Chinese researchers are making progress with quantum computing but they haven’t broken modern RSA or AES encryption, Russian attackers compromised a business via a nearby building’s WiFi, a startup runs out of money and bricks a robot for kids, and hardening Linux systems.

Plugs

Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with early episodes sometimes

ZFS Storage Fault Management on Linux

News/discussion

No, Chinese quantum computers haven’t hacked military-grade encryption

The Nearest Neighbor Attack: How A Russian APT Weaponized Nearby Wi-Fi Networks for Covert Access

Startup will brick $800 emotional support robot for kids without refunds

The confusing reality of AI friends

Free consulting

We were asked about hardening Linux systems.

ServerMania

Get 15% Off dedicated servers – recurring for Life at servermania.com/25a with code 25ADMINS

1Password

Extended Access Management: Secure every sign-in for every app on every device. Support the show and check it out at 1password.com/25a

See our contact page for ways to get in touch.

The US government tells people to use encrypted messaging, mandated MFA in healthcare raises a scary geopolitical question, QNAP bungles a firmware update, and securing access to self hosted applications with mTLS.

Plugs

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Deploying pNFS file sharing with FreeBSD

News/discussion

FBI Warns iPhone And Android Users—Stop Sending Texts

US senators propose mandated MFA, encryption in healthcare

QNAP firmware update leaves NAS owners locked out of their boxes

Free consulting

We were asked about securing access to self hosted applications with mTLS.

Automox

Check out the brand new Autonomous IT podcast. Listen in as a variety of experts in the IT Operations space discuss the latest Patch Tuesday releases, mitigation tips, and custom automations to help with CVE remediations. Listen now on Spotify, Apple, or wherever you get your podcasts.

1Password

Extended Access Management: Secure every sign-in for every app on every device. Support the show and check it out at 1password.com/25a

See our contact page for ways to get in touch.

Intel’s CEO departs but replacing him won’t magically solve its serious problems, Zipcar wasn’t prepared for an outage and handled it really badly, moving to an email provider that supports DMARC, and picking a NAS distribution.

Plugs

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ZFS Ask Me Anything – December 12th

Applying the ARC Algorithm to the ARC

News

Intel CEO takes his leave as ambition meets reality

What happened to Intel?

Zipcar Outage Strands Customers in Random Places

Free consulting

We were asked about moving to an email provider that supports DMARC, and picking a NAS distribution.

ServerMania

Get 15% Off dedicated servers – recurring for Life at servermania.com/25a with code 25ADMINS

See our contact page for ways to get in touch.

Equinix is shutting down its bare metal service, D-Link advises people to dump old vulnerable routers, Google makes changes to how it ranks some affiliate-driven “reviews”, and data caps seem to be sticking around. Plus mixing different brands and types of disks, using other partitions on a ZFS drive, and scaling a fleet of FreeBSD hosts with jails.

Plug

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Introducing OpenZFS Fast Dedup

News/discussion

Equinix to shutter bare metal IaaS service in 2026

D-Link says replace vulnerable routers or risk pwnage

Google cracks down on “Parasite SEO,” punishing established publishers

Cable companies and Trump’s FCC chair agree: Data caps are good for you

Free consulting

We were asked about mixing different brands and types of disks, using other partitions on a ZFS drive, and scaling a fleet of FreeBSD hosts with jails.

nomad-pot-driver

Cluster provisioning with Nomad and Pot on FreeBSD

ServerMania

Find this year’s Black Friday & Cyber Week deals at servermania.com/blackfriday

1Password

Extended Access Management: Secure every sign-in for every app on every device. Support the show and check it out at 1password.com/25a

See our contact page for ways to get in touch.

Windows server unexpectedly upgrades major versions, Microsoft reinvents the idea of a thin client, restricting a friend’s access to just their backups, and the importance of warranties when buying hardware.

Plugs

Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with early episodes sometimes

DKMS vs kmod: The Essential Guide for ZFS on Linux

News

Windows Server 2025 takes admins by surprise

No word from Microsoft on shock Windows Server 2025 installs

Windows Server 2025 known issues and notifications

Windows 11 update bug falsely warns of end of support, confusing users

Windows 365 Link—the first Cloud PC device

Free consulting

We were asked about restricting a friend’s access to just their backups, and the importance of warranties when buying hardware.

2.5 Admins 218: TLS TTL

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Jim and Allan discover modern charging tech and marvel at what’s possible in the USB-C era, more on IPv6 firewalls, using ZFS like Git, and running your own authoritative DNS server.

Automox

Check out the brand new Autonomous IT podcast. Listen in as a variety of experts in the IT Operations space discuss the latest Patch Tuesday releases, mitigation tips, and custom automations to help with CVE remediations. Listen now on Spotify, Apple, or wherever you get your podcasts.

1Password

Extended Access Management: Secure every sign-in for every app on every device. Support the show and check it out at 1password.com/25a

See our contact page for ways to get in touch.

How using a copy-on-write filesystem like ZFS can get systems back online within seconds after ransomeware encrypts all your data, and even warn you more quickly that it’s happening. Plus Jim and Allan’s advice on getting a job as a sysadmin.

Plugs

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Klara: 5 Reasons Why Your ZFS Storage Benchmarks Are Wrong

Free consulting

We were asked about getting a job as a sysadmin.

See our contact page for ways to get in touch.

It’s Halloween so Jim and Allan share horrific and spooky stories from their sysadmin careers. Plus picking a UPS for a homelab.

Plugs

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Klara: NAS: Maintenance Best Practices

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SSL certificates are likely going to last less time, the latest Windows 11 update leaves a huge chunk of data behind and doesn’t play nicely with some SSDs, picking a modern dhcp server on a homebrew router, and storing encrypted backups on a friend’s NAS with ZFS.

Plugs

Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with early episodes sometimes

Klara Halloween Webinar: ZFS Horror Stories. Oct 31st 13:00 EDT, 17:00 UTC

News

Sysadmins slam Apple’s SSL/TLS cert lifespan cuts

Windows 11 24H2 hoards 8.63 GB of junk you can’t delete

As Microsoft rolls out its Windows 11 24H2 update, owners of certain Western Digital SSDs have been greeted with constant Blue Screens of Death

WD releases new firmware to fix Windows 11 24H2 blue screens of death on some SSD

Not just Western Digital – Windows 24H2 BSODs Asus kit

Free consulting

We were asked about picking a modern dhcp server on a homebrew router, and storing encrypted backups on a friend’s NAS with ZFS.

The Ars guide to building a Linux router from scratch

Linux Router Part 1: Routing, NAT, and NFTables

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The difference between monitoring and metrics analysis, the security pros and cons of cloud vs on-prem, why Jim and Allan don’t use Unraid, and cloud storage and email for a small company.

Feedback

Netdata

Nagios

ZFS and Unraid

Free consulting

We were asked about cloud storage and email for a small company.

Automox

Check out the brand new Autonomous IT podcast. Listen in as a variety of experts in the IT Operations space discuss the latest Patch Tuesday releases, mitigation tips, and custom automations to help with CVE remediations. Listen now on Spotify, Apple, or wherever you get your podcasts.

1Password

Extended Access Management: Secure every sign-in for every app on every device. Support the show and check it out at 1password.com/25a

See our contact page for ways to get in touch.

NIST has finally proposed some sensible password standards, why server CPUs with high core counts make sense in a lot of deployments, the .io TLD is probably sticking around, and the best options for a Linux-based router.

Plugs

Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with early episodes sometimes

Klara Halloween Webinar: ZFS Horror Stories. Oct 31st 13:00 EDT, 17:00 UTC

ZBM 101: Introduction to ZFSBootMenu

News

NIST proposes barring some of the most nonsensical password rules

You’re right not to rush into running AMD, Intel’s new manycore monster CPUs

The Disappearance of an Internet Domain

Free consulting

We were asked about setting up a Linux-based router.

OpenWrt on TP-Link devices

See our contact page for ways to get in touch.