Fall Update and Looking Forward

We’re now into the fall, and this is around the time the case’s original intention would be used. Unfortunately, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it won’t be. AWA, at least my long-standing version of it, isn’t happening. The convention is happening, but my group isn’t flying in for it. Ah well. It’ll be a fun distraction on the Saturday of it at the minimum.

Moving right along… the case has finally hit “perfection,” at least for now. The hAP ac2 is still being used, though it now runs OpenWrt instead of RouterOS, more on this later. The NUC is set up with a Domain Controller for DHCP and DNS, a Pi-Hole for ad blocking, and a Plex server that still needs filling out. The reason I flashed OpenWrt on the hAP vs. RouterOS is because WireGuard in OpenWrt just works. I migrated my site-to-site VPN from my home to my gear at Coloblox from IPsec to WireGuard to enable proper connection failover for the tunnel, so I needed the case’s network to do similar: moving it over to OpenWrt allowed for this. Secondarily to this, I have what I call “Internet-in-a-Box Mini” and a fully-portable device using gear from GL.iNet for smaller needs. Both of these connect back to the DC using WireGuard.

OpenWrt handles gateway swapping pretty easily: I set up different metrics on each interface, eth2 for the LTE modem, and eth0 for the wired LAN, so if I unplug one and plug the other in, it properly swaps over. Ideally LTE will be used, though if a wired port is available, I’d probably swap over to that just for simplicity’s sake.

This blog and the other WordPress ones I have will be moved to a Hugo-based system in the next few weeks if I end up with enough time to get it done. It’ll allow for offline editing, which isn’t something I really need per se, but it’ll be nice. Only issue is I’ll need to actually learn Markdown: shouldn’t be too difficult.

Until next time!