I have wanted to post about networking equipment in my home for a long time. When I was young kid and just begining my interest into computers I found computer networking fascinating. I remember the first computer network I setup. For my birthday I was given a Netgear networking kit that included two 100 Mbit network cards and a hub. The first time had my own computer LAN setup and played the game A-10 Cuba! was mind blowing!
To provide some context on my current home network, my wife and I recently became home owners for the first time this year. Our home is a split-level on a half acre lot. The house has 1,400 square feet of interior space. Right next to the house is a separate workshop/shed sitting 15 feet off the garage with another 300 square feet of unfinished interior space.
Buying a home for the first time opened up possibilities for home networking options I did not have in the past when living in an apartment. In an apartment I could not reasonably run wires in the attic or walls. So before we had closed on the house I knew I would be buying some Ubiquiti gear. Prior to moving in I picked out ideal locations for WiFi access points and a network “cabinet” location in the house. I attempted to strike a balance between cost, reliability, and longevity that would fit my needs.
After some research I landed on buying the following pieces of equipment.
Choosing the EdgeRouter over the USG was not an easy decision. YouTube reviews and comparisons were helpful in making the decision. Ultimately I went with the EdgeRouter X over the USG. Not having a Unifi router means my network equipment would not be entirely controlled by a single interface. The integrated system was desirable, but I also wanted the EdgeRouter for more customizable options.
I definitely do not have a pretty networking cabinet with perfect cable management. What I have is a central location for all the network gear at the top of a basement closet. It’s out of site and yet still accessible when I need to make any adjustments.
I’ve been very happy with this setup. The Unifi controller runs on a raspberry pi 4 sporting Ubuntu Server for ARM64. I use docker containers for Homebridge, the Unifi Controller, and a few other small things. I was using PI-hole for local DNS but ended up giving up on it since it was nothing but trouble.
My internet speeds are not very fast where I live. My only option for internet is AT&T DSL. I have a 50 MB down and 10 MB up connection. The EdgeRouter with Smart QoS has no trouble keeping up with this. I was initially disappointed with this Internet speed. However, over time it has proven fast enough for everything I need. I’ve even had more than 40 connected Wifi devices on my network and had no complaints from users or issues using IoT devices.
In the past my home network has been a single access points from a Linksys or Netgear router. DD-WRT made these devices way better but nothing like the Ubiquiti gear. A good example of this is my use of multiple SSID Wi-Fi networks associated to specific network VLANs. VLANs give me the ability to segregate the devices on my network for security reasons. It’s as if the devices are on separate physical networks. Really cool stuff.
Here are a few pictures of the equipment in action. All the APs are POE from the EdgeRouter. All the networking equipment (including the Pi) is connected to a UPS. Without power I can have the internet running for about 80 minutes. I’ve done only a tiny bit of cable management in the closet. It’s a mess.
I've made some updates to this site. Both frontend and backend changes.
My EC2 reserved instance was set to expire on August 12th this year. I like to keep a remote virtual private server instance running 24/7. I don’t want to spend a lot of money on it, so just something cheap and accessible. The virtual private server is used to host this site and a few other small things. I occasionally use it as a VPN or do some SSH tunneling in a pinch. It falls into the space of personal and career experimentation/growth. I don’t view it as any kind of production box.
The last 3 years I have been using an AWS micro EC2 reserved instance with Ubuntu 16.04 LTS for this purpose. It served me well while costing me less than $4 a month. After 3 years I decide to try something new. I'm giving Linode a try since I had a $100 coupon code and heard good things about this provider.
I initially planned to only migrate and recreate what I already had running. Maybe just a few security updates. But like most technology adventures, I did not have any clear scope defined, so my initial task quickly grew in scope. Here is a quick list of what I have accomplished so far.
Ubuntu 20.04 LTS Setup and network hardening
Migration of files and content from AWS
Setup Nginx reverse proxy and automated letsencrypt with acme.sh
Replaced hexo as static site generator with home grown single node.js script
Created a new custom website theme
I was tempted to go further but stopped with these changes. I'm hoping to make more changes in the future, but I'm not committing to anything yet.
I still use AWS for S3 and CloudFront. I want to try out Cloudflare as a CDN but wasn’t willing to mess with DNS records.
The Appalachian Trail runs through 13 states along the east coast of the US. It’s total length is 2,185 miles. I left my job in Chicago to walk the entire trail. It took me 5 months to finish it. I started in Georgia and walked to Maine. So now I am officially a NOBO (Northbound) Thru Hiker.
I tried to keep status updates on this blog of my location and general happenings each week but I didn’t do a very good job. So now after weeks have passed since my August 12th 2014 summit of Katahdin (marking the end of the Appalachian Trail) So now if your willing to read this entire post I will update you on the last few months.
I’ll start with the end. Walking the last 5 miles to the top of Katahdin was epic. Climbing 4,000 feet to the top on a beautiful summer day was breath taking. I enjoyed the ending of my trek. As I climbed I ran into friends I had met along the way. At this point in my journey I was ready to be finished but also excited to celebrate what I had accomplished. I only wish I could have seen more familiar faces that day of other thru hikers I met along the trail.
During the last two months of hiking I gave up on the blog post updates. Things got hectic with traveling home, meeting friends, and the desire to do more miles to finish the journey in under 5 months. After I had missed a few weeks of updates, it was easy to make the decision to wait until the end to do one large post.
Let me catch you up on the last few weeks. If you want to know about the first 11 weeks, read some of my previous posts.
Week 12
Matthew Leverton came to visit me.
I was really looking forward to his visit. I know Matthew from NIU and worked with him for almost 2 years at Digital Intent in Chicago. He’s a unique and very smart individual. I’ve learned a lot about programming from him for the last few years. Also, up to this point on the trail I hadn’t had any visitors come see me so Matthew would be there first! I was excited and thankful for his visit.
I met with Matthew and his girlfriend Pricilla at Delaware Water Gap on the New Jersey and Pennsylvania border. We hiked a section of the AT the day after they arrived. Although I ended up hiking these same miles on the AT over again because I wanted to hike the entire trail with my full pack. Some might criticize me as being a ‘purist’. I don’t really care what it’s called, I just want to hike the entire trail with my backpack and not as a day hiker.
We also spent the next day at a state park where we camped out next to a nice lake. The next morning we headed over to a different set of trails to hike near some pretty cool looking water falls. Matthew and Pricilla headed home and I hiked on.
Week 13
The next week was a hard week for me. For the next five days after Matthew and Pricilla left it rained. I didn’t see the sun for at least 5 days. I pressed on through the rain and walked a lot of miles. I walked 150 miles that week. I basically walked all of New Jersey and New York in five days. At this point I also decided I did not want to pay to stay anywhere for the next few weeks. The middle states of the Appalachian Trail are expensive. I wanted to keep on a tight budget but I also kind of just liked the challenge. I almost caved and got a hotel when I was in New York. After the fifth day of rain and a bad nights sleep in a leaky shelter, I was very tempted to pay to get out of the rain. I convinced myself to press on that morning after finding a good place to relax for a few hours out of the rain. I sat under a sheltered picnic area with a vending machine and bathroom for at least 2 hours near the Appalachian Trail Zoo. This was a great place to just rest without being raining on. There is also something very mentally uplifting about having a Coca cola. During all the weeks of hiking I found that my favorite trail magic was usually just a coke and a piece of fruit (like an apple or orange).
I had heard while hiking that I would be able to see the New York sky line from bear mountain in New York. But because of the continuous rain I could hardly see 100 feet in front of me. There where points on the trail that day where I was sure I was going to get lost because I could not see the white blazes. In a place like New York there are many side trails to get lost on. The white blazes are really hard to see in a dense white fog.
After climbing down from bear mountain I walked through the Appalachian Trail Zoo. The trail runs right through the middle of the zoo. There are white blazes on trees and post signs. It’s a strange experience. In the zoo there are bears, coyotes and a few other animals. All of them looking pretty miserable. I felt bad for the animals. The trail leads right over the hudson river on a busy highway after leaving the zoo area. Most of the day I was surrounded by thousands of people who didn’t have any idea that hikers from over 1,000 miles away had walked there.
I might have been challenging myself to not pay for anywhere to stay, but I definitely spent plenty of money on food while in New York. I ordered Chinese food from the RPH shelter, where the delivery guy walked right up to the shelter. Not having to even walk 10 feet to get hot food!! What a life of Luxury.
Also, I had originally planned to update you with this video below, but I never got to posting it. Here it is anyway :-)
Week 14
During Week 14 I took it a little easier. I still walked over 100 miles but I didn’t push myself like I did the week before. I continued on my not paying to stay anywhere challenge and had made it to Connecticut. The terrain was still pretty flat but unlike New York and New Jersey the large wet bolder walking was over. There where some pretty flat sections of trail in Connecticut. I enjoyed the change. Connecticut felt pretty short, walking through it in a few days. After spending literally weeks in the one state of Virginia, it was nice to complete states in only a few days. I felt like I was making great progress.
Massachusetts came next in the week. The great thing about this state is that there are tons of trail towns. Meaning lots of food that I don’t have to carry. The highlight of Massachusetts was stopping in the town of Dalton and tenting at Tom Levardi’s house. Tom was super nice and accommodating to long distance hikers. It was really a treat to have his help in Dalton. He drove hikers to the grocery store, and to the Old Country Buffet. Hikers love buffet’s. I hope Tom is doing well.
Week 15
Then week 15 was here and gone like the previous weeks. At this point, time was flying by. The days where really tough though. Not as much because of the physical nature of the trail but the mental and emotional trial of hiking for almost 3 months. I was pushing myself each day to continue hiking. Telling myself that if I made it through today that it was get easier. I can’t say that I was really enjoying the hike at this point in time. I was really ready to take a long break or just get off the trail. I did not want to quit either. I had to just push through each day.
I was hiking in Vermont by week 15. The hills where returning. At least now after hours of walking in Vermont you are rewarded with some cool views on a few high points. A turning point for my mental state of feeling was Killington Mountain. This was the first time I had been over 4,000 feet in a long time. Since Virginia actually. The other motivation I had for hiking this week was my Brother was visiting. Joe was coming out to see me for a week on the trail.
Week 16
Week 16 marked the week of Joe’s arrival to Rutland, VT. I was glad to see him and excited to take a day off and use the rental car that he generously got for our convince. We spent a night in a motel getting great food and cleaning up.
Joe and I took 5 days to hike the remaining 50 miles of Vermont to New Hampshire. If you don’t know Joe, your missing out. Joe at this point in his life was training for his first full length ironman. So as you might imagine you have to be in pretty good shape to do an Ironman (which he did accomplish weeks after our hike). So when we hiked 10 miles a day and he carried about 15 pounds of gear and he was complaining (only a little) about how tough the trail was, it made me feel good. This was because I had spent the last 120 days conditioning myself to do one thing really well. I was a professional hiker. 10 miles for me was less than a half days work. 10 miles for Joe was exhausting.
Even though Joe complained maybe a little, most the time he was in good spirits and enjoyed hiking along with me.
I was glad that we hiked this section of the trail together. I got to show Joe a few aspects of the trail. Including longer 1,000 foot climbs, trail magic, trail towns, and friendliness of other thru hikers. I had a few people come visit me during the trail, but Joe I’d say was the only one who got a immersed thru hiker experience.
As we walked into the town of West Hartford, VT we struck hiker gold! We where invited to enjoy break on a friendly trail angle’s porch. Coffee, hash browns, bacon, eggs and a good time. This home was conveniently set in front of a bridge that went over the ‘White River’. I was told that locals jumped off this bridge into the water 30 feet below. So I had to take on this challenge!
We hiked into Hanover where we where taking the bus back to Killington, VT to get the rental car. We hung out in Hanover for a few hours. Eating pizza, donuts and a few beers before taking the bus. We took the bus back to where we started hiking together in Killington. We relaxed in town, watched a movie, and ate thai food. It was really nice relaxing in town and taking a few easy days before I began hiking again.
Week 17
Joe left to go home and I had a few days before I would need to board a bus to Boston. During the few months that I had been on trail my best friend Tim had decided to get married. He asked me to be in the wedding and I had to go. So I felt like I needed to push hard and put in a few good days of hiking before I left. I had originally planned to get to Lincoln, NH, but I got there too quickly. So I did another 25 miles to get to Crawford Notch. I then took the AMC Hiker Shuttle to Gorham, NH and then caught the Concord Bus to Boston. From Boston I took a flight to Chicago. This basically required almost 2 days of travel. All this travel just to make it to Tim’s wedding. Well worth it.
During this week I did do a good deal of walking in New Hampshire. One of my favorite views during this week was on Franconia Ridge. After a long day of hiking and a 3,000 foot climb around 2 pm I got to Franconia Ridge. The weather we perfect. Clear blue sky’s and a good breeze to keep me cool. The view’s were stunning. I had seen nothing like it up to this point. You could have told me I was hiking in the rocky mountains.
I arrived back in Chicago on the 15th. I was tired but happy to be back to see friends and family. I tried to keep my agenda simple for this week but that was hard to do. Without a car getting around to see friends and family was not easy. Took a lot of coordination with my mom and her generosity with her car.
I won’t say much about Tim’s wedding, but it was great. Tim Smith has wanted to be married basically as long as I have known him. I know he was excited and I was excited for him. It was great to be there on that day.
Week 18 + 19
I had already paid for my return airline ticket so I had to go back. :-)
A good thing was I had my friend Nick McMaster who accompanied me back to the trail where we would hang out in Boston for two days and then hike a small section of the trail together. Nick lucked out because he would be hiking 20 miles with me on one of the most spectacular places in the world. We would be climbing Mt. Washington.
The unlucky part for Nick is that it would be a very tough climb. This was easily one of the top 5 hardest parts of the trail to hike. I had originally planned to take on the climb in smaller sections. The problem is that finding places to camp in the White Mountains can be challenging. I had originally planned to do 6 to 8 mile a day with Nick but we ended up short a day because of the bus schedule. This meant that we would have to hike the 20 miles in basically 2 days. The second 11 mile day turned out to be a really tough day. Nick’s feet suffered because of it. I won’t get into details but I was surprised he was able to walk at all by the time we where done. The amazing part is that I don’t remember him complaining about it at all.
It was pretty awesome walking the trail through the Presidential Mountain range. I was not only impressed with Nick’s efforts but also pleased that he was there to hike that part of the journey with me.
It was my fault for pushing Nick too far. I should have planned better. Logistics are difficult to plan when all you have is a phone and little knowledge of the area. All in all, Nick had fun, and so I did.
Nick headed back home to Chicago and I continued forward on the trail. I knew I only had a few more days left in New Hampshire and then the State of Maine. I was super ready to be done. After spending a week at home and hiking for almost two weeks with other people my pace was dramatically slowed down and I knew that if I wanted to catch any of the people I had hiked with before I would have to push hard. The challenging part was the southern section of Maine was harder than I had anticipated.
Week 20
During week 20 finished off New Hampshire. The end of New Hampshire was harder than I initially expected. I did a 21 mile stretch over Wild Cat with a hiker named purple blaze in 8.5 hours. It rained the entire time, we where soaked all the way through. I even forged a river up to my waist in water.
I entered into Maine and found that southern Maine continued to be harder than I expected. Some of the toughest trail was in Maine. It slowed my pace down to 1 mile an hour in some places. Maine had everything I had seen in the trail up to now. Maine had rocks, bogs, roots, and so much more. Maine was the last state, I was excited to be there. I couldn’t believe that I had made it that far.
Week 21
The highlight of week 21 was the hundred mile wilderness. 100 miles of trail with no resupply. I pushed really hard through the 100 miles and walked it into 4 miles. I did 70 of those miles in 2 days. The farthest I had walked in a single day only days before my summit of Katahdin. I finished the trail in 21 weeks and one day.
I’ve learned a lot about myself hiking this trail. To face uncertainty. To be able to live with very little. To pursue the work and place where I want to be. I don’t know all the answers, but each day I’ll work on figuring it out.
Bonus
This is a graph of the miles that I walked each day
For the last few months all I've heard from other hikers in response to complaining about rocks on the trail is, "just wait until you get to Pennsylvania". Well, now I'm in Pennsylvania and there are lots of rocks on the trail but I don't think it lives up too all the hype. Most the time, the Pennsylvania trail is a few miles of very rocky trail connected by a few easy miles of flat dirt trail. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that Pennsylvania is a terrific stretch of the Appalachian Trail. I really enjoyed week 11 in Pennsylvania. I did not need to walk very many miles compared to what I had been walking per week. This slight change in pace was enjoyable. The reason for my change in pace is because in week 12 I met up with my friend Matthew Leverton in Delaware Water Gap who came to visit me.
Anyway, Week 11 started off in the town of Duncannon. I took rest and resupply there. In this small trail town there is a well know hotel that hikers stay at called the Doyle. So where else would I want to stay? The Doyle does have a reputation of being a dump ... so my expectations were low. It turned out to be very enjoyable place. One of my favorite places to stay on the trail so far. I was up on the fourth floor, in the 100 year old building, with a corner room with two windows. The room was smaller than my dorm room in college, but it was dry and cozy. There were also a few other hikers there so we where able to hang out, enjoy the good bar food, and a few cold beers.
When I was in Duncannon I got mailed a new pair of shoes. So I had to wait until 3pm until the UPS guy showed up. This also meant I could take an easy day out of town to break the shoes in. I only went 5 or so miles up som more rocky Pennsylvania. My shoes where broken in very quickly. Walking out of the town I remember being dive bombed multiple times by a falcon. First time I'd seem (or at least noticed) a falcon on the trail.
After Duncannon there were a few notable shelters along the way. The main one being the 501 shelter. This shelter is fully enclosed and feels more like a hostel than an AT shelter. I was able to order a large pizza and chicken parmesan sandwich that was delivered to the shelter. A life of luxury.
Making my way slowly down the trail I stopped into the town of Port Clinton and stayed for free in the town pavilion. I was able to resupply at the near by Walmart. All around a slow moving week but was a nice change of pace. Slowing down was boring at times but I was able to stop more often and talking with people along the tail and in towns. I was excited also to meet up the Matthew and spend a few days off trail. Week 12 update soon...
I have wanted to post about networking equipment in my home for a long time. When I was young kid and just begining my interest into computers I found computer networking fascinating. I remember the first computer network I setup. For my birthday I was given a Netgear networking kit that included two 100 Mbit network cards and a hub. The first time had my own computer LAN setup and played the game A-10 Cuba! was mind blowing!
The Appalachian Trail runs through 13 states along the east coast of the US. It’s total length is 2,185 miles. I left my job in Chicago to walk the entire trail. It took me 5 months to finish it. I started in Georgia and walked to Maine. So now I am officially a NOBO (Northbound) Thru Hiker.
I had heard while hiking that I would be able to see the New York sky line from bear mountain in New York. But because of the continuous rain I could hardly see 100 feet in front of me. There where points on the trail that day where I was sure I was going to get lost because I could not see the white blazes. In a place like New York there are many side trails to get lost on. The white blazes are really hard to see in a dense white fog.
After climbing down from bear mountain I walked through the Appalachian Trail Zoo. The trail runs right through the middle of the zoo. There are white blazes on trees and post signs. It’s a strange experience. In the zoo there are bears, coyotes and a few other animals. All of them looking pretty miserable. I felt bad for the animals. The trail leads right over the hudson river on a busy highway after leaving the zoo area. Most of the day I was surrounded by thousands of people who didn’t have any idea that hikers from over 1,000 miles away had walked there.
I was hiking in Vermont by week 15. The hills where returning. At least now after hours of walking in Vermont you are rewarded with some cool views on a few high points. A turning point for my mental state of feeling was Killington Mountain. This was the first time I had been over 4,000 feet in a long time. Since Virginia actually. The other motivation I had for hiking this week was my Brother was visiting. Joe was coming out to see me for a week on the trail.
Nick headed back home to Chicago and I continued forward on the trail. I knew I only had a few more days left in New Hampshire and then the State of Maine. I was super ready to be done. After spending a week at home and hiking for almost two weeks with other people my pace was dramatically slowed down and I knew that if I wanted to catch any of the people I had hiked with before I would have to push hard. The challenging part was the southern section of Maine was harder than I had anticipated.
I’ve learned a lot about myself hiking this trail. To face uncertainty. To be able to live with very little. To pursue the work and place where I want to be. I don’t know all the answers, but each day I’ll work on figuring it out.
This is a graph of the miles that I walked each day
For the last few months all I've heard from other hikers in response to complaining about rocks on the trail is, "just wait until you get to Pennsylvania". Well, now I'm in Pennsylvania and there are lots of rocks on the trail but I don't think it lives up too all the hype. Most the time, the Pennsylvania trail is a few miles of very rocky trail connected by a few easy miles of flat dirt trail. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that Pennsylvania is a terrific stretch of the Appalachian Trail. I really enjoyed week 11 in Pennsylvania. I did not need to walk very many miles compared to what I had been walking per week. This slight change in pace was enjoyable. The reason for my change in pace is because in week 12 I met up with my friend Matthew Leverton in Delaware Water Gap who came to visit me.