2.5 Admins
Episodes
2.5 Admins 82: Oil, Gold, and Firstborn
17 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Our concerns about Google’s latest acquisition, the technical implications of the sanctions on Russia, more on VPNs and filesystem replacements, and...
2.5 Admins 81: Don’t Pay
10 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
How not to solve some of the problems with filesystems, why backups are only part of defending your data, and Allan finally tells us the difference be...
2.5 Admins 80: 100 Emoji
03 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Browser version numbers might break websites, Samsung’s bad crypto implementation, more on Mazda and Caddy, the FreeBSD init system, and keeping VMs...
2.5 Admins 79: Flex your disks
24 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Maintaining data long-term, Chrome OS comes to generic PCs, and how to detect intrusions and malware on servers and networks. Plugs The FreeBSD Boo...
2.5 Admins 78: MAZDA~1.BMP
18 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Why Arm was never likely to be acquired by Nvidia, an expensive bug in Mazda cars, and how there isn’t always a technical solution to a policy probl...
2.5 Admins 77: The Joe Ressington Experience
10 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
What the recent Spotify controversy means for open podcasting standards, why young people increasingly don’t understand the concept of a hierarchica...
2.5 Admins 76: Horses for Courses
03 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The pain of updating Windows, FreeBSD vs Linux, and getting started with ZFS. Plugs FreeBSD Periodic Scripts Support us on patreon News/discussi...
2.5 Admins 75: Burning Fiber
27 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Allan has a recent war story for us, Microsoft blocked email from Linode, maximizing performance in a large capacity storage server, and more. Plug...
2.5 Admins 74: Virtual Pointless Network
20 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
A potential new European recursive DNS, why VPNs aren’t the silver bullet some people think they are, and how we set up new systems from scratch. ...
2.5 Admins 73: QR Choad
13 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
A novel approach to an old scam, your feedback about web servers and ransomware, and maintaining old databases. Plugs Packet Scheduling with Dummyn...
2.5 Admins 72: Email Cartel
06 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Microsoft suffers an embarrassment with Exchange, why it’s so hard to host your own email, and the easiest and safest way to manage your backups. ...
2.5 Admins 71: Recover Calmly
30 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Why ransomware isn’t really an infosec problem, how some open source work Allan helped with saved a company millions of dollars, your feedback, and ...
2.5 Admins 70: Xmas AMA
23 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
It’s our holiday AMA episode. We answered your questions about hobbies, TV resolutions, living in the moment, and the biggest screw-ups we’ve witn...
2.5 Admins 69: Nice
16 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
A huge vulnerability in a Java logging library, ZFS on AWS disappoints, the fastest web servers for static sites, the importance of certs, and more. ...
2.5 Admins 68: Shuckchain
09 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
A mystery in the Tor network, whether blockchain has any real-world value, configuring passwords with Ansible, and burning in new disks. With guest ho...
2.5 Admins 67: Haitch
02 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
An insight into the massive scale of Google’s infrastructure, Allan and Jim refuse to accept that crypto now means cryptocurrency (and confuse Latin...
2.5 Admins 66: Lack of Entropy
26 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Tesla owners locked out of their cars, a Linux side-channel attack that enables DNS cache poisoning, why Jim doesn’t use Proxmox, and accessing KVM ...
2.5 Admins 65: Integritetsskyddsmyndigheten
18 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
How some Swedish parents tried to take control of their kids’ education app, why you shouldn’t try to add magsafe to your phone, introducing the n...
2.5 Admins 64: Augmented Dystopia
11 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Why the metaverse sounds terrible, Alder Lake benchmarks, revoking SSH keys, remote management of Windows machines, and more. Plugs Looking towards...
2.5 Admins 63: Unlocking the Future
04 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The Oculus Go is opened up, a potential addition to HTTPS, Intel’s new Alder Lake CPUs, testing ZFS backups, virtualising a firewall, and more. P...
2.5 Admins 62: Top Notch
28 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The stupid notch on the new Macs, why Windows 11 had performance issues with AMD CPUs, why hibernation isn’t really a thing, and more. Plugs Open...
2.5 Admins 61: Alice and Bob
21 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
How not to steal and sell sensitive information, why ISPs shouldn’t try to sue Netflix, and the best way to set up wireless access points. Plugs ...
2.5 Admins 60: Butter Fingers
14 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
How Facebook’s services managed to go down for 6 hours, Windows Subsystem for Linux is now easier than ever to set up, and expanding a large capacit...
2.5 Admins 59: Megaphone in the Middle
07 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Why RISC-V looks promising for the future, how the web switched to HTTPS by default, an interesting DoS method, and how mitigating ssh attacks has cha...
2.5 Admins 58: Autocompromised
30 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
A pretty serious flaw with Autodiscover that leaks email credentials, why Btrfs sucks for more than one disk, and the best hardware for a low-powered ...
2.5 Admins 57: Spherical Chickens
23 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
What exactly constitutes WhatsApp’s end-to-end encryption, your feedback about time-based YouTube blocking, Optane in servers, and what sysadmins ac...
2.5 Admins 56: OMIGOD root
16 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Yet another Azure vulnerability, Anonymous dumps a huge Epik leak, running a desktop in a VM, SSH keys on a Yubikey, and ZFS send to TrueNAS. Plugs...
2.5 Admins 55: WiFi in the Woods
09 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
A surprisingly cheap and easy way to connect 2 buildings wirelessly, your feedback about Samba, and the realities of parental Internet controls. Pl...
2.5 Admins 54: Bait and Switch
02 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
SSD manufacturers quietly switching out components, 20TB non-SMR HDDs, the surprising side effects of killing the landline, ZFS snapshots when space i...
2.5 Admins 53: Unexpected Root
26 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
How getting root might be easier for attackers than you think, what a new OS can teach us about open source development, and why you probably shouldn’...
2.5 Admins 52: Notflix
19 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Netflix blocking residential IPs, Intel’s upcoming discrete graphics cards, and the finer points of connecting disks to a RAID controller. Plugs ...
2.5 Admins 51: Goodbye LISA
12 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Why a large sysadmin conference shut down and what it means, roaming between multiple wireless access points, sending ZFS snapshots to the cloud, best...
2.5 Admins 50: Optimal Airtime
05 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Huge improvements for WireGuard on Windows, and a brief update on the Framework Laptop. Plus why RAID is not a backup, when to use bare metal vs VMs, ...
2.5 Admins 49: Cuddle the Pegasus
29 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Why the Pegasus spyware isn’t really anything new, a Windows vulnerability sends Jim and Allan down memory lane, what to do with old hard disks, you...
2.5 Admins 48: PR Problem
22 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Jim’s hands-on with the modular and upgradeable Framework laptop, the details of Muse Group’s latest controversy, and when backing up to a Pi in y...
2.5 Admins 47: ZFS Rules, LTO Drools
15 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The current and future states of system performance across the whole stack, and backing up to tapes. Plus your feedback about clustered filesystems, a...
2.5 Admins 46: Not Actively Supported
08 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Windows 11 has been announced but some key details are still unknown, why you shouldn’t connect consumer-grade network storage devices to the Intern...
2.5 Admins 45: Weapons grade insecurity
01 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Potentially serious vulnerabilities in military systems, a new ZFS feature that’s mostly for home users, and IPv6 on your LAN. Plugs FreeBSD Perf...
2.5 Admins 44: ZF yes!
24 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Supply chain problems causing a rise in counterfeit chips, busting the myth about ZFS and RAM, gold VM images, and x86 routers. Plugs Introduction ...
2.5 Admins 43: Find my bandwidth
17 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
A potential order of magnitude increase in HDD sizes, Amazon Sidewalk, dying SSDs, planning new systems, ssh vs VPN logins, and more. Plugs History...
2.5 Admins 42: Guru Medication
10 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Fastly’s recent outage, how attackers probably breached the Colonial Pipeline’s network, crypto mining in anti-virus software, and setting up a bo...
2.5 Admins 41: Swiss cheese security
03 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Synology and Btrfs, backing up low-end Linux laptops, vulnerability management, FreeBSD hypervisors, and more. Plugs Building Customized FreeBSD Im...
2.5 Admins 40: Crown Prince of Freenode
27 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The complex tale of the recent IRC drama, Microsoft kills Windows 10X, and why we think a WordPress site was pwned. News Microsoft puts Windows 10X...
2.5 Admins 39: Cacophony of starts
20 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Testing failing disks and why they don’t work over a certain altitude, and your feedback about ZFS snapshots, authentication, community discussion p...
2.5 Admins 38: Wires FTW
13 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The importance of VPNs when using Wi-Fi, the complexities of chip node size, and whether appliance NAS devices make any sense. Plugs Getting the mo...
2.5 Admins 37: Exchanging shells
06 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Authorities trying to remove malware from people’s servers, turning your sysadmin hobby into a career, cloud backups, config management, and more. ...
2.5 Admins 36: Minnesota shower
29 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
GUI Linux apps on Windows, Linux kernel development is pen-tested, ZFS and Docker, and converting a Windows installation to a VM. Plugs FreeBSD IOS...
2.5 Admins 35: More free consulting
22 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
We answer a bunch of your questions about server hardening, managing ZFS snapshots, Docusign, SSL certs in air-gapped networks, and automating updates...
2.5 Admins 34: Free consulting
15 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
We answer a bunch of your questions about firewalls, best practices for backups, learning ZFS, QoS, SSH key management, backing up Google Drive, and m...
2.5 Admins 33: Delete C:
08 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Thousands of students learn about backups the hard way, why securing all of DNS isn’t practical, and how to protect Internet-facing services running...
2.5 Admins 32: Unifail
01 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Our first look at the next generation of Arm, alarming claims about a recent Ubiquiti breach, and setting up a FreeBSD file server. Plugs Customizi...
2.5 Admins 31: HD bit flips
25 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
How we’ll get to 100TB hard disks by the end of the decade, the potential dangers of flipped bits in network traffic, how to organize multiple copie...
2.5 Admins 30: Hot storage
18 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The OVH data center fire and related tales, drama with WireGuard in FreeBSD, why you should plug your flash drives in regularly, and more. News OVH...
2.5 Admins 29: Supply pain
11 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Why it’s so hard to build a PC these days, finding help for ZFS issues, getting started with a homebrew router, and more. Plugs The history of AR...
2.5 Admins 28: Cluster fsck
04 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Why hard disks will be around for ever, bad news for VR, slowdown from disk I/O, and when clustering isn’t necessarily the best solution. Plugs R...
2.5 Admins 27: Learning to say no
25 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Where we draw the line when supporting friends and family, monitoring SSL certs, ZFS on single drives, Chromium finally cleans up its act, and more in...
2.5 Admins 26: RISCy acquisition
18 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Bad news for LastPass users, why Nvidia probably won’t buy Arm, what happens to our servers if we disappear, and using the cloud to avoid bottleneck...
2.5 Admins 25: Fiat gaming
11 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Stadia and game streaming, Bitcoin and Linux quirks in your feedback, and building a home server for more than just storage. Plugs Simple and Secur...
2.5 Admins 24: Stonk amplification
04 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Reddit trolls Wall Street, bad news for Parler’s new host, why you should learn iptables, and backing up S3-compatible buckets. Plugs History of ...
2.5 Admins 23: Bitcoin hundredaire
28 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The Bitcoin price is booming again so we take the chance to laugh at Allan for selling too early, then we discuss some of your emails including Arm/x8...
2.5 Admins 22: Unexpected migrations
21 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Why Parler is unlikely to come back any time soon, free RHEL, and using a VPS to subvert VPN limits. Plugs Exploring Swap on FreeBSD Support us on ...
2.5 Admins 21: Reproducible errors
14 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The merits of ECC RAM, why reproducible builds are a good idea, and where to buy used equipment. Plugs Webinar: Introducing OpenZFS 2.0 Support us ...
2.5 Admins 20: Free money, claim it now!
07 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
A cruel but necessary phishing test, ancient standards in brand new legislation, using Windows when it makes sense, and commissioning and decommission...
2.5 Admins 19: nOauth? No gmail!
24 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Why Google services like Gmail went down recently, the potentially promising future for RISC-V, and using ZFS for home and root. News Google Mail o...
2.5 Admins 18: False sense of privacy
10 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Potentially improving DNS privacy, the big new ZFS release, and the best way to automate Linux installations. Plugs Webinar – Best Practices For ...
2.5 Admins 17: CPU change
26 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
How Intel and AMD have fought it out over the years, Apple changes the industry with their M1 SoC, and we repeat the mantra that RAID is not a backup....
2.5 Admins 16: TANSTAAFL
12 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Google proves that “unlimited” anything doesn’t exist, GitHub shenanigans, Apple’s new Arm computers, and which distro to start with as a sysa...
2.5 Admins 15: Fixed it for ya
29 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
We wade through Cloudfare’s marketing fluff, forced WordPress plugin updates, a bunch of your questions, and the shocking revelation that FreeBSD ac...
2.5 Admins 14: Not a database
15 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
How not to store test results, AMD firmly on top of the desktop space, what moving to remote work means for corporate networks, and deduplication of d...
2.5 Admins 13: bs=1mebibyte
01 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Intel almost catching up to AMD with Tiger Lake, the .uk fiasco, and why you shouldn’t be using dd. Plugs OpenZFS Developer Summit All Things Ope...
2.5 Admins 12: 5400 cyber RPMs
17 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Cyber insurance for ransomware, more confusing WD specs, the truth behind the return of the Gateway brand, and managing config files. News Ransomwa...
2.5 Admins 11: Monitoring the Internet
03 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
How Internet standards are decided, what a new one means for the Web, a surprising “feature” of Chrome, and the best ways to monitor your systems....
2.5 Admins 10: Mini-PCs and HDDs
20 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Low power x86 vs Arm boards, hard disk failure rates, and the intricacies of ZFS snapshots. Plugs OpenZFS Developer Summit Support the podcast on P...
2.5 Admins 09: Horrible hosts
06 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Intel’s 7nm woes, hosts files, Mozilla’s VPN service, and automating ssh between remote hosts. News Heads roll at Intel after 7nm delay Intel’...
2.5 Admins 08: Energy assisted drive recovery
23 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
New types of hard disks, recovering data from dying drives, AMD makes Jim reach for the calculator, and what to do with obscure software that you need...
2.5 Admins 07: Fail dumpster fire
09 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Initial Arm Mac benchmarks are out and they aren’t terrible, getting the best transfer speeds over USB, and rolling our own home routers. Plugs F...
2.5 Admins 06: BFYTW
25 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Jim bought the worst laptop in the world, a quick update on SMR drives, learning the basics of ZFS, and updating air-gapped servers. Plug Support t...
2.5 Admins 05: IPv6 when?
11 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
When the world will move to IPv6, WD SMR drives put to the test, raw vs qcow2 on ZFS, and erasing SSDs. Plug Support the podcast on Patreon News...
2.5 Admins 04: Zooming from pets to cattle
28 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Zoom’s new encryption, podcasts in walled gardens, and servers as pets vs cattle. Plug Support the podcast on Patreon News Zoom to require use...
2.5 Admins 03: Apache’s Btr than you think
14 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Why Apache is still relevant in 2020, and the differences between ZFS and Btrfs. Plugs Allan’s BSDCan Homelab panel Allan on setns.live Support t...
2.5 Admins 02: Updating to Arm
01 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Our thoughts on DNS-over-HTTPS, whether Arm is about to take over, HDD advice, and automatic updates and reboots. Plugs Help us keep the lights on ...
2.5 Admins 01: ZFS love-fest
24 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In our first episode, Allan Jude, Jim Salter, and Joe Ressington discuss Amazon cutting affiliate rates, SMR hard drives, and setting up off-site back...