size of a deck of cards, and has dual-band Wi-Fi 7 and two 2.5 GbE ports, one WAN and one LAN. WAN can also be Wi-Fi as WAN past a captive portal, phone tethering or a USB 5G modem; offline, everything stays local.
• The Nomad box's USB-C port can power the router. The Beryl 7 draws about 12 W over USB-C; the host says USB-C ports typically supply 15 W or more, so this works, while USB-A at about 4.5 W does not. Setup is two cables: USB-C power and Ethernet from the router's LAN port to the mini PC.
• Configuration takes only a few steps, and internet is optional. The admin portal is at 192.168.8.1, where you set an admin password and separate 2.4 and 5 GHz SSIDs. The host used repeater mode on his T-Mobile Home Internet for internet access, but says the network can run completely offline for local clients.
• Reserve Nomad's IP so clients can always find it. With a reserved address, clients reach Nomad at 192.168.8.149:8080 in the host's setup, or by its hostname on port 8080 ("Nomad5:8080"), which is easier for connecting devices.

2026-03-31 · open the original ↗

• A cheap unmanaged PoE switch can power a rooftop 5G router. The TP-Link Omada DS106GPP costs about $80 and is a six-port gigabit switch with three PoE+ ports and one PoE++ port. For an upcoming install, the host plans to run one cable from its PoE++ port to a Peplink Max BR1 Pro 5G mounted inside an Antenna Max on the roof, so there is no cable run or signal loss between router and antenna. That leaves three PoE+ ports for access points.
• The host sees no need for a managed switch on a flat network. He calls it ideal for a small office using Peplink 5G (a line his firm's store sells), and also for a site with a few cameras, where the PoE++ port could power a larger PTZ camera.

2026-03-27 · open the original ↗

• UniFi work lives mostly at OSI layers two and three. In this free preview module of the paid UniFi Network Masterclass, co-presented with Dave Barger, layer two is described as switching and MAC addresses and layer three as routing and IP addresses. A layer-three switch can route between VLANs itself instead of sending packets back to the firewall. A Crosstalk engineer adds that a switch's on-board ASIC handles traffic far more efficiently than a router, at over 100 Gbps.
• Randomized MAC addresses break MAC-based rules. The first half of a MAC address is the manufacturer's OUI, which is how UniFi labels a device as Apple, Google or Ubiquiti. The second half is unique to the device. iPhones and similar devices generate random MACs on Wi-Fi, and the presenters say the only workaround is an organization-level MDM that turns the feature off.
• Use a subnet calculator rather than binary arithmetic. The host says he has converted IP addresses to binary once, in a networking class, in a 20-plus-year career. The presenters recommend the davidc.net calculator for splitting and rejoining subnets. A /24 gives 254 usable addresses and is the default on almost every router. A /29 is what an ISP such as Comcast hands out for five static IPs: its gateway plus five usable addresses. A /32 is a single host.
• Avoid the most common private subnets on the LAN. Of the RFC 1918 private ranges (10.0.0.0/8, 172.16.0.0/12, 192.168.0.0/16), Crosstalk avoids 192.168.0.x and 192.168.1.x because they are so common that they collide with site-to-site VPNs. The host notes that a Starlink outside the firewall uses 192.168.1.x, so the same subnet inside leaves the firewall unable to route. Rogue Support has fielded "my Starlink isn't working" calls that came down to exactly this.
• Never use public IP ranges on the LAN side. A Crosstalk engineer warns that some enterprise routers allow non-RFC 1918 LAN addresses. The example given: if you use Netflix's public IP range internally, Netflix stops working because the router thinks Netflix lives behind it. The module closes on DHCP and DNS as the services touched on every network, with DNS the usual culprit when something on the internet is unreachable.

2026-03-23 · open the original ↗

• Project Nomad supports only x86 bare-metal installs for now. Raspberry Pi and other ARM devices, VMs and hypervisors such as Proxmox, WSL 2 and macOS are unsupported. The host says some users have made those work, but they are on their own, and he points Pi users to the Internet in a Box project instead. An old PC works fine as an information store, but its AI performance will be poor. The free, open-source project is Crosstalk's own, and he says it currently costs him about $1,000 a month in hosting and development.
• The base OS should be the stable Ubuntu LTS release. The host uses Ubuntu 24.04 LTS, not the newer 25.10. Desktop or Server both work; the host uses Desktop as friendlier for Windows and Mac users. The install image is almost 6 GB. He writes it to USB with Rufus, moves the USB stick ahead of Windows in the BIOS boot order, and erases the whole disk. After updating, SSH is optional. The one-command installer from the GitHub page also installs curl, finishes in about a minute, and serves the dashboard on port 8080. It was version 1.30.1 as of recording.
• A modest disk holds everything worth downloading. In the host's experience a 1 TB disk is enough for all of Wikipedia with pictures (about 100 GB) and all of Khan Academy. The setup wizard installs the Kiwix information library, Kolibri education and an Ollama-based AI assistant. It offers essential, standard and comprehensive content tiers that can be changed later, and offline map regions (Pacific Northwest plus Hawaii was about 3 GB). One pitfall: AI model downloads queued before Ollama is installed fail, so dismiss them and add models afterwards.
• Without a GPU, AI answers on a mid-range mini PC are slow. On a Minisforum MS-01 with a Core i9-13900H and no GPU, a simple question took about 30 seconds before the answer started. The host calls that usable but not spectacular. The built-in benchmark scored the machine 69.6, which he calls middle of the road, against leaderboard entries of 100. Maps cover only the US so far; international maps are in progress.

2026-03-17 · open the original ↗

• Powering a Starlink Mini from the UCG-Industrial isn't worth it. The host bought the gateway himself for over $600 with shipping, and says he has left the Ubiquiti creator program, so Ubiquiti no longer previews his videos. He says the feature adds about $85 and a more complicated setup than the Mini's own power cord plus a separate data cable. He sees it paying off only in a small share of deployments, such as a single Ethernet run to a weatherproof rooftop enclosure. He uses separate 50-ft power and data cables in his own RV.
• Only the Starlink Mini works, and it needs a PoE splitter. The Mini is the only dish with separate power and data inputs; the other dishes use a proprietary PoE cable from their own router. The host used a roughly $65 gigabit PoE splitter with 24 V output and a $17, 3-ft, 12-gauge Starlink power cable. He advises against 12 V splitters because the Mini needs 12–56 V and a long cable drops voltage below its minimum. The setup worked, and UniFi showed obstructions, latency and firmware, but his splitter made a crackling noise.
• The hardware is solid and aimed at Peplink's market. The gateway is fanless and ruggedized with swappable end caps for mounting, but it has no ingress-protection rating, so it belongs indoors or in a NEMA enclosure (−30 to 50 °C). Ports: 10G SFP+ WAN, 10G RJ45 WAN with PoE+++, a 2.5G WAN/LAN combo and three 2.5G LAN, with two PoE+ and two PoE+++ ports at up to 90 W. Both the 54 V barrel and the 4-pin DC input remind the host of Peplink. The 3–4 lb power brick is a drawback.
• The host calls the microSD Protect storage and SIM slots strange. UniFi Protect on microSD is fine for one or two cameras but not for mission-critical surveillance, where he wants a real NVR. The SIM slots have no cellular radio and work only with the separately bought $400 UniFi 5G Max Outdoor. He would rather have had antenna connectors on the gateway itself.
• A non-industrial version should have come first. Echoing Jim the IT Guy, the host wants the same gateway in a business or home package at least $100 cheaper. The closest current model, the Dream Router 7, has a 10G SFP+ and a 2.5G WAN port with no PoE on either, and a single 15.4 W PoE LAN port.

2026-03-16 · open the original ↗

• The price of identical server hardware has soared in months. Crosstalk bought a customer a 1U Supermicro server with ECC RAM from Thinkmate in October 2025 for $5,800. When the customer asked for a matching unit for high availability, the new quote was over $20,000 for the same hardware about six months later, almost a fourfold increase. The host gives no cause for the increase.
• The rise is pushing Crosstalk to rethink the customer's redundancy. The host says they should have bought the second server when the project was built. Instead of the identical HA unit, they will propose another way to give the customer redundancy.

2026-03-12 · open the original ↗

• Project Nomad is a free offline knowledge server with local AI. Built at Crosstalk, it is open source under Apache 2.0, with no paid tiers, subscriptions, accounts or telemetry. The host says he and a developer have worked on it for over a year and that it is not vibe coded. He contrasts it with Raspberry Pi survival boxes such as Prepper Disk and Doom Box, which cost $150–700, and says Nomad does more for free on hardware you already own.
• AI quality depends on RAM and a decent GPU. Nomad runs on any Ubuntu or Debian machine. The host recommends an Nvidia RTX 3060 or better, though it runs more slowly without a GPU. He claims GPU inference reaches hundreds of tokens per second. On his Minisforum MS-02 Ultra with an RTX 5060, models of 7–10 billion parameters run almost as fast as ChatGPT, and up to about 30 billion run but get sluggish. Models up to 70 billion are offered for bigger hardware.
• It bundles library, documents, maps and courses into Docker containers. The Kiwix library holds Wikipedia (almost 100 GB with pictures), Project Gutenberg, medical references and survival guides, in essential, standard and comprehensive tiers. A knowledge base indexes uploaded PDFs and text for retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) with cited sources. Offline OpenStreetMap maps, Kolibri with Khan Academy as a K–12 curriculum, CyberChef and FlatNotes are included. Containers give clean upgrades and rollbacks.
• Setup is a single command plus a browser wizard. The host puts it at about 10–15 minutes, excluding content downloads. The script installs Docker, the database and the web interface, served on port 8080, and a wizard picks the content. A benchmark produces a "Nomad score" for a community leaderboard; the host says he led it at 90.2 at the time. Planned features include a family food-storage planner and an entertainment collection.

2026-03-02 · open the original ↗

• Built-in cellular removes the network as a KVM's single point of failure. GL.iNet's Comet 5G adds 5G RedCap failover to a KVM-over-IP. It prefers Ethernet, then Wi-Fi 6, then cellular. The host sees three uses: reaching a server when the network itself is down; air-gapped servers, or sites whose policies bar third-party devices on the network, reached over 5G with Tailscale; and mobile deployments, live events and remote sites. Initial setup cannot be done over 5G and needs Ethernet or Wi-Fi.
• It shares the Comet Pro's internals and adds a touchscreen. Specs: 4K HDMI passthrough, gigabit Ethernet, USB-C power, USB-C keyboard and mouse emulation, and a USB-A port for accessories such as the Fingerbot, which presses a server's power button. The touchscreen is 3.69 inches. Inside are a quad-core Cortex-A53, 1 GB DDR3 and 64 GB eMMC for file transfer. The Wi-Fi antennas double as the 5G antennas.
• It is designed for RedCap SIMs, not unlimited plans. RedCap is a reduced-capability 5G for IoT and mid-tier devices: faster than Cat-4 LTE and lower-power than full 5G. The host says AT&T and T-Mobile have rolled it out nationwide. He tested with a Crosstalk Mobile Unlimited SIM, his firm's own product, while calling unlimited data way overkill for a KVM. Remote access is via Tailscale or GL.iNet's KVM Cloud; GL.iNet told him native ZeroTier is on the roadmap.
• The KVM failed over even when the outage was upstream. Pulling its Ethernet cable switched it to the SIM's IP almost immediately, and it reverted when plugged back in. In the test the host says matters, he disconnected an upstream switch so the KVM's link stayed up. The server lost internet (its persistent ping stopped), but the KVM still failed over, and he kept control of the server over Tailscale via 5G.
• The host calls it a no-brainer for mission-critical remote KVM. He knows of no other KVM with built-in 5G RedCap failover, and says USB-modem workarounds add complexity and failure points. Shipping was set for early March 2026 at an MSRP of $299. As of recording, early-bird pricing was $219 and standard pre-order pricing $239. The video makes no sponsorship disclosure.

2026-02-19 · open the original ↗

• Docker is the host's recommended way to run his UI Toolkit. The toolkit is his own open-source companion app for UniFi Network (github.com/crosstalksolutions/unifi-toolkit); Docker also makes updates easiest, which matters because new versions were shipping almost daily as he fixed bugs. It also runs under Docker Desktop on Windows, Synology Container Manager, QNAP (user-written instructions) or plain Python.
• Choose local mode unless the controller is hosted remotely. After git clone and ./setup.sh, local mode serves plain HTTP on port 8000 for a UniFi gateway, Cloud Key or UniFi OS Server on the same LAN. Production mode, for cloud-hosted UniFi OS Server or hosted UniFi Network, adds a Caddy container proxying HTTPS 443 to port 8000 with a Let's Encrypt certificate, and needs a fully qualified domain name.
• The local install has no authentication, so restrict who can reach it. The host warns that anyone reaching it can block and unblock devices and rename them in UniFi. Only the production version adds authentication; he says to use it wherever unwanted access is possible.
• Connect with a UniFi API key, not admin credentials. Keys are created under Integrations, which the host thinks moved to its own left-hand menu item as of UniFi version 10 (older versions: Settings, Control Plane, Integrations tab). Username and password login remains only for legacy versions that cannot generate a key.
• Wi-Fi Stalker needs MAC randomization disabled on iPhones. Otherwise the tracked address changes; the tool tracks chosen clients' connection status, favourite access point, dwell time per AP and a presence pattern, with webhooks to Slack, Discord, n8n or generic endpoints. Threat Watch shows IDS/IPS events, and Network Pulse is a full-screen health dashboard the host thinks refreshes every 60 seconds.

2026-02-18 · open the original ↗

• The host expects the Mudi 7 to dominate the travel-router market. It was in pre-order at recording and he did not yet own one, having handled one at CES; its listed specs are dual 5G SIMs (physical or eSIM), tri-band Wi-Fi 7, a 2.8-inch touchscreen, a battery rated at 13 hours and one 2.5 Gbps LAN/WAN Ethernet port.
• The battery makes it somewhat hefty. The host still judged the form factor good from his hands-on time at CES.

2026-02-16 · open the original ↗

• Crosstalk's paid UniFi Network Masterclass targets MSPs and IT professionals. Built by the host and Crosstalk network expert David Barger, it is pitched as full understanding of UniFi from their own client deployments, rather than settings copied from a random YouTube video, for people deploying UniFi for clients or their own organizations.
• The course runs from fundamentals to firewall rules, VLANs and VPNs. It covers the OSI model and LAN versus WAN, deployment planning and job scoping, choice of gateways, switches and access points, then hands-on adoption, network, switch, AP and Wi-Fi setup, ending with the topics the host says trip people up most.
• The full course is a one-time purchase after three free modules. The free modules total about 40 minutes. The full course costs $199 with the company's coupon code, with lifetime access and a certificate of completion.

2026-02-11 · open the original ↗

• The host built the UI Toolkit to surface data UniFi buries. It is his own free, self-hosted, containerized companion app for UniFi Network, with Docker and Synology Container Manager versions on GitHub; he asks for testing, bug reports and tool suggestions via the GitHub issues page.
• Wi-Fi Stalker tracks chosen clients' presence and roaming between access points. It shows a historical presence pattern and can push real-time webhooks to Discord, Slack or other apps; the host pitches it for seeing when kids get home or how long employees were out at lunch.
• Threat Watch and Network Pulse replace dashboards UniFi lacks. Threat Watch displays intrusion-detection events; Network Pulse is a full-screen view of client and device counts, throughput, Wi-Fi data and top wireless clients by bandwidth, which the host says is what he wishes UniFi's widgets could build.
• A local LAN version and a public-hosting version exist. Only the public one adds authentication and a Let's Encrypt certificate. Both connect via a UniFi API key generated in the control plane, or username and password for legacy installations.

2026-02-09 · open the original ↗

• Starlink's new privacy policy opts customers into AI training by default. The host reports the change was made on January 15th and covers third parties too; the data collected includes location, payment info, IP address and a broadly worded "communication data" category he reads as potentially anything sent or received over Starlink.
• The host links the timing to SpaceX's acquisition of xAI. He calls xAI, Elon Musk's AI company behind Grok, the largest acquisition of all time; the connection between the two is his inference.
• The opt-out covers only third-party sharing, not Starlink's own training. The setting is at starlink.com under Account, Settings, Privacy Preferences (or in the app): uncheck "allow use of your data to train AI models". A separate clause lets Starlink, and so xAI, train its own models with no opt-out; the host still strongly recommends opting out now.

2026-02-03 · open the original ↗

• BitChat messages nearby phones over Bluetooth with no network at all. The free iOS and Android app, created by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, needs no account or phone number, is anonymous by default and end-to-end encrypted; the host demonstrated iPhone-to-Android text with Wi-Fi and cellular off, and it also sends pictures and voice notes.
• Mesh relaying extends range beyond one Bluetooth hop. Messages hop, still encrypted, through other BitChat users' phones, so coverage grows with local users; the host likens it to Meshtastic without the electronics. Location channels offer neighborhood, city and region scopes.
• The host sees it as a fallback where cell service fails. He cites crowded festivals and stadiums, CES in Las Vegas where he could barely send a text, flights, power or internet outages, and conversations that should avoid a server. Triple-tapping the logo ("panic mode") clears all conversations.

2026-01-28 · open the original ↗

• The Minisforum MS-02 Ultra's standout feature is its networking. It has dual 25 Gbps SFP28 ports plus 10 Gbps and 2.5 Gbps RJ45 Ethernet, built-in Wi-Fi 7, USB4 v2 and an internal 350 W power supply, so no external brick. The host, unboxing his own unit after first seeing it at CES, pitches it as a home-lab server or compact workstation.
• It is twice as thick as the MS-01 to fit a GPU. Inside is a PCIe 5.0 x16 slot that takes a dual-slot low-profile card, such as the Gigabyte RTX 5060 OC low-profile, with an 8-pin power connector on the board. It measures about 9 x 9 x 4 in, and the shell comes off with two thumbscrews.
• The top configuration is a 24-core Intel Core Ultra 9 285HX. It also has an NPU for AI workloads. RAM goes up to 256 GB across four SO-DIMM slots, with ECC on the 285HX model, and four M.2 slots allow up to 16 TB with RAID. The 285HX base model starts around $1,160 barebones, or just under $1,600 with 32 GB RAM and a 1 TB NVMe.

2026-01-26 · open the original ↗

• LoRaWAN had a bigger presence at CES 2026 than the host had ever seen. He walks walls of LoRaWAN sensors covering occupancy, leak, flood and CO2 detection, smart radiator thermostats, dry switches, valves, microclimate controllers, and personnel tags working over GPS or BLE, plus a wristband wearable for tracking employees.
• Sensor readings can be shown on PoE- or battery-powered e-ink displays. The demo showed environmental monitoring and patient vital signs, with up to a year per battery charge claimed. One vendor also showed an all-in-one off-grid solar Meshtastic kit, with panel, battery box, radio compartment and a top-mounted antenna.

2026-01-23 · open the original ↗

• The host's UCG-Fiber failed in software while still passing traffic. Starting in November 2025 it dropped off the UniFi cloud site manager (unifi.ui.com), and firmware updates, power cycles and toggling cloud access did not fix it. Later the local interface slowed, froze, and restarted UniFi Network on its own. He does not think heat was the cause.
• He links the failure to an early-release review unit. Ubiquiti sent him the original free for review, and it died less than a year in, which he thinks the early-release build may explain. He bought the replacement himself for just over $300 with shipping, choosing the model with no onboard storage because a separate UNVR handles Protect.
• A backup taken from the failing gateway restored nothing useful. It reported success after about 5 minutes but left the default 192.168.1.0/24 network instead of his 192.168.200.0/24, with no networks, Wi-Fi or adopted devices. It also showed an impossible backup date of March 6, 2121.
• The older cloud backup from November 11, 2025 restored correctly. That brought back the right subnet, the WAN IP and all his UniFi devices. The cost is that any changes he made since November must be remembered and re-applied. He then updated UniFi OS and UniFi Network before moving the gateway into the rack.
• A new gateway brings a new MAC address, which may need an ISP modem reboot. Where the WAN uses DHCP, the ISP's lease can be tied to the old MAC. He did not need to reboot his Comcast modem, probably because he has a static IP. He says a like-for-like swap is easy, but moving to a different gateway, such as a rack-mount model, may need extra steps.

2026-01-14 · open the original ↗

• The host expects the MS-02 Ultra to suit local LLM work. It pairs an Intel Core Ultra 9 285HX with integrated graphics, and a small add-in graphics card can go inside, such as the AMD Radeon on display. He believes it is available now and has one on order.
• Minisforum is showing a NAS due around mid-2026. It takes up to an AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395 and 128 GB RAM, with lockable 3.5 in or 2.5 in drive bays and a metal case. It has a pull-out internal power supply, so no external brick, plus 10 Gbps RJ45 Ethernet, 2.5 Gbps ports and Thunderbolt 5.
• The DEG2 dock runs a full-size GPU for a mini PC. It connects over Thunderbolt 5, includes a 650 W power supply and an extra M.2 slot, and the host believes it also feeds some power back to the PC. He says it is available now at around $240.

2026-01-12 · open the original ↗

• The Flint 4 adds a touchscreen and a lot of wired ports. It is a tri-band Wi-Fi 7 router with MLO, and its WAN ports are 10 Gbps SFP, 10 Gbps RJ45 and 2.5 Gbps RJ45. On the LAN side it has three 2.5 Gbps ports and four 1 Gbps ports.
• The Slate 7 Pro moves the Slate 7 travel router to tri-band. It covers 2.4, 5 and 6 GHz with MLO across all three, and has 8 GB of internal storage for files, which the host likens to a small NAS. It should be available in late Q1 or early Q2 2026.
• The Beryl 7 brings Wi-Fi 7 to the tiny Beryl AX form factor. It has one 2.5 Gbps WAN port and one 2.5 Gbps LAN port, takes USB-C power, and has a USB port for accessories such as a 5G modem. The host used the Beryl AX for years before moving to the Slate 7 and plans to look at this once it ships.
• The Mudi 7 is the device the host is most excited about. It is a thin 5G travel router with tri-band Wi-Fi 7, dual 5G SIM slots under the battery plus eSIM, a 2.5 Gbps Ethernet WAN port, repeater mode and a touchscreen.
• The Comet 5G is a remote KVM that works over cellular. It is aimed at remote sites that have 5G coverage but no other internet. It has Wi-Fi 6, 64 GB of eMMC, HDMI in and out for pass-through like the Comet Pro, USB-C for keyboard and mouse, and wired Ethernet.

2025-12-31 · open the original ↗

• No text was available for this short. The transcript file for this 14-second video is empty, so there is nothing from it to summarize.

2025-12-23 · open the original ↗

• The FCC has barred sales of new foreign-made drones, DJI included. The host reports that as of December 23rd, 2025 the FCC added all foreign-made drones to its Covered List, alongside Huawei, Dahua and Kaspersky; retailers may still sell models approved this year until that inventory runs out.
• The host sees the ban as resting on no public evidence. He compares it to the looming TP-Link ban: generic national-security claims of surveillance and data exfiltration. DJI, he reports, called the move disappointing and says it asked for security audits three times this year without any agency responding.
• Existing DJI drones still fly, but their software support is in doubt. The host finds no restriction on drones already in the US, but asks why DJI would keep updating software that checks in with the FAA for airspace warnings and flight limits once it cannot sell here.
• He expects consumer drones to get far more expensive. His advice is to buy now if planning to; few US-made drones are on sale today, and he predicts US companies will enter the market and the used-DJI market will "explode".

2025-12-23 · open the original ↗

• The discontinued UniFi US-8-150W switch is worth hunting down. The host calls his near-new unit his last one: 8 ports and 150 W, where each port can run either 802.3at PoE or 24 V passive PoE, a choice current UniFi switches no longer offer.
• Older UniFi gear still runs well under a current controller. For unannounced software testing he runs a Cloud Key Gen2 Plus on UniFi OS with a U6 Lite, the switch and a UXG-Lite gateway, plus a Minisforum MS-01 as the server; he prefers the U6 Plus to the U6 Lite today.

2025-12-16 · open the original ↗

• n8n automatically restarts his UniFi OS Server when its CPU locks up. The server hangs every four or five days. Uptime Robot detects the outage and sends a webhook, which is rate-limited to one run per 10 minutes. n8n then SSHes in with a private key, as a service user allowed sudo only for the UOS commands, to stop, start and status-check the services, and logs each run to Google Sheets.
• A RAG workflow suggests answers to new support tickets. At Rogue Support, technicians paste a ticket into a Cloudflare Pages form. A webhook passes it to an AI agent (ChatGPT) backed by a vector database of hundreds of past tickets, which returns questions to ask, a likely fix, a time estimate and gotchas in about 15–20 seconds.
• An LLM résumé scorer took 2 hours to build. It drops international applicants, then scores each candidate out of 100 on customer service, résumé, stated knowledge and availability. It writes Google Doc summaries for those scoring 81–100; in the latest hiring round it cut over 50 résumés to the top 15.
• His most complex workflow filters RSS news into Discord. Every 6 hours a parent workflow loops through feeds listed in a Google Sheet. A child workflow has Anthropic's model score each new article 1–5 against his topics (cybersecurity, networking, VoIP, AI) and posts those scoring 4–5 to Discord with a category, link and bullet summary.
• n8n is free, self-hosted in Docker, and LAN-only by default. His runs in Container Manager on a Synology NAS, reached over HTTP on port 5678. For internet access he suggests a Caddy plus Let's Encrypt proxy, a DigitalOcean one-click install, or, as he uses, Cloudflare Tunnels. He also recommends n8n's roughly two-hour YouTube course and leaning on Claude or Gemini to debug nodes.

2025-12-11 · open the original ↗

• No public evidence shows TP-Link spying or shipping backdoors. The host, who says TP-Link has sponsored past videos but not this one, reports that Commerce, DOJ, Defense and Homeland Security have investigated since late 2024. Commerce finished a risk assessment in October 2025 recommending a ban, but its findings are unpublished. TP-Link calls the claims false, citing its Irvine-based US entity and its move of manufacturing to Vietnam in 2018.
• The hacks blamed on TP-Link mostly weren't about TP-Link. The probe followed an August 2024 House Select Committee on China letter. Salt Typhoon mainly hit Cisco telecom gear, while Volt and Flax Typhoon hit many brands. The Quad7 botnet did exploit TP-Link router vulnerabilities, which the host stresses is a hack, not TP-Link cooperating with Beijing.
• The widely cited 65% market share is inflated. TP-Link says the Wall Street Journal figure had no source. The host cites 2024 Circana data giving it 36.6% of US retail router sales, and under 10% once ISP-supplied routers are counted. Independent vulnerability databases, he says, put TP-Link in line with the industry.
• The host reads the case as partly political and economic. He notes parallel criminal and civil DOJ antitrust probes over below-cost pricing, and could find no recent criminal predatory-pricing case. He also points to selective enforcement, since iPhones are made in China, and to Dark Reading's "mostly about politics" view. He grants that Chinese law can compel cooperation, and that ICTS rules permit a ban on risk alone, as with Huawei and Kaspersky.
• Don't discard TP-Link gear; harden whatever router you run. There is no final determination; on Kaspersky's precedent he expects a ban to stop new sales but probably spare existing gear. He advises current firmware, no remote GUI access, changed default passwords, VLAN segmentation and replacing end-of-life routers. An IT manager, he says, might still hold off buying because of the business risk of a ban.

2025-12-10 · open the original ↗

• Ubiquiti's holiday sale discounts current gear, unlike its Black Friday clearance. The host lists U7 Pro, Pro Wall and Pro Outdoor access points at 17–21% off and the Dream Machine and Dream Machine SE at about 20% off. He compiled the deals on a reference page at crosstalksolutions.com, his firm's own site.
• The 62%-off Gateway Lite needs a separate controller. He calls it the steepest discount and a good way to learn UniFi, but it has no UniFi OS on board. He pairs it with a Cloud Key Gen2 Plus, itself 36% off.

2025-12-05 · open the original ↗

• The host revived his idle Dream Wall to test unannounced software. He says the office-mounted UniFi Dream Wall had not been on since about March or April 2023. He needed several gateways for the testing, which he promises to detail soon.

2025-12-03 · open the original ↗

• Passive PoE sends power without negotiation, so it can fry devices. Standard PoE (802.3af, 802.3at PoE+, 802.3bt PoE++) has the device and switch agree on power and supplies none to non-PoE devices. Passive PoE keeps voltage on the line constantly, so plugging in something like an Ethernet tester could destroy it.
• Passive PoE survives mainly in older wireless-ISP gear. The host says it predates the standard and mostly powered point-to-point and point-to-multipoint antennas. Ubiquiti's discontinued 8-port 150 W UniFi switch let each port be set to standard PoE or 24 V passive, which he says he loved.

2025-11-26 · open the original ↗

• WSL installs a full Linux environment with one PowerShell command. Running wsl --install and following the prompts for a username and password installs Ubuntu by default; wsl --list --online shows the alternatives, such as Debian, Kali and Alpine, and typing wsl or launching Ubuntu from Start gets back in.
• Files cross both ways and the distro updates like normal Ubuntu. Linux files appear in Windows Explorer under Linux, Windows drives are mounted at /mnt/c inside Linux, and updates are sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y.
• The host calls WSL a first install for Windows IT work. He points to native Docker (Docker Desktop for Windows itself runs on WSL 2), Tailscale inside WSL for remote access, testing Linux scripts without a second machine, and command-line AI tools such as Claude Code, which is what he uses it for.

2025-11-25 · open the original ↗

• Sangoma now charges separately for FreePBX single sign-on. Its new SAML module lets FreePBX users log in with Google or Microsoft accounts, inheriting their provider's multifactor authentication and centralized user management, and costs $500 a year for up to 20 users or $1,000 a year for up to 100 users.
• The host calls paid SSO "absolutely ridiculous" for basic security. He argues SSO belongs in the core product, or at least in the existing paid Sysadmin Pro module that already covers update management and VPN connectivity, not in a separate subscription.
• Crosstalk is not recommending the module to its customers. The host makes an exception only for a very specific business requirement, says the cost does not justify the convenience, and suggests Sangoma sell FreePBX if, after more than a decade of owning it, it cannot monetize it properly.

2025-11-21 · open the original ↗

• The host rates the discounted Wi-Fi 5 access points the best value. The UAP HD is down from $349 MSRP to $89, almost 75% off; the Nano HD and Flex HD are $69 each, about 61.5% off; the AC Pro is 40% off. He calls them rock-solid devices Crosstalk sold to many customers.
• The U6+ is his pick for home Wi-Fi 6. At $99 it is about 23% off MSRP, and he suggests buying a couple for a home network.
• The UXG Lite is the gateway bargain, with a management caveat. At $49 it is 62% off MSRP, but it has no UniFi Network application on board, so it needs a separate UniFi OS console or Cloud Key.
• Buy the UCG Max with storage rather than without. The 512 GB Protect-storage version is $179, almost 36% off, and only $20 more than the storage-less one, which he says is about what the SSD tray accessory costs anyway; the UDR7 is the weakest deal, about 18% ($50) off, at $229.
• Switches and Protect cameras carry solid but smaller discounts. Three USW Enterprise switches are 25–37% off, the outdoor-rated EdgePoint S16 with PoE is almost 50% off at $299, the G5 Pro camera is $199 (almost half off) and the G5 PTZ is $229 (about 23% off).

2025-11-20 · open the original ↗

• Rogue Support is hiring networking technicians to clear a ticket backlog. The host says customer tickets on Wi-Fi, security and remote access are arriving faster than the service can answer; techs get a base rate that rises with volume and reputation, plus direct tips and rehires, and at least five more are to be brought on by the end of the year.

2025-11-18 · open the original ↗

• Unshielded Cat 6 is fine for almost every home and office. The host puts it at 99% of cases, saying even runs past electrical panels or access points at home will probably see no interference; shielding, a foil or braid around the four twisted pairs against EMI, matters in factories with heavy motors, server rooms and data centers, and near radio transmitters or medical equipment such as an MRI lab.
• Shielded cable is wasted without shielded connectors and proper grounding. It needs shielded RJ45 connectors and grounded equipment at both ends, and the host's bottom line is to use it only in those environments or where interference has actually been measured.
• Shielding costs more and is harder to work with. He puts the premium at 30–40%: at TrueCable, his preferred supplier, 1,000 ft of unshielded Cat 6 is $145 against just over $200 shielded, and the thicker, stiffer cable gave TechnoTim trouble on their ghost town install.

2025-11-16 · open the original ↗

• Starlink warned old-dish owners to update or be bricked. The host reports an email from Starlink saying his Gen 1 dish had to be plugged in and allowed to update by November 17th or it would essentially stop working; the app showed "update required" and said the download would happen within 24 hours, with an automatic reboot if finished before 3:00 a.m.
• The update itself was quick and needed no active service. The host's unused dish finished within about an hour, after which the app showed service inactive, offering reactivation or standby mode for $5 a month; he boxed it back up and asked what Gen 1 dishes fetch secondhand.

2025-11-12 · open the original ↗

• A wireless bridge beat fiber for a friend's Airbnb back house. At the property, in Los Angeles, fiber to the back house would have meant a run of over 200 ft and boring under a concrete walkway: an 811 utility-marking call, digging, renting a horizontal borer or auger, conduit, pulling and cleanup, taking days, with gas-line risk and lost Airbnb revenue while the network was down.
• Equipment cost is similar; labor and rentals decide it. The host says the bridge installed in hours, was cheaper overall and delivered a solid 300 Mbps across the property, arguing a properly dialed-in wireless bridge can be as reliable as a hardwired link.

2025-11-05 · open the original ↗

• One enclosure houses a Starlink Mini and a mobile Peplink router. Shown at the Peplink Tech Summit in Orlando, the Antenna Max S includes a PoE splitter powering both from a single cable and built-in cellular antennas for the Peplink, and can be mounted on an RV or mobile command center or deployed in the field; the host, whose store sells Peplink, pitches it as "the product for you".

2025-10-24 · open the original ↗

• The host chose the DeskPi RackMate for his 10-inch studio rack. He picked the 8U model after research; it lists at $119 MSRP in black or silver, with a 4U version and accessories, and he says the video is not sponsored and he bought it himself, though he adds an affiliate link.
• Assembly was easy and the kit complete. He reports it took under 30 minutes with clear instructions, and that it ships with a shelf plus a separate shelf for single-board computers such as Raspberry Pis; he 3D-printed a mount for his Comet PoE KVM and plans to move his studio network into it later.

2025-10-23 · open the original ↗

• Hamina is the professional sweet spot between free tools and Ekahau. The host prices a Nomad survey device at about $1,700 plus $2,340 a year for the Planner Plus and Onsite licence, just over $4,000 the first year; the equivalent Ekahau setup is well over $10,000 (Sidekick 2 about $5,000, licence $5,500, renewals near $2,000 a year). The video is not sponsored, but Hamina gave him the licence free.
• UniFi's free Design Center only suits all-UniFi jobs. Hamina covers dozens of manufacturers and hundreds of access point models (Cisco, Ruckus, TP-Link) and ties in with on-site survey data; a limited free Planner Lite exists. He says it is a tool for professional work, not for planning a home network.
• Floor-plan import auto-detects walls, doors and materials. On a sample floor plan from the TV show The Office, it auto-scaled the plan and found drywall, heavy drywall, wooden doors and an elevator, viewable in 3D; walls can also be drawn by hand from a material library with per-band attenuation values.
• The AI auto-planner overplaced APs but handled 2.4 GHz sensibly. Using TP-Link EAP653 Wi-Fi 6 units, it placed too many access points for the host's taste and he cut them to two, but it had disabled 2.4 GHz on about half and spread the rest across channels 1, 6 and 11. A client simulator shows band changes and roaming as a device walks the floor, and multi-floor layouts account for bleed between floors.
• It also plans cabling and produces a customer-facing bill of materials. He added two 48-port switches with 500 W PoE budgets, an ER707-M2 router (four ports, no PoE), cameras at entrances, PCs and a phone at every desk (he likes two drops per desk); cable trays tidied the runs, the bill of materials showed over 2,500 ft of Ethernet, and customers get a branded live link showing coverage.

2025-10-21 · open the original ↗

• Walking into local businesses won the host more customers than advertising. Before YouTube he tried Google ads, Craigslist and newspaper ads without success; handing out cards in person (a goal of five a day) worked best. He advises listening for pain points rather than pitching, and targeting locally owned businesses, since chains like Walmart or Starbucks have central IT.
• A free wireless survey is the best foot in the door. He suggests leaving a one-page flyer offering a free service, with a survey favoured because it is quick and visual; NetSpot Pro costs $199, or Hamina Onsite for more advanced work. Follow up with a recap email within 24 hours, then send a short proposal restating their problems, with a simple diagram but not enough detail to do it themselves.
• A Wi-Fi 7 Omada restaurant build yields over $300 hardware margin. The video is sponsored by TP-Link. His design uses two EAP772 and one EAP772 Outdoor access points, an ER707-M2 router, a 24-port 2.5 Gbps PoE switch with a 500 W budget and an OC220 controller, with separate VLANs for POS and guests; about $1,520 at MSRP against $1,216 at Elite tier (20% off). He notes the upcoming EAP725 Outdoor (November) would be cheaper for the patio.
• Standardizing on one vendor makes cookie-cutter budget builds profitable. A Wi-Fi 6 gigabit version (ER605, SG2428LP with 16 PoE ports, EAP653 and EAP610 Outdoor, Omada cloud controller) costs the customer about $640 with over $125 margin. He argues one ecosystem means faster setup, shared spares across clients, and that Omada is cheaper than brands with ongoing licence fees.
• Omada partner discounts climb from 10% to 20% by quarterly volume. Authorized distributors give 10% off MSRP; Elite tier adds another 10%, and deal registration allows custom pricing on large bids. TP-Link is offering its Wi-Fi 7 demo kit (ER707-M2, two EAP723s, a 10-port PoE switch, OC220) at 50% off, just under $250.

2025-10-07 · open the original ↗

• Tmate grants temporary remote terminal access without opening ports or accounts. Opening SSH, adding VPN or Tailscale access, or creating a user all risk being left in place afterwards. The host learned of tmate when Glenn R, a Ubiquiti employee whose UniFi OS update scripts he recommends, had him install it to troubleshoot a UniFi OS Server upgrade.
• Tmux underpins it: persistent sessions that survive an SSH disconnect. On Ubuntu 25.04 he shows Ctrl-B then D to detach, tmux ls to list, tmux attach -t 0 to reattach, Ctrl-B C for a new window, Ctrl-B comma to rename and Ctrl-B plus a number to switch windows.
• Tmate proxies a tmux session through tmate.io and prints shareable links. Installed with sudo apt install tmate -y, it gives read-only and read-write URLs for SSH and web; everyone connected sees the same input and output, so a client watches every command. It is open source, end-to-end encrypted per the host, self-hostable, and exit ends the session.
• Use the SSH links; the browser links failed. The host's web-session URLs returned 503 Service Unavailable, which he found to be a common complaint online, while SSH worked from Linux and from Windows Command Prompt or PowerShell. tmate show-messages reprints the links if you missed them.

2025-10-03 · open the original ↗

• Ubiquiti's US store now adds tariff surcharges to some cameras. The host found it on specific models only: the G6 Turret carries $14.33, the AI Turret, G6 Dome and AI Dome are also charged, while the G6 Pro 360 and NVR Instant are not; his test cart totalled almost $100 extra.
• The host guesses surcharges track origin or stock, and will spread. He speculates they apply by country of manufacture, or that gear already stocked in the US is exempt; either way he expects more products to carry them as items are imported and restocked.

2025-10-02 · open the original ↗

• The U7 Pro XG comes in a factory black variant. The host, handling one for the first time, calls it gorgeous; the XG and XGS have a flat face, metal back and 10 Gbps networking. He prefers a factory finish to Ubiquiti's earlier coloured skins and paintable covers, or to his own Plasti Dip spray jobs.

2025-10-01 · open the original ↗

• The host rates GL.iNet's Comet KVMs solid and working as advertised. The video is sponsored by GL.iNet, whose routers he already uses. Prices: original Comet $90, Comet PoE $109, Comet Pro $159 MSRP, or $129 on Kickstarter with shipping from December; he uses them to reach servers at his two offices.
• The Comet PoE runs power and network over one cable. It has full-size HDMI, USB-C for keyboard and mouse, a USB 2 accessory port, optional USB-C power and 32 GB of eMMC storage for sharing files with the host machine.
• The Comet Pro sits inline with a desktop via 4K HDMI pass-through. It adds built-in Wi-Fi 6 so Ethernet is optional, two USB-C ports (KVM and power), 32 GB eMMC and a touchscreen for Wi-Fi settings, PIN lock, reboot and a clock. He pitches it for working remotely on a home PC.
• The Fingerbot and ATX board give remote power-button control. The Fingerbot is a USB-dongle-controlled robot finger; on his Minisforum box running Ubuntu, a short press suspends or wakes and an 8-second hold forces a hard shutdown. The ATX board passes through the motherboard's front-panel header instead.
• Tailscale integration is his favourite software feature. Binding the KVM joins it to your tailnet, and it can act as an exit node; GL.iNet also offers a free cloud portal at glkvm.com. The GUI adds TOTP two-factor login, a paste clipboard and virtual media, which Crosstalk uses to preload tools before shipping a Comet to a client site.

2025-09-18 · open the original ↗

• FreePBX 15 stops receiving any updates or security patches. Its end of life is October 1, 2025. It was released in 2019 on SNG7, Sangoma's fork of CentOS, which the host says stopped being a stable server base once CentOS moved to the continuously developed CentOS Stream.
• There is no direct upgrade path from 15 to 17. FreePBX 17 (2024) moved to Debian 12. As of recording, Sangoma's ISO install is in beta and Crosstalk's team doesn't use it yet. They install Debian 12 first and then run the FreePBX installer on top.
• Upgrading to FreePBX 16 only buys time. Version 16 keeps the existing server and is supported until January 1, 2027. But Sangoma's version table warns it "may reach end of life sooner" because its SNG7 base is already end of life.
• The host recommends rebuilding onto FreePBX 17 rather than stopping at 16. He says 17 and Debian 12 are supported well into 2028, and later upgrades won't need a rebuild. The path is to back up the 15 config, install Debian 12 and FreePBX 17 on a new server, bare metal or cloud, and restore. Crosstalk sells this migration, at a flat $699 through the end of September.
• Staying on 15 is a growing exploit risk. How much risk depends on the server's internet exposure. The host also says an end-of-life phone system won't pass audit or compliance testing in finance, healthcare or other regulated industries.

2025-09-16 · open the original ↗

• The host's development contractor is hiring a junior web developer. The role is remote, US-based and contract, for ongoing web development on Crosstalk projects. The host says Crosstalk itself is not the employer, and that they want someone as soon as possible because there is more development work than they can handle. Details are in the video's linked posting.

2025-09-16 · open the original ↗

• Uptime Kuma can only monitor what it can reach. An instance on an internet-hosted server cannot see devices behind your firewall. The host suggests running one instance outside to watch public services and another inside the LAN for the firewall, switches and access points.
• A small cloud droplet is enough for modest monitoring. The host uses DigitalOcean's marketplace "Docker on Ubuntu 22.04" image on the $6-a-month droplet, which he puts at roughly 20 or fewer monitors. Beyond that, size up for log files that grow over time, not for CPU. Create the DNS A record first (Cloudflare proxy off) so Let's Encrypt can issue a certificate.
• The one-line Docker install is fine only behind a firewall. It serves plain HTTP on port 3001. For an internet-facing instance, the host uses a Docker Compose file that pairs Uptime Kuma with a Caddy proxy, taking HTTPS on 443 to port 3001 and getting a Let's Encrypt certificate automatically. YAML spacing has to be exact.
• Monitors, groups, status pages and notifications come built in. Monitor types include HTTPS, ping (also useful against your own WAN IP to catch an internet outage), DNS, Docker, Steam, RADIUS and Microsoft SQL. Status pages can show certificate expiry and scheduled maintenance windows. A Discord webhook notification can be default-enabled for new monitors and applied to existing ones.
• Lock the droplet down with UFW before relying on it. The host allows SSH on port 22 only from his own WAN IP, and opens 80 (Let's Encrypt renewal) and 443 to everyone. He uses a root password for the demo but recommends an SSH key in production.

2025-09-15 · open the original ↗

• GL.iNet's Fingerbot physically presses a server's button from the KVM interface. It is an accessory for GL.iNet KVMs, shown with the Comet Pro, and links wirelessly through a USB dongle. The KVM's browser interface sets a light or firm press and how long to hold it.
• The host power-cycled a server remotely with it. An 8-second press shut down his Minisforum Ubuntu server, and a 0.5-second light press brought it back up. He notes he could then reach the BIOS through the KVM.

2025-09-11 · open the original ↗

• Crosstalk picked a monitor for its own new managed network service. It compared open-source Uptime Kuma with paid, cloud-hosted Uptime Robot and chose Uptime Robot. The service, which Crosstalk sells month to month with no contract, includes firmware updates, off-site backups and alerting at the low tier. Higher tiers add security checkups, rollover support time and external service monitoring.
• Uptime Kuma is free and feature-rich, but you host it. It runs in Docker and handles HTTP, TCP, ping, DNS, Steam and RADIUS monitors, many notification channels, and custom status pages with your own logo and CSS. The host sizes it at a 1 CPU, 1 GB DigitalOcean droplet ($6 a month), or 1 CPU, 2 GB, 50 GB ($12 a month) for larger installs.
• Missing users and permissions ruled out Uptime Kuma for Crosstalk. It has a single admin user with no roles. Its status pages are public and can't be password-protected, which rules out private per-customer pages. The host accepts an Apache or Nginx workaround is likely possible but wanted it out of the box.
• Uptime Robot's team plan costs $29 a month, billed annually. It adds password-protected custom status pages and needs no server upkeep. Its drawback is that it can't monitor internal resources that aren't exposed to the internet, which Uptime Kuma can from behind the firewall. A limited free plan and a cheaper solo plan also exist.
• The host recommends Uptime Kuma for DIY self-hosters, otherwise Uptime Robot. He calls Kuma more cost-effective if you don't mind the extra effort, and Robot better for zero setup and maintenance. He discloses an Uptime Robot referral link and says he has no other relationship with either project.

2025-09-10 · open the original ↗

• Crosstalk is holding a small, free in-person UniFi training. It is limited to 10 attendees and runs three hours from 3:00 p.m. Pacific on Tuesday, September 23, 2025, in Eugene, Oregon. It covers networking basics, the UniFi ecosystem and network design, then a full configuration: initial setup, Wi-Fi and guest networks, firewall rules, remote access and VPNs.

2025-09-08 · open the original ↗

• A forgotten DNS record let someone hijack Crosstalk's subdomain. The A record for crm.crosstalksolutions.com, a SuiteCRM server unused for years, still pointed at an old DigitalOcean IP. That IP had been reassigned, and the new holder redirected the subdomain to a porn site. The host calls this a dangling subdomain exploit: attackers spin up servers, then watch traffic or run reverse lookups to find domains still pointing at them.
• The attackers also tried to claim the subdomain in Google Search Console. Controlling where the subdomain pointed let them attempt HTML verification. Google emailed the host that two unknown users had been added. When he checked, neither user existed in the permissions and the ownership history showed no changes, so he concludes they never verified.
• The host's fix was to remove the record and reclaim the property. He deleted the stale A record, noting cached lookups take time to expire. He added the subdomain as a property under his already-verified root domain, restricted its users, and confirmed the IP wasn't one of his droplets or floating IPs. His lesson is to clean up stale DNS records.

2025-09-05 · open the original ↗

• Roaming problems can come from too many access points. A viewer reported roaming trouble with 20 UniFi U7 Pros in a large community space. Working only from that message, the host suggests mapping them in UniFi Design Center to check coverage overlap, and says removing some APs often improves the network.
• Clients choose their access point, so make the choice obvious. The phone picks the AP, not the other way around. Each area should have one clearly best AP, and four or five competing for that role causes roaming problems. In a big open space the host suggests fewer APs at high power, or turning some down, likening each AP to one light bulb lighting its own area.

2025-09-04 · open the original ↗

• Starlink is replacing free service pauses with paid Standby Mode. Standby Mode costs $5 a month and throttles to 500 kbps, meant for Wi-Fi calling, texts and instant reactivation. The change takes effect September 13. Paused dishes not moved to Standby by then are cancelled automatically, so the choice becomes Standby or full cancellation.
• The host's test confirmed the throttle and an easy reactivation. He activated Standby on an old Gen 3 dish through the app. The app's speed test showed about half a megabit, and Speedtest.net came in under that (captions read 0.38 down and 0.45 up). He sees value in staying connected, since reactivating a deactivated dish can fail if two-factor needs an emailed code where there is no cellular coverage.
• Starlink's FAQ rules out overages and spot reservation as motives. Standby has no data cap and includes no high-speed or overage data, so there are no surprise charges. It does not hold a residential plan spot either. In an area at capacity you may only be able to reactivate on a pricier roaming plan. The host thinks $5 a month per dish is too small to be a meaningful cash grab.
• The host speculates Starlink may add reactivation fees later. This is his guess, not a reported plan: once customers have had the chance to switch, Starlink might charge something like $99 to cancel and resume. As of recording, cancelling and resuming service is free.

2025-08-29 · open the original ↗

• A FreePBX zero-day lets attackers in and run up phone bills. The host says it began hitting systems around August 21, 2025; Sangoma announced it five days later and released an edge-module fix the same day. It affects FreePBX 16 and 17, and he advises checking version 15 and older anyway, since attackers can also pivot to other servers behind the firewall.
• Only servers exposing the admin GUI to the internet are vulnerable. Under Connectivity > Firewall > Services, Web Management (and Web Management Secure) should be open to the Local zone only; Internet or Other toggled on is the danger sign. Trusted remote WAN IPs go on the Networks tab instead, and Intrusion Detection should show as running to block brute-forcing.
• Sangoma's patch prevents infection but does not clean a compromised system. Over SSH the host checks the indicators from a Bleeping Computer article: /etc/freepbx.conf missing or modified since August 21; a .clean.sh script in /var/www/html; modular.php in the Apache access logs; calls to extension 9998 in the Asterisk full logs; and a user named ampuser in the ampusers MySQL table.
• A compromised server should be restored from a pre-attack backup. Restore from a backup or snapshot taken before August 21, then apply the patches from Sangoma's forum post and check phone bills for unusual charges, especially international calls. Crosstalk, which sells the help, says its own PBX customers are likely unaffected because it never exposes the admin GUI except via VPN or authorized IPs.
• Upgrading off end-of-life FreePBX 15 means building a new server. Version 15 gets no more security updates after September 1, 2025, the host says, and version 17 runs on a different base operating system, so upgrading means building a new server, installing FreePBX and restoring the configuration rather than upgrading in place; Crosstalk offers to do the migration.

2025-08-28 · open the original ↗

• Free UniFi filtering gives a basic adult and malware filter only. Dave Barger, presenting, shows that any modern UniFi gateway includes ad blocking, forced safe search and manual allow/block domain lists for free, but the filter itself is limited to off or "basic"; per-category filtering is grayed out until you subscribe.
• Paid CyberSecure unlocks category blocking with maintained definitions. CyberSecure Enhanced, by Proofpoint and Cloudflare, costs about $99 a year and adds the full category list plus IDS/IPS options; blocking photography and shopping categories made B&H unreachable in his test. Part of what you pay for, he says, is keeping those categories up to date.
• Built-in filtering beats third-party DNS filtering, Barger argues. Pi-hole's free blocklists mainly target ads and trackers, and commercial DNS filters are typically priced per user and can't be managed from the UniFi console; UniFi's version keeps everything in one place and relies on more reputable companies for definitions.
• The policy engine blocks specific apps free, with schedules. After a UniFi update that arrived before release, app blocking moved under the Policy Table or the new object-based networking; he builds a rule blocking TikTok on the default network, with an optional schedule. He sees UniFi slowly closing the gap with full UTM devices such as a FortiGate.

2025-08-26 · open the original ↗

• The 5 GHz Device Bridge Pro pair suits most remote-building links. Both the Device Bridge Pro and Device Bridge Pro Sector cost $199; the host prefers them to the costlier 60 GHz Building Bridge products unless you truly need gigabit-plus, since 60 GHz trades distance for speed.
• One Sector acts as parent to many child bridges. It takes up to 50 children. Ubiquiti uses "parent" and "child" for the wireless-ISP access-point and station sides. The Sector is a 2x2 MIMO 5 GHz, 17 dBi, 90° sector, so every child must sit within that 90° slice; a Device Bridge Pro can be either end of a point-to-point link or a child of the Sector.
• Whether cabled at adoption decides parent or child. UniFi offers almost no settings for these devices (name, channel, channel width, static IP). A Device Bridge Pro powered from its included PoE injector with no network cable adopts as a child of an existing parent; to make it a parent, connect it to the network by cable and then adopt it.
• A typical use is powering a camera or AP remotely. The child's secondary Ethernet port supplies PoE, so the host runs a bullet camera off it, and suggests an access point for a detached garage or workshop the same way.
• Measured throughput matched the host's expectations for 5 GHz. Across about 20–25 feet, an unaligned unit on the floor gave 157/217 Mbps to the internet; an aligned one gave 248/179 Mbps to the internet and 280/186 Mbps across the LAN, in line with his expected 250–350 Mbps for 5 GHz. The 5 km range claim is Ubiquiti's; he has not tested distance.

2025-08-21 · open the original ↗

• The host downsized his home rack to cut heat. His office reaches 80–85° in summer from the equipment, so he replaced the Dream Machine Pro Max with a UCG-Fiber, since his roughly 800 Mbps internet doesn't need that much firewall throughput, and the 24-port Enterprise XG with a Pro XG 8, as only three of its 10 gig ports were in use.
• He is unsure whether to daisy-chain or home-run his switches. The gateway currently feeds the Pro XG 8 by DAC, which then feeds the Pro Max 16 by a second DAC; he asks viewers whether that core-switch chain beats running both switches directly from the gateway.