This is a blog mostly about techie things, what I am doing to my apartment network on the cheap, IOT, 3D Printing, Raspberry Pis, Arduinos, ESP32, ESP8266, Home Automation, Personal Weather Stations, Things That Go Bump in the Night, and some side issues that need discussing. Remember, sometimes the journey to an end is as much fun as the goal achieved!
Thursday, June 20, 2019
Network General - added an EdgeRouter X as an OpenVPN server
I had attempted to use one of the GL-iNet routers (AR800M) to act as an OpenVPN server on my network. I setup one of the vlans from the Main Router and had a whole lot of problems with the setup. I discovered that the EdgeRouter-X (ER-X) was only $65 from MicroCenter and a lot of people indicated that is was an easy setup for OpenVPN. I decided that what I would do was setup a vlan from the Cisco router with one of my unused vlans that flows throughout the network. So I designated one of my many vlans to be an “OpenVPN passthrough”. This will be similar in concept to the No-Mans Land vlan that I have been using for some time. The “OpenVPN passthrough” vlan will be setup so that you cannot change the Cisco router and you cannot access any other vlan. I will also punch some ports through the Cisco router to the Wan port of the ER-X. The OpenVPN setup is shown at https://help.ui.com/hc/en-us/articles/115015971688-EdgeRouter-OpenVPN-Server. I have found this to be a very easy setup. I also generated some additional OpenVPN client cents to use with my cell phones, iPads, and laptops.
Network General - Removed Quantum and re-arranged network to cover
After discovering that the Verizon Quantum router had pretty much bit the dust, I replaced the MOCA network with a Motorola MoCA 2.0 adapter and moved the Cisco router into its place. I am really disgusted with myself on not having done this sooner. The Cisco is very capable of the throughput speeds that my FIOS connection provides. In addition, I now have lots of vlan and QoS capability that I did not have before with the network.
I did discover however, when I went on a trip and dropped down a bunch of the equipment, that there are some network components that cannot be taken down without causing problems in other parts of the network. As I am typing this, my PWS is currently down because I took power away from a necessary component. So now I am on a mission to make the network efficient to be able to take most of the network down, including servers and the like, but still be able to function with other areas like the Television and Media transport.
So now I am on a mission to rearrange the patch panels and switch setup so that there will not be a hiccup in the future.
I did discover however, when I went on a trip and dropped down a bunch of the equipment, that there are some network components that cannot be taken down without causing problems in other parts of the network. As I am typing this, my PWS is currently down because I took power away from a necessary component. So now I am on a mission to make the network efficient to be able to take most of the network down, including servers and the like, but still be able to function with other areas like the Television and Media transport.
So now I am on a mission to rearrange the patch panels and switch setup so that there will not be a hiccup in the future.
Friday, June 7, 2019
Had the opportunity to introduce someone to the Raspberry Pi and Arduinos
I had the opportunity today to give a package to a friend. He had expressed interest in getting into Arduinos and Raspberry Pis. So I put together a package consisting of a 3D printed Arduino Raspberry Pi Mount (https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1190961), an Arduino Uno, a Raspberry Pi 3, some cables, a full-up micro SD with the latest Raspbian, and some lists of information to get him started. I will be out of town for a little while but I hope to be able to sit down with him to go over any questions that he may have. Knowing what fun I have had with these little buggers, I feel good that he asked me about them, and I am happy to share what I know. BTW, the information lists I provided are as follows:
Websites specific to Arduino
https://www.arduino.cc/
Tutorial Websites for Arduino
https://www.arduino.cc/en/Guide/HomePage
https://www.makerspaces.com/arduino-uno-tutorial-beginners/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09zfRaLEasY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nL34zDTPkcs
Reddit Groups for Arduino
https://www.reddit.com/r/arduino/
https://www.reddit.com/r/ArduinoProjects/
Books on Arduino (free)
https://www.programming-book.com/arduino/
Books on Arduino (cost)
https://makeradvisor.com/best-arduino-books/
Websites specific to Arduino
https://www.arduino.cc/
Tutorial Websites for Arduino
https://www.arduino.cc/en/Guide/HomePage
https://www.makerspaces.com/arduino-uno-tutorial-beginners/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09zfRaLEasY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nL34zDTPkcs
Reddit Groups for Arduino
https://www.reddit.com/r/arduino/
https://www.reddit.com/r/ArduinoProjects/
Books on Arduino (free)
https://www.programming-book.com/arduino/
Books on Arduino (cost)
https://makeradvisor.com/best-arduino-books/
Websites specific to Raspberry Pi
Tutorial Websites for Raspberry Pi
Reddit Groups for Raspberry Pi
Books on Raspberry Pi (free)
Books on Raspberry Pi (cost)
Network General - Had major crash in the network
I suffered a major crash in my network last weekend. What ever happened it borked my PWS Raspberry Pi setup. That was when I discovered that the network, specifically the Verizon Quantum router, was no longer getting DHCP assigned IP numbers. I did some tracing and found out that all of my TiVo equipment no longer had IP addresses.
When I went to troubleshoot the Quantum, I discovered that it no longer recognized the FIOS cable that was plugged into it. I checked everywhere for potential hardware breakages that would explain it but it would come up for a few seconds and then disappear. That is when I decided to take the Quantum out of the loop. For one, it was no longer issuing IP addresses from its DHCP server and the TV cable thing. I ordered a Motorola MOCA 2.0 adapter even though the TiVo Bolt was capable of setting up a MOCA network (I might still use this at a later date though). The real problem was the fact that the TiVo equipment (Bolt and 2 Minis) were not responding at all and had taken on Bonjour addresses. The Mini was able to communicate with the Bolt, but could not get back to the TiVo home page to receive updates. It also appeared that this was causing some issues in using the TiVo equipment.
I then added a vlan behind my Cisco router and moved all of the TiVo equipment there. When the MOCA adapter came in, I put it on the FIOS cable and connected it to the same vlan as the TiVo equipment. I then saw that my TiVo equipment had IP addresses and could be updated from the TiVo site.
I determined that the weewx setup on my Raspberry Pi had failed. It was causing kernel panics. I then changed out the RPi hardware and setup a new weewx software build and got the PWS back online.
All of my traceback seemed to indicate that the Quantum had undergone a hard failure, no amount of reseting the Quantum seemed to revive it's capabilities. So I made the decision to phase out the Quantum router. I was able to get to the outside through the Quantum, but only because my Cisco Router has a manually assigned IP address in the Quantum LAN subnet. I did some research and it seems that it is a fairly simple matter to take down the Quantum and bring up the Cisco in its place.
Will report back when I get this working.
When I went to troubleshoot the Quantum, I discovered that it no longer recognized the FIOS cable that was plugged into it. I checked everywhere for potential hardware breakages that would explain it but it would come up for a few seconds and then disappear. That is when I decided to take the Quantum out of the loop. For one, it was no longer issuing IP addresses from its DHCP server and the TV cable thing. I ordered a Motorola MOCA 2.0 adapter even though the TiVo Bolt was capable of setting up a MOCA network (I might still use this at a later date though). The real problem was the fact that the TiVo equipment (Bolt and 2 Minis) were not responding at all and had taken on Bonjour addresses. The Mini was able to communicate with the Bolt, but could not get back to the TiVo home page to receive updates. It also appeared that this was causing some issues in using the TiVo equipment.
I then added a vlan behind my Cisco router and moved all of the TiVo equipment there. When the MOCA adapter came in, I put it on the FIOS cable and connected it to the same vlan as the TiVo equipment. I then saw that my TiVo equipment had IP addresses and could be updated from the TiVo site.
I determined that the weewx setup on my Raspberry Pi had failed. It was causing kernel panics. I then changed out the RPi hardware and setup a new weewx software build and got the PWS back online.
All of my traceback seemed to indicate that the Quantum had undergone a hard failure, no amount of reseting the Quantum seemed to revive it's capabilities. So I made the decision to phase out the Quantum router. I was able to get to the outside through the Quantum, but only because my Cisco Router has a manually assigned IP address in the Quantum LAN subnet. I did some research and it seems that it is a fairly simple matter to take down the Quantum and bring up the Cisco in its place.
Will report back when I get this working.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)