Project #19 - Get the Network back to Normal after the Power Outage

After the power outage that took out the main part of my Network this project is to get the Network back to normal.

Catastrophic Surge Failure in the Network!

I am writing this for others to learn from my mistakes.  On July 23, 2020 at approximately 9:30 pm I experienced a power outage for about 30 seconds.  There was a loud bang followed by the power going out.  I looked up just in time to see some sparks fall from the pole outside my house.  This power outage produced a surge that took out:

1. my Verizon ONT
2. my Cisco RV325 router ($260 used)
3. my Netgear M4100-26G 26 port switch ($260 - $525 new)
4. two Netgear GS108Tv2 ProSafe 8 port switches ($66 - $80 new each)
5. my TiVo Bolt ($175 new)

Unfortunately, I didn't have any surge protectors in the circuit coming into the house.  This was not an electrical surge that took out the equipment, except for the ONT.  The surge came through both the Cable and the Ethernet coming out of the ONT.  Fortunately for me I had some spare router equipment (Edgerouter-X) and some unmanaged switches.  Since I had patch panels it became an easy rerouting of the cabling to get my Media up and running and get connected back to Verizon Fios after the ONT was changed out.

My plan going forward is:

1. put in a Cable surge protector between the ONT and the splitter outside my house
2. put in an Ethernet surge protector between the ONT and the main router
3. at each of the 5 points in my network, put a conditioned power UPS with both Ethernet and COAX surge protectors

Please learn from my mistake, this was expensive to undo.

Project #18 - Setup a RetroPie on the Mac Mini monitor downstairs

I have for a while been wanting to get into games.  Normally, I am quite the nerd, only wanting to do things that have some "merit".  However, as I approach retirement I want to be able to have some down time from my technical activities and woodworking.  I have been looking at RetroPie and have been very interested in getting a system up and running.  Since I already have an RPi4-4GB attached to the Mac Mini monitor and I already have a game controller, I thought it would be a prudent use of resources to put RetroPie on an SD card and use it there.

Project #17 - Add RPi 3D Printer viewer to Network

I find myself more and more wanting to be able to look at what is going on when I am doing a long print on my 3D printer.  I do have a Wyze camera that I installed downstairs, but I would like to be able to see how far along the print is, as well as temp of components, etc.  I can do this by installing any number of packages that are out there.

Update: with the advent of using Wyze Cameras in my network this is now OBE.  I now have a Wyze camera pointed to the 3D Printer when in use.

Tips #6 - Faking an Admin vlan on the Netgear GS108Ev3 and GS116Ev2

My network at home is distributed and I try to minimize the number of wires going throughout the house.  That becomes a problem if you are single switch dependent.  But with judicious use of vlans throughout the house, I can distribute these through the use of trunk lines.  One thing I am very conscious about is security in the network.  I make judicious use of Admin vlans in order to keep the network framework from being changed by someone who has hacked into my system.

I went out and bought a GS108Ev3 thinking it was a good and cheap alternative to the GS108Tv2.  Boy was I wrong.  My focus on security took a nose dive, or so I thought, when I started incorporating this switch into my network.  It was the same thing for the GS116Ev2 when I added this switch.  If you follow a simple set of rules, you can keep your Admin vlan:

1. a normal Netgear managed switch like the GS108Tv2 has an Admin vlan capability.  In fact, you can actually put the vlan number into a field in the web interface.  The switch will use this vlan number to accept DHCP IP addresses for the switch.  If you fix the IP address of the switch, you will need to be in the subnet of the Admin vlan for the switch to work.
2. there is a new class of Netgear switches, like the GS108Ev3 and the GS116Ev2 which are simplified but have much of the capabilities of the GS108Tv2.  One of the capabilities that is missing is the Admin vlan.  There is no field to set it and you are forced to use vlan 1 in some manner to interface to your network.  You do that on a trunk port
3. On GS108Ev3/GS116Ev2: either use DHCP or set the IP address/Gateway to be within the Admin vlan subnet
4. On GS108Ev3/GS116Ev2: set vlan 1 to be untagged on the trunk port; set the Admin vlan to be tagged on the trunk port; set the Admin vlan to be the PVID on the trunk port
5. On GS108Tv2/M4100: set the Admin vlan to be the PVID on the trunk port; set the Admin vlan to be tagged on the trunk port
6. On GS108Ev3/GS116Ev2: no other ports may have vlan 1 as untagged, except the trunk ports

Not a difficult configuration, but as long as you remember the rules you can get an Admin vlan on these GS108Ev3/GS116Ev2 switches.