Neel Chauhan

While I’ve brought back my old neelc.org website, I’m now primarily posting on Mom & Pop Network.

For quite a while, on my two Rocky Linux servers/hypervisors, I got the following message if I log in via my Samba Active Directory: Domain Controller unreachable, using cached credentials instead I upgraded both my hosts to Rocky 10 via re-installing, yet

If you own a modern non-Mac system, chances are there’s a Copilot key on it.

While I’ve never really used DuckDuckGo, due to me liking Google results better (although I hate the data collection), I was bored today and wanted something in my home lab.

For a living, I run the VPS host Fourplex.

When I set up Rocky Linux on my homelab, I initially set up LXD containers.

For years I’ve primarily used x86 PCs.

While I’m more of a fan of Red Hat-based distros, using a Fedora desktop and laptop, and multiple Rocky Linux servers, I decided to revisit UniFi after our NYC townhouse had poor Wi-Fi from MikroTik wAP AXs.

If you thought HPE support was bad, ASRock Rack support is 100x times worse.

With Bluesky’s apparent rise after the elections, I’ve heard a lot of criticism about Bluesky on the Fediverse.

After a disasterous experiment with Ubiquiti UniFi APs, I decided to sell them on /r/homelabsales (because I’m not allowed to return) and buy MikroTik wAP ax APs.

After my old Sol Republic earbuds died, all the headphones I daily drive are or have been made by Sony.

Although I now live primarily in Verizon territory, my family has a second home in Frontier-land at least for a few more months.

For many years, Hurricane Electric was the de-jure IPv6 tunneling platform.

Remember when Reddit /r/sysadmin said HPE support blows?

I don’t remember where I heard about ArchiveTeam from, but when I did learn about it I knew I wanted to join in.

As mentioned earlier, my homelab server is a HPE ProLiant ML110 Gen11 which is a single-socket Intel Sapphire Rapids-based server.

I’ve made it back eastwards!

For many years, I’ve stuck with OPNsense, first initially since until a couple of years ago I was a die-hard FreeBSD user.

As my long-awaited sequel to my MikroTik RouterOS v7 BGP configuration, I will do a RouterOS v7 configuration, but this time with IPv6.

In my homelab, I have a Rocky Linux 9 server/hypervisor.

While I’m not a professional network engineer at the time of writing, lately I’ve been playing with MikroTik’s CHR in EVE-NG.

At the present moment, my desktop is technically a “gaming PC” but really a workstation for various non-gaming tasks.

One commonly-stated problem with PPPoE, especially done on x86-based routers like pfSense and OPNsense is they’re “single-threaded”.

I am currently a CenturyLink Fiber customer in Seattle, WA and its well known that CenturyLink uses PPPoE.

If you are wondering why my Twitter/X account @_neelc is blank, it’s because of this reason: X is basically KiwiFarms, but mainstream: a platform to spread hate.

I recently got a HPE ProLiant ML110 Gen11.

If you’re like me and run your own home server, you might find yourself needing to forward TCP ports 80 and 443 on your router.

For many years, telecom and Net Neutrality-related policies have been a hot-button political issue for me, to the extent that I, an ordinary software engineer at Microsoft have been blocked on Twitter by former FCC chairman Ajit Pai because I tweeted supp…

If you haven’t been living under a rock, you probably already know what ChatGPT is.

UPDATE: I now live with my brother in Stamford, CT while my family renovates a NYC townhouse/brownstone and right now I’ll be using Frontier FiberOptic until the new home is ready.

Disclaimer: I work at Microsoft, but not on Windows Server or Active Directory.

My current FreeBSD laptop is a 2020 14" HP Spectre x360, which uses Intel’s 11th Gen CPU and “Evo” platform, although I previously also had the 13" 2020 version with a similar setup (but lacked working audio on non-Windows).

While expensive and hard to find on eBay (thanks, ServeTheHome), the HP t740 “Thin Client” is a great pfSense box if you want more power, or a compact home server.

When running FreeBSD on laptops with a 6th Gen (Skylake) or later Intel CPU, for me these are HP Spectre x360s (sorry, I’m not a ThinkPad fan), one annoyance with the out of the box FreeBSD configuration is the fact that the fan is running most of the tim…

With the events that the private messaging app Signal has been blocked in Iran, Signal has come up with an “proxy” solution akin to Tor’s Bridges, and have given instructions on how to do it.

On my laptop (HP Spectre x360 2018), I decided to install a second FreeBSD install, this time on the Intel Optane drive.

My current wireless service is T-Mobile and I use a unlocked (Google Store edition) Google Pixel 3 running LineageOS.

I work at Microsoft, and with that, I get free Azure credits.

As a hobby, I play with software routers in virtual machines (always FreeBSD).

I’m a recent Microsoft hire.

After graduating college, I am moving from Brooklyn, NY to Redmond, WA (guess where I got a job).

I recently picked up an HP T730 as my OPNsense firewall, mainly to repurpose my previous HP ProDesk as a desktop.

I have been asked to use GENI to test some software I have written at CacheCash/NYU.

I have gotten a HP T620 Plus as a firewall box, replacing a Chinese “Mini PC” which barely handles my 300/300 Verizon FiOS.

Note: I am using FreeBSD as the operating system in the article, but the information should be generic to Linux or any non-Microsoft operating system.

If you’re like me and run FreeBSD on a laptop (mine is was a HP EliteBook x360 1030 G2 before I broke it in a bothed “repair” job), one issue you may encounter is the fact that switching between speakers and headphones isn’t automatic.