https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/tags/hardware.htmlHugoen-ie2026 Tiernan OTooleFri, 10 Jul 2026 23:30:52 +0100https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2025/06/11/network-upgrades-2025.htmlWed, 11 Jun 2025 22:16:56 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2025/06/11/network-upgrades-2025.htmlIt’s been just over a year since I last posted my 2024 Network Upgrade post. In that time, my network has undergone several changes. Here are the major updates: In the (hopefully not too distant) future, my cable ISP plans to upgrade from HFC (Hybrid Fiber/Coax) to full FTTH. When this happens, my speed will increase from 1Gb/50Mb to 5Gb/500Mb—and needless to say, I’ll be ordering that as soon as it’s available! This will boost the total download speed to just over 10Gb (about 10.4Gb, since Starlink tops out around 400Mb/s) and upload to 800Mb/s (with Starlink contributing 40-50Mb/s). That’s why I chose the UCG Fiber. It should handle two 5Gb incoming links, one 10Gb LAN connection, plus the Starlink connection (with IDS/IPS off, of course).https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/07/11/some-random-links-for-prime-day-2023.htmlTue, 11 Jul 2023 15:02:41 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/07/11/some-random-links-for-prime-day-2023.htmlWell, it’s Prime Day 2023, so I have been busy ordering some stuff, and, well, given everyone and their mother is doing posts on Prime Day stuff, I thought I would add my list of interesting things, including some of the things I bought. PS: all links are affiliate links and were found in the UK Store, but links are using GeniusLink to redirect you to the best store for you… Some items in the UK store might not be found in the US or other stores…https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/03/10/day-53-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlFri, 10 Mar 2023 22:12:39 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/03/10/day-53-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlDay 53 of #100daysofhomelab and It’s been a busy week… ish… I’ve been battling with Vertigo on and off this week, so haven’t don’t a lot. I did, however, fix some issues with the network, set up a proper failover WAN connection using SmoothWAN and my Quad 2.5Gb Box, and have started making major changes to GodBoxV3.https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/03/02/day-50-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlThu, 02 Mar 2023 21:50:46 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/03/02/day-50-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlDay 50 of #100daysofhomelab (this was stuck in a draft folder, so this is a couple of weeks old… I decided to recycle this as day 50, but it was originally day 37 or something…). Just about 13 days ago: After running ZFS on my Mac for a few hours, I removed it and installed a trial of the SoftRAID software. I am not sure what was going on, but with ZFS installed, my machine just kept crashing. less than an hour and bang. So, I installed SoftRAID, and the speed ok. Not massive speeds, but not 100% sure I am using the right cables. More testing with cables soon.But in reality, this is software RAID 5 over 5 spinning disks. 270Mb/s read ain’t bad. 115Mb/s write ain’t great, but it’s RAID 5.https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/02/15/day-44-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlWed, 15 Feb 2023 22:06:07 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/02/15/day-44-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlDay 44 of #100daysofhomelab and still quite busy with $DayJob. so some links below. Intel Launches Xeon W-3400 and W-2400 Processors For Workstations: Up to 56 Cores and 112 PCIe 5.0 Lanes (anandtech.com) Tiernan on Twitter: “RT @ZeroTier: ZeroTier 1.10.3 is now available. This release includes low bandwidth mode, a duplicate path bug fix, and OIDC improvements..” / Twitter swarmlet/swarmlet: A self-hosted, open-source Platform as a Service that enables easy swarm deployments, load balancing, automatic SSL, metrics, analytics and more. (github.com Also, I have been fiddling with some JQ and Zerotier-CLI commands. Not finished, but working on trying to get some data out of the CLI. I have a GitHub Gist with some details. I plan on adding to it over time.https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/02/07/day-35-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlMon, 06 Feb 2023 23:19:21 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/02/07/day-35-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlDay 35 of #100daysofhomelab and I have been trying to clean up some stuff for my Mac Book Pro. I have an external enclosure from Yottamaster that has 5 3.5" bays and connects via USB C (USB 3.1). I got 5 8TB Seagate IronWolf drives in there. Currently, I have it set up as RAID 10 with 16Tb usable, which is named Archive, with 1 extra drive non-protected 8Tb drive. The details on setting up RAID 10 on MacOS is in the links section. I was looking at using RAID 5 for the archive pool, but the only option that seems to be available is SoftRAID but it’s USD250 for a license unless you have an OWC enclosure. Given the enclosure cost me that much in the first place, I think I will keep with RAID 10 for the while. RAID 5 would, potentially, give me 32Tb usable on my Archive, but 250 is a bit steep. for now…https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/01/06/day-4-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlFri, 06 Jan 2023 21:41:17 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/01/06/day-4-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlDay 4 of #100daysofhomelab and I am still reading the docs I posted yesterday on Kubernetes. I hope to get something sorted this weekend… On a different note, I posted a new YouTube video on the iODD ST400, linked below. This is a follow-up to my iODD Mini review I did a couple of years back. Hopefully, I will have a second video with some speed tests and a better walk in the next few days… hopefully.