Tuesday, October 21, 2025

Not much this week

Well, I did not get much done last week.  Just watching videos on sysmon, powershell and linux commands.
I still have not replaced my hdd in my mini server with a ssd.  I will complete that this week for sure, lol!  I had a scare today with running system updates on that box and it hosing up trying to update Jellyfin.  It prompted my to reboot when I saw the error message in the logs but that did not work, uh oh!  I had to take a deep breath and test the rest of my services running on that box and all was good but Jellyfin would not come up after several minutes.  So, I reran the system update command and that seems to have fixed it.  Whew!!!!
I have a backup of the database that I have not tested but this week would have sucked if I had to go that method.  I should switch it to a docker container, so it is easier to backup but oh well.  I think I need to spin up docker containers for plex and jellyfin and migrate my stuff to them.  It would have to be on the r610 in proxmox.  Hearing about several tools for pentesting online that I need to look into soon.  Learning a lot as of late.

Happy Tuesday πŸ˜€

Monday, October 13, 2025

Last Week Very Interesting

Okay

I did not get my mini server hdd replaced nor wazuh setup last week but I did get some other important things accomplished.

Installed a couple of services on my mini server ( iperf3 and drawio ), watched a lot of videos on setting up wazuh, winget, powershell/linux tutorials.  I worked on setting on a hacking lab on both of my laptops using virtualbox.  I also learned something important about using clonezilla, a 500 gig SSD and a 480 gig SSD are not workable if you are going from 500 gig hdd to 480 ssd and I have to remember to use gparted when I go from a 256 gig ssd to a 480 gig ssd.  I need to find a disk copying tool that is less complex.  Live and learnπŸ€” 

Happy Monday πŸ˜€!

Monday, October 06, 2025

Must do better this week

Okay

I did not get everything done I scheduled to get done but I did get some things worked out.  I think I know why I am not able to print from a windows computer to my print server.  Needless to say, windows users take a lot for granted!  Microsoft literally holds your hands when it comes to setting up devices in their environment while linux expects you to just know how hardware, software and the kernel interact in it's environment; but I did shoot myself in the foot by going headless for ubuntu server.  I probably would not had a problem if I had went gui with the ubuntu server install.  Oh well, the benefits far out weight the pain points using it headless.  I may be able to get the printing issue resolved today.  Also need to work on the HDD upgrade for the mini server.  SSD came in lastnight and I will try to get done in a day or so.

Here's to a new week!

Happy Monday πŸ˜€

Tuesday, September 30, 2025

Better Late Than Never, lol!

Well I did not get done everything I planned out on my todo list last week.

Oh well, such as life!

MS Sql Server  Done
Wireshark  Done
Nmap  Done
Proxmox (Kind of done, I chickened out on upgrading Proxmox from 8 to 9 but I did get it updated for 8)
Install Wazuh  (Unfortunately, this was a no go)  Need to find a system that has the resources for setup) 
Training modules for PowerShell, Linux fundamental's and Python   Done
Upgrade mini server's hard drive to an SSD  (not done due to the SSD that I have being to small) Amazon
Possible upgrade Portainer and Immich   Done
Work on using Notion as a note taking solution (?)  Done

I did get my windows server 2022 updated
I got netdata installed but still working on figuring out how to use it
I also got the mini server backed up to an image even though I was not able to get the image moved to the SSD.  The current HDD is 500 gigs and the SSD is 480 gigs.  Clonezilla did not like that for the two ways it has to image and restore to a new drive.  Oh well, I have to order a 500 gig SSD from Amazon, ugh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This week working on getting 500 gig SSD for drive upgrade for mini server and need to work on getting Wazuh installed on a box here, fun!!!!
Trying to learn using a lot of the pentesting tools like zeek, rita, backstorm, gobuster and possibly burbsuite.

Baby steps!!!

Happy Tuesday πŸ˜€


Monday, September 22, 2025

Another Monday

New start

Things to accomplish this week

Work on the following:

MS Sql Server
Wireshark
Nmap
Proxmox
Install Wazuh
Training modules for PowerShell, Linux fundamental's and Python
Upgrade mini server's hard drive to an SSD
Possible upgrade Portainer and Immich
Work on using Notion as a note taking solution (?)

More to come

Happy Monday πŸ˜€

Tuesday, September 16, 2025

Printer Snafu!

Learned a lot today.  Spent 2 hours today working on my printer issue in Linux.  After changing the cups config file roughly 15 times I am finally able to print from the console page, but I did have the working after the first change, lol!  Me being me decided after I was able to print from the console page to modify the cups config file and enable Kerberos which caused a royal pain in my butt.  I wasn't locked out of the console, but I was not able to make changes to the config file from the console, granted I usually do that from the command line anyway.  Enabling Kerberos made printing and making changes from the console impossible.  So, I tried to change the file for the block of text under Kerberos.  12 + changes later I decided to look at the backup file for the config file that I had fortunately backed up before I first modified it and I was off to the races.  In the end I soon discovered in order to turn off Kerberos I had to modify the entry at the top of the file under "DefaultAuthType" and vola it was working again.  I am so glad I back up my config files before I modified them . It is worth it.  Also learned that the drivers for my printer are deprecated and will probably not work after the next upgrade of cups.  Oh well, I will have to cross that bridge when I get to it.

Happy Tuesday πŸ˜€

Thursday, September 04, 2025

A New Day

Well, it is a new day, and I have made a decision on the pursuit of working on new projects.  I wasted several days trying to get the Wyze bridge project to work because all the videos I watched made it so simple to get setup in their environment.  It looks like Wyze has done something on their end to prevent this project from working.  Now I have to make sure I don't chase my tail on new projects when they don't quite work the way they are supposed to work, lol!

Lessons learned!

Happy Thursday 😬

Friday, August 29, 2025

"Uncle"

I am calling uncle on this one.  I have been working since this morning on getting the docker instance for the wyze-bridge to work and it is a no go.  I have watched several videos and followed them to the letter but it will not work for me.  I know there is something missing and all the videos I watched left a lot out when they went through their setup.  frustrating but definitely a learning experience.  I think i am going to walk away from this one and do some more research after I can get things running In know will work.  Ugh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Live and learn  πŸ™ƒ

Thursday, August 28, 2025

Change can be hard!!!!

Well yesterday I decided to upgrade the hard drive on my office laptop and it was a bear.  I used clonezilla and it was definitely a learning experience.  After 3 tries that took an hour and a half to run per try.  I got my laptop upgraded from a 256 gig drive to a 500 gig drive.  Now I have to do my non office laptop and my server.  I am better prepared now and hopefully it won't take 5 hours.  

Technology can sometimes suck, lol!!!!!! 

Happy Thursday πŸ˜€

Tuesday, August 26, 2025

Still Alive LOL!!!!!

It has been a while but I am back again.  I have been getting a lot done with my homelab over the last couple of days.  Proxmox , ADGuard Home, docker desktop, portainer and immich are updated.  Should be able to get the windows server 2022 VM on proxmox updated today then training begins.

Jeff's Play -by- Play