After finding that it suited my requirements, I finally decided on a solid VPN - F-Secure Freedome - as recommended by a friend in security. Then I needed to share my connection with my Roku, but Freedome is an application that has to be run on a phone or computer and routers aren't supported. Once I confirmed that …

My first homelab ever was started as a single Packard Bell 486 which ran SuSE Linux 5.2. I used it with my @Home connection to host web, DNS and mail services. Over time, I'd move leftover computers to a data center and covered most of my colo fees with the proceeds from Google Adsense, which I added to my website …

If you're looking to create your own CloudFlare API v4-based PowerShell module, and would like some syntax examples, here's a simplified breakdown of my CloudFlareDynDns module on github, which I discuss in "Use PowerShell and CloudFlare API v4 to Dynamically Update CloudFlare DNS to your External IP". 1# Set …

Got a homelab and miss how DynDNS used to be free? Using PowerShell and a CloudFlare hosted domain, you can emulate similar functionality for free using PowerShell and a Scheduled Task. If you're looking for a DDNS client that you can run on a router, check out CloudFlare's ddclient or Scott Helme's post Replacing …

It appears Apple changed the way NAT works, starting in Lion and this upset a lot of people. Apparently, nat would just stop working for some folks after they upgraded to Lion from Snow Leopard. Finding really in-depth information about Apple's NAT implementation is surprisingly hard. While attempting to figure out how …

I recently modified my Parallels DHCP settings because I'm really particular about the internal subnets I work with in the lab (192.168 is the ugliest subnet ever). Once I modified the file at /Library/Preferences/VMware\ Fusion/networking (OS X) my Parallels Desktop erred out and said Interface vmnet1 is not present. …

While I usually like conversation-style technical books (think: Manning's In Action series and many Wrox books), Microsoft's Patterns and Practices series is one of my favorite even though they feel so formal. Recently, my buddy Buck Woody posted a link to the freely available Patterns and Practices book for A Guide to …

There's a bit of a debate on how best to update your DNS resolver on Mac OS X when connecting to an OpenVPN Server. For whatever reason, even if use DHCP on the VPN server, OS X won't use the assigned DNS server(s). It's been recommended to use scutil, but the scripts are crazy long and I've read the resolver order …

Firesheep got me thinkin' that I should probably do a little more to beef up the security of my Internet connection on public networks. PPTP has always been a favorite of mine, because it hides traffic well enough to deter most people and it's easy to setup on both Linux and Windows. I ran a Windows PPTP server for …

If you find yourself on a really restrictive network but still want to connect to a remote VPN, consider this solution. It allows you to connect a Mac OS X OpenVPN client to an OpenVPN server using a static key. I figured it out using a combination of webistes, including dd-wrt's OpenVPN wiki, OpenVPN's documentation, …