 There we go Welcome to vlog Thursday with Tom with a horse voice because he just got back from Datto con Episode 295 I have to keep it brief because I actually have to go do another speaking engagement And I don't want to wear my voice out here. I will keep sipping water and probably go grab some more cough drops It is the fun of going to a conference that I will lose my voice It is an expected outcome at this point in time That's just how these things go but hey, that's what makes them so much fun sometimes is because I get to talk to a lot of people unfortunately Talking over people sometimes is what ends up happening First thing I want to cover is I forgot to cover it until the last time But at the end but I will try to make these I have my little list pulled up here And these are the events I'll be at so for those you and this was a lot of fun being at Datto con I'd mentioned I was going many many of you maybe you You know heard me mentioning on the vlog that I'll be there But so many people came out to me and I had so many good conversations I like meeting people out there people talking suggestions and ideas about what they want to do It was just an overall wonderful time. The next event. I'll be at will be gher Khan GRR That'll be October 13th and 14th of 2022 IT Nation November 9th through 11th of 2022 and I'm pretty sure I'm going to the Ohio Linux Fest Which will be on December 2nd and 3rd now a pretty local event for me So excited to see any of you that will come up and say hi to me at any of those events if you're there So that's really cool On topics for today. What did I put all in the description? It is a busy busy day getting you take a few days off and go into a conference the next thing you know It's just wild how quickly I can get distracted Let's see what we got here Quad 9 dead Ocon MSP geek. So I want to start right and jump into the quad 9 thing. So the quad 9 is a Big problem that's the best way to describe it. I'll probably do a separate video on it, but at least want to throw it out there for some people just to talk about and Sony is suing quad 9 and you're probably thinking why would Sony sue a DNS company? And yes, Sony is suing a DNS company Specifically they're suing quad 9. It's really stupid. I mean, there's a lot of good detail here and The way you can support this is going to be basically donating to the legal Fund for quad 9. They are a nonprofit. So the way they're suing him is really interesting or why they're suing him first They are going after them for being able to resolve URLs Now they are making the stance that a resolver resolving is Actually a violation of Sony's copyright Basically, they're trying to shut down different scam sites or not a scam sites. I can't even say it that way I would say they're trying to suggest that certain sites may have copyrighted content of Sony's therefore Quad 9 should not resolve them. That's not quad 9's problem. This is a common carrier issue Essentially the way you look at it is, you know, if someone commits a crime You can't just go after well They use google maps to find the location where they wanted to commit the crime Therefore google should not have given them the location Or you can't try to say well, they use this type of vehicle to get to the crime Therefore the vehicle the vehicles, you know, these are larger outside analogies But you kind of get the idea that this is not the people to go after But why would you go after quad 9? That does seem a lot. Well, they're a big enough name to matter But they're a non-profit dns company So being a non-profit dns company Means they probably don't have the funding to go against Sony because if you Want to dig further you'll find google resolves these URLs. Google has better lawyers cloud flair Their dns resolves these URLs. They have more money more lawyers Please note that neither google nor cloud flair was named just quad 9 And we don't like the idea or the precedents being said that sony gets to choose what is or is not in the dns list Now if you're not familiar, I have done several videos on quad 9 and why I think they're a great place to use Because they do filter things they filter what they choose to filter and you can choose whether or not to use quad 9 But if the precedents is set that Sony can say I want companies to delist the ability to resolve these things and it's one business dictating to another business That's not a good case precedence upheld by law. So they went after them In some very specific ways to try to get a very specific outcome And yeah, the best thing you can do is don't need to quad 9 because uh, I'm not a lawyer Um, not even gonna pretend I'm a lawyer. I know lawyers are expensive Hence the reason sony is going to probably try to outlaw your them and they need more money Or if you're a really good attorney and no some, you know way to help stop any of this cool But honestly just they have a legal team working within their system throw money at them is the uh solution This is unfortunately a just it's to me is a giant waste of money Is on one side, but it's like this waste of money We have to waste so to speak against sony because we can't let them win. This just sets a terrible standard Uh for sony. So f u sony, um You've now have a dns company who has something in common with geo hats. By the way, look up geo hats wrap on sony I know it's from forever ago, but it always makes me laugh When they sued him when sony sued him for cracking the play station I mean by the way, he won and uh, unless that's pretty funny. So All right, that's the quad nine update Uh, the other thing I wanted to talk about is going to be Uh, daddell con just in general going to conferences and things like that. Like I said, I had a whole lot of fun Uh, it was just a great time. I posted a handful of photos and things like that. It was super cool um, I do like Meeting all the people that is like the real big thing That it's hard to say, you know, I always try to say oh I just prefer to be hiding the keyboard and things like that, but I got it made I mean, I'm having a great time being there kind of related It would be great if quad 90 listed sony. There's some funniness there, but I don't think sony would really care Um, but the uh conference went really well And I wanted to bring up msp geek kind of related because I hung out with the people there because I didn't have Maybe the best understanding You know just how good the people were over msp geek, but I've known him for a little while and I've you know Got to know him over the probably the last couple years So I wanted to give them a shout out and explain what msp geek is and why you might care And msp geek and there's a reason i'm holding uh the goose Goots and there's a little logo on it that says msp geek just had a lot of fun with our team But msp b is a 501 3c nonprofit community That is completely by msp's For msp's it's kind of the whole concept. They got get connected for free They have a huge number of members They very much moderate vendor participation but it's just a big community where you can go in here and Join participate in if you go to join you're going to get either to a Pull back over here Bring you to their slack or discord channels. It's just a lot of other msp's doing stuff talking to each other and things like that So I know there's at least a lot of people starting msp's That reach out to me that work in there and if you even if you're not an exactly an msp But you work any adjacent space of being an it might be interesting for you They have a really well regulated broke down group of channels. So I told them. I said i'm giving them a shout out There's it doesn't cost anything. There's no affiliate link. There's no code. Just go to the msp Geek.org they're a non-profit organization So that's just to see me giving them a shout out to them Because hey, why not? I thought that might be fun So let me go back over here because I actually can't talk for very long as I said I don't want to run my voice out Because I have to do a presentation. So I have a You know limited amount of voice it'll get back over days Before I did one video this morning. So I wanted to cover a topic which will address again later um What other things that I do there that I can share? uh I actually had a lot of fun and miss at least a few of you will recognize um John Hammond who I was hanging out with as well. Uh, he's a great youtuber does a lot of cyber security stuff It was actually a lot of fun hanging out with John Hammond in person and I was of course hanging out with um Actually, this is fun Kyle CEO of huntress and the professional Photo bomber John Hammond in the background there. So that's definitely he actually came up and goes Did you want a serious photo with Kyle? I said no, I think you improved it You made the photo just that much more fun. So, uh, yeah going to these events is definitely You know, it's exhausting but really worth it because I always got this Grudge like I don't want to go just on big msp event But then I get there and I'm like, okay, this was fun. I and yeah, I'm almost I mean, I'm exhausted, but you're almost sad when it ends. You're just like, oh the party's over Uh, but none the less you you learn a lot from these you have a lot of fun uh I got to see mark rober and even most more importantly than seeing mark rober is Seeing my friend kevin Interview mark rober and getting to talk about that. So, you know, I just wanted to talk a bit about that Kind of as a concept just going to these type of things and uh, this came up as a forum thread over in my forums and you know, it's just A lot of fun going to these it came up talking about which ones to go to if you go to like, uh Well, this is another place to go in terms of if you're looking for things like we'll go to reddit r slash msp This is also another big community group kind of related For when you want to dive into msp topics msp topics talk about things and it's also Moderated by several of my friends. There's about 135,000 people in there 438 of them right now. So another place you can have a good discussion on there I just wanted to kind of throw this out there because I've been thinking a lot more about community building and putting it together Um, I've debated as I keep going back and forth. I like my forums That's my place to hang out more and more people ask if I want to be more active Or if I should take the time to build a big discord. I don't know But I figured I give a shout out to people who have done a good job of building a big discord Which is going to be people like msp geek. So those are some of my thoughts on those topics um After that as he starts my list goes that's as far as I really got for today's vlog thursday But my talk today is that a security? Uh, it's a local security place and I wanted to keep doing the community and meet some local people so I'm actually putting together a Uh slide deck on pf sense. So um, which means and it's one of those things I knew if I said yes, I would do it and commit to it Which also means I'm making a 2022 edition of which it's almost 2023 I know but I'm going to make a 2022 edition of pf sense in a new video a whole Like hour and a half long deep dive in the pf sense. So The two are interrelated With each other there, but I will kind of open it up from now Um to dive into a few things. Oh, I'll mention I did do that video that was sponsored one of first sponsored videos other than like when people send me things Which is quasi sponsored someone sends me something review I do check the little sponsored box on it On youtube because someone sent me a thing and I disclosed that a thing was sent to me For that so Other than that the first actual sponsored post was uh john's company sas leo. So I did that video. That was a lot of fun You know, and I think you know, even though it was a sponsored post I think it's a product you might like I have a few more sponsors that Are reaching well people that are potential sponsors that are reaching out So, uh, but I'm going to make sure that they're going to be you know Something people want to hear about but of course they're dedicated videos So if you don't like that particular video you may skip that particular video As opposed to having to listen to every pre-roll for whatever mattress company I would select if I just wanted to get a generic sponsorship um So that's Do all right. I have to make sure my message is um All right, cool Just people tagging me. I don't know exactly what time I'm supposed to be there Uh, what time should I get there? Someone says I should be fashionably late I asked them when I should be at the talk because you know, I got a few more slides to add I um I do these in the most literal last minute And anyone who knows me personally says oh, yeah, that's that is kind of what tom does He kind of waits the last minute for things. It's it I haven't changed since high school So anyone who knows me from high school They they will probably know that too um It hasn't changed any at all Kind of related and you know, I wonder if I can share those slides I think there's a way I can actually share slides. Can I start? Oh, I can All right. Oh, I have to upload them google slides Add google. Well, I'll do that later. I don't know what's going to do I started a minute late because stream yard the tool I used to do this is changing layouts and uh, the layout's cool except for I didn't know where any of my stuff was I couldn't figure out how to set the things on there. So yeah Wait, oh, yes, my employees absolutely know how last minute I do things. So These are the inside information things on there. They'll call me out on it and things like that Oh, let's see. What else here? Hey talk starts at seven. I think people showing up the restaurant ahead around 5 30 Oh, perfect So the people who are going the people watching me are knowing some of these people from These are michigan people posting talks are to seven. So I'll make sure to be there by six So I'm there early It's about 40 minute drive. I think 30 minutes depending on traffic I'd like to leave a little bit later because I know I'll miss some of that traffic. So that should work Oh, it will my talk will be strained. Yes. Um, I'll retweet it actually I already did if you look for me on twitter, you'll see that I tweet it I'll tweet it again, uh, because I they will be live streaming the talk. So All right, um Ooh, you got one of the fanless appliances I'm gonna you know, that's gonna be some of the talk, you know, to build it or buy it Uh, type of talk will be in there. So that's definitely part of the fun Gonna be uh, I'm looking forward to I like interacting with the crowd and things like that So, yeah, I'll make sure I tweet it out. You don't happen By the way, this is all stuff. You don't have to be logged in for so you can follow me on twitter without Logging in the twitter for those of you that would not like to participate. Uh in social media sites. I'm fine with that so And I'm gonna quickly knock this uh comment like I'm doing pf sense. I reviewed a machine and I got hacked. I we get some of those people that um The hacking or whatever they perceive to be hacking if it is, uh, it's pf sense is a solid product It's not someone just getting in there. You have something else going on. So I don't know what But pf sense unless you're opening up is not the source of your uh, hacking Is the net gate worth it? I would say yes for business. Um, I like it even if you're doing it for home They make a really good solid reliable product But if you're someone on a tight budget and you're going, hey, I can't really afford that I mean if you wanted to build on an old computer, that's fine for us for business deployments. We're net gate all the way Um, most all the ones we deploy are like that It'll just certain exceptions for things, but it's just kind of what works out best for us is doing it like that. So Just got my first two nash migration for boxbox local storage is easier than I thought still not sure If I go nfs or ice cozy freeing, uh, I would definitely go I'm partial to nfs because I think it's a little easier to manage but you know ice because I'm wrong ice cozy The protocol works so That's gonna be Um, kind of comes down how you do it. Yeah, I'm excited too. It'll be I seen somewhere Um, yeah, the the live streaming and stuff now the video I did today. I'll bring that up again Uh, I gotta admit sometimes I get things wrong. You know, it's amazing. I try to be right all the time I try to edit so I at least I look right all the time But I tweeted something out this morning that was Overhyped but I still thought it was worth doing a video on so I did a quick video talking about plain text clear text passwords Which almost feels like I need to do a follow-up video explaining why It's Done that way it's like people don't understand and they're like, oh the passwords should all be hashed I'm like, well, yes, but at some point they're clear before they're hashed That's why you're using things in memory and there's a lot of Obfuscation done in the browsers to keep this, you know from easily being assessed But it's still there and this is the danger of any time you get someone on your local machine It's just like somebody and sitting in front of your keyboard. They suddenly gain the level of privilege you have So this is still where a lot of that problem is but it's you know, uh You know where it all stood out in terms of like Making sure people understand that's why I wanted to make sure I did a video talking about okay Maybe it was over hyped but there's still a risk and the risk It's just because you're pointing it out it happens in teams, which is a very specific target There's still some of that in the browser as well. So something to really think about Uh, let's see Yep, the whole stupid thing there with the Being sued Uh Hey, uh, we met at eddo con what vendors stood out to you, you know I There's completely my bias. So I'm gonna just throw it out there and say huntress But it I'll even give a little reason. It's hunter said so did um I didn't meet any new I well the problem is I didn't really meet any new vendors that made me go. Wow But uh, I just thought hunter said such a great job with the way they put things together and Huntress had a little let me find the picture here. I think I have at least one But the team at huntress did a little after hours talk and it was just Um It was just a lot of fun like they did this cool thing I just I realized I only have one picture. I think there's probably a few more pictures huntress tweeted of it Um, but they did some really strong and if anyone else did this I was just unaware of it They did a whole, you know off-site community engagement session. That was just really good Completely about cyber security just about cyber security. So that kind of thing is just great When I see a company do something like that And it's kind of I know it's just someone's going oh, of course So I'm like huntress these friends with them, but I'm like I couldn't name the next vendor that did community engagement. Well, I did go to dinner with lion guard I think lion guard does you know, I guess I should say lion guard has a good product We don't use them. Uh, they they seem to be pretty solid. I might be a little biased. Uh, finns finns security I've mentioned before I'm an investor. So I think finns security is good But they didn't do anything extra special so to speak at this event They were just at the event talking to people like all the other vendors were And not everyone has the ability at depending on where they are as a business to go above and beyond To do something like huge. So that's You know, it was it was so good I still had a lot of good interactions and I didn't have any bad vendors that I ran into Um, and depending on whether or not someone replies to my email and addresses an issue that came up in my forums Uh, I will decide later if I have a vendor that I will call out for their bad behavior Me and Jay slaggle did a video a few days ago or maybe last week now Where we talked about Komodo, Excitium and some of their bad behavior But I didn't see any specific bad behavior while I was, uh, there Can you recommend a specific server for vms? I prefer xcp ng I got my hands on a 6100. So I'll be upgrading from a 4100 Do you find the IPS? Uh, they're put still good with a few of my rules 4100 1 gig link went down by half Um, yes, we want a 6100, but uh, we don't have a 1 gig link, but it seems fine I even it seems pretty fast Do I know any uh msp's in Europe personally? Um Maybe I've met a few. Well, I take that back. Uh, my my friend kelvin, uh, you will know him as cybertrain. So there's uh So let me pull this up. Uh, I'd be good to hang out with Uh, a little bit with kelvin. He's a pretty amazing. He's a Uh, works for he's a ceo at cybertrain and creator Uh, see creator cipp microsoft mvp. Uh, it's just cybertrain.com So I'll throw a link out there for anyone that wants to join this, but if you're an msp, he's in europe he's in another lens, so Uh, kelvin's just great and does a lot for the community because he puts together Um, just a lot of great scripts power shell automation scripts Uh for setting things up. So if you're working in the Um it and m it and msp space both and far as that goes There's a ton of admin help that he offers through all of his scripting. So I I could say, yes, I do know at least one Um, msp they're in the netherlands I have a few others that I met that I've just met at datto that were at That are from the uk. So that was a lot of fun as well meeting all of them What specs should I VM with 50 sites and a thousand devices and ap's what your recommendations? um I don't know put together like 16 gigs ram eight processors in it. Uh, That should be fine See what else do we have here? My mac pro is giving to me. Uh, my dad's running, uh It won't show a boot option. I know nothing about mac What do you think of quad 9? Wondering since any topics I brought up earlier. They're being sued by sony. So, uh, that's my thoughts on that quad nine is a company Um, they're awesome. I highly recommend uh quad nine. I've got numerous videos if you type in quad nine You'll find a few videos where I did some deep dives with them great product Where's the msp geek love we'll give it again. We'll we'll bring it up here So, uh, we got kyle spooner here. We'll we'll bring up some, uh There we go. Join us join him and kyle. Let me know if people join Because i'm curious. I mentioned you at the beginning of it I kyle's probably got like a search coming up to see if on there kyle is one of the admins for msp geek Uh, so definitely like I said, I they're great people. So take the time to join Uh, highly highly recommend if you want to get in there, sue Oh, yeah, well, I'll rant about this later eric when I have some time. I'll I'll do some ranting about the, uh Sony in there. I'm probably going to do a dedicated video on there I'll reach out to the quad nine people first and maybe they want to come on and Talk about it, but it's a mess. It's a mess. It's completely sony and the wrong is wrong can be Um, there's nothing I agree with it But I was just reading it. I was reading the court case updates today And I was like, I'm gonna throw it up. There's a topic to raise some more awareness I'll probably do a dedicated video of being sued by sony sony suing dns. Sony. Sony hates dns I have no thoughts on the uh neckier switch because I don't really use them Can you explain, uh, what's about piehole and unbound? Why is this combination better than just piehole aggard? um Not really and I don't use it very often. So I'm probably not the best person to ask Oh, you moved to halo psa today. Cool. Halo is pretty extensive. There's a lot going on there Let's see Do you think, uh, churnash should support, uh, exporting today's that's no, I don't think so I don't think that's a good idea I mean, you could do it from the command line if you wanted. I don't think they should build in support for it Um, I don't think that's a great. It's just the the use case is extremely limited on that I'm gonna give this about five more minutes because I got to finish my presentation that I got to go do in an hour Oh, let's see Yeah, halo psa like they seem to become one of the more popular ones out there and it's just They you know, we're playing around with it right now because we don't we don't actively use it But it's a it's a pretty extensive product We we have the a lot of other things we're doing in integration in the back end of my company right now We're evaluating a few new products So we don't want to switch any some things because we're trying to drop a few new tools in there Including tools like saslio that I mentioned um, because we're In that mode, I don't want to you don't change too many things at once. Uh, you'll get a mutiny I think that's what they call it when I hear employees just really angry at you So Can I recommend an ether wiring tester, you know I won't lie the fluke one's really nice, but it's expensive Um, I've used the ideal one and I think that one works really well And I've also talked about the client tester. Uh, the client tester works really well client tester is going to be a whole lot less money Uh, and and it's a good one I think I have a list of a few if you type in like network tools I've talked about the client tester before it's I think under you can find it for even less on ebay But they're generally under a hundred dollars. Uh, the fluke one hey hands down love the fluke works great But I understand that price point is not going to be uh for everyone Do I know the brand ruji networks never heard? Uh, I think I've heard of them because people have asked me about them here But I don't know anything good bad or indifferent about them They're also using ethernet over poe Well, I'll take a few more questions for a few more minutes. Like I said, I got to get back to actually Finishing a presentation that will be live stream. So but I can't interact on live stream other people will interact on live stream I'll just tweet it out. I'm going to be standing up there pointing and talking about firewall rules and funds like that Uh Fun stuff and I know I I didn't really get to do a shout out for everyone from everywhere But it is cool that so many people are from so many different places Um, and depending on if I got time out, maybe I'll if I got time to do another live stream Uh Before next thursday because I like doing the longer live streams and uh talking to people Someone says someone on youtube said They're a very bad brand never use them. I've never heard of them But there's a few other companies out there I gotta admit it's hard to get a start in the network space because at some point Ubiquity was a newcomer in the network space and does that mean I should never look at a new product or whatever? At some point, you know, you I I think it's good to go look at new products But it's hard because it's hard to get a start on a new product It's hard to figure out, you know, do you want to take a risk on it Is the company solid someone has to in the beginning and I think it's great when home users do because it's less risk The risk gets higher and higher when we do so many large deployments So we've been using Ubiquity for example, I don't know pushing like seven eight more I feel maybe 10 years. I'm trying to remember the first one. We got it was a long time ago But that being said Now when we're doing deployments if we're doing 300 access points I can't pick a new company and then deploy 300 of some company. I never really spent too much time with Um access points and then trying to figure out when do you trust them enough? Is it is it after six months of testing the product? Is it a year? And what if that company you've worked with them a year and the next year they go out of business now I have 300 unsupported access points and I'm in a pickle. So it's really hard to get in there and do that. It's uh It's pretty cool To think about and or pretty scary. I should say think about but it's just these are all the little decision-making points That go into deciding on brands so uh Thoughts on ubiquity versus tp link Uh, ubiquity seems to be better at end of life than tp link and better at security updates than tp link so I from a mass deployment standpoint I'm going to stay with ubiquity over tp link but for a home user. I don't think tp links a bad thing. Um, they seem to work pretty good. So Yeah, and it kind of depends what similar products the only thing cheaper than ubiquity well. No, not the only thing The next popular brand cheaper than ubiquity is going to be tp link. Um, so yes, they're cheaper, but I don't know. I wouldn't trust them to a 300 uh device install But what I put them, you know, if i'm building a home lab and looking for some budget equipment I think tp link is good for that tp link has a reputation for making stuff that's reasonably reliable, but You know, it's their software. I don't think is near as good. So that's my thoughts on there It comes down to where you're based and of course that's uh That's going to be a big deal too. Uh, once you're outside the us the pricing differences are all over the place and You know, you got to buy what you can afford and especially if if it's substantial costs So that is something always to take into consideration All right Well, I am going to uh end this live stream. Sorry. It's only 30 minutes I usually go at least an hour or sometimes an hour and a half But uh links are down there to the quad nigh and links are down there to the msp geek. So reach out to Uh msp geek if you are an msp and thinking about joining and you know all fun stuff like that um This isn't this is probably a budget choice. I'll leave that with you Uh, if you can find something that you can reflash to open wrt, which is generally I think pretty well supported Been a long time since I used it that might make sense. So Uh, do I think my microtik could take any big goody to build a controller? That's a big if that's a huge if so if I don't know It's a maybe there's all kinds of quirkiness of microtik There's a good write-up in my forums that someone who deploys microtik at scale Has a nice write-up on all the problems with it of what they and their user of it. They still use it But they like oh this this this problem this problem this problem. Here's how you mitigate it. Here's how you mitigate it Here's a problem and here's a model you shouldn't get and you should get this model But make sure it's subversion this there's all these little nuances That they broke down. I don't remember the exactly a forum post But if you search for microtik You'll you'll find it you'll find some discussion about what people love or don't love about it So uh plenty of discussions over in the forums is one of the easier places to reach out and message me Thank you all for joining and i'll see you next time