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Following on from my original post in 2017 and a follow up I made in 2019, I am making this post to show the changes my to my home network. Some parts have not changed. such as; The rack, a 9U with dimensions of 600x600mm. I am still running pfSense on a Qotom Q150P-S08 Mini ...

I have recently been researching VLANs for my home network. These will be used to split up my network devices into their own logical network, such as IP Cams, IoT devices and Guest WiFi. My current PoE switch was unmanaged, I had to replace this with a managed version. I already had a HP ProCurve ...

I have a bunch of TP-Link EAP model WiFi access points in my home, these are enterprise grade devices allow management via a unified controller, TP-Link call their controller software Omada. This is very similar to Ubiquiti’s Unifi controller. Whilst I don’t have any other Unifi equipment, I found the TP-Link access points to be ...

I’ve been using a few Raspberry Pi Zeros for a while, and whilst they’re great, small, cheap boards they have always lacked a dedicated Ethernet port. I could always attach a USB to Ethernet dongle, which I have done in the past but then it adds more bulk and cost – so I may as ...

Over the past 10 years, I have been able to use free and open source software to benefit my personal and work life, by using Linux I have gained an understanding of what it really is, and how it can be used to make a perfect server or desktop OS. 2010 Starting in 2010 I...

During a recent project I found an issue with images being shown very small when viewing a web page in IE10/11, this happened when the page was built in AMP with images being loaded with the AMP-IMG component. E.g. Notice the small image floated right: The project was built with WordPress, and uses the official ...

This is a follow on from my first post which described how I installed multiple CAT6 network cable runs in my house, view here. In this post, I will talk through the equipment which is currently in my network rack for 2019. Firstly, I have upgraded to a larger rack; now a 9U 600x600mm rack....

The Neos Smart cam is a small indoor security camera based on the Xiaomi Xiaofang hardware, this is similar to the Wyze Cam 2 which is also based on the same Xiaomi hardware. I’ve wanted one of these for a while, and now the Neos smart cam is readily available on Amazon in the UK, ...

I have recently picked up a Raspberry Pi Zero. Because of it’s size, it is small enough to fit about anywhere, but there isn’t always a free electrical socket nearby – however a PoE powered solution would be ideal. I’ve already heard there is an official PoE hat but this can only be used with ...

Instead of using the TP-Link TL-R470T+ router at home which I’ve showed in a previous post \[link\], I have decided it’s time to take the plunge and start using proper router software, pfSense. pfSense is open-source router/firewall software. It comes with many advanced features and is often used in the enterprise, it’s probably overkill in ...

So, I forgot I signed up to receive a free Beacon from Google a while ago – but it has just turned up this week at my work, here is a run down of what it does and how to receive one. A beacon for those who don’t know is a small Bluetooth 4.0 Low ...

This is a quick, but I thought it would be worth a post. Within Linux (I’m using Ubuntu 17.04) you can quickly export your computer specs as an HTML file, useful if you need some info on what particular hardware you’re running. Simply run this within your terminal at the location where you want the ...

This list features some of my favourite typefaces so far for 2017. Most are from websites I have seen over the past couple of months, others are ones I Have known about for a while – see the list below     Activ Groteske By Dalton Maag Download: https://www.daltonmaag.com/library/aktiv-grotesk Price: Paid, dependant on styles and ...

Update: A related post regarding my network rack is available here: https://ryanfitton.co.uk/blog/home-network-setup-whats-in-my-rack-2019/ When I moved into my new house, I knew that I wanted hard-wired Ethernet networking in every home. Ethernet cables provide much faster speeds than Wi-Fi and are much more secure. I wanted the cables to future-proof my house, so I decided to go ...

I’ve decided to share this code for anyone who requires a quick ‘copy and paste’ solution for using data maps (map-get) and loops within Sass. This example will allow you to set values within the data map, then loop through and output as CSS rules. Setup the variables within the data map and create the code ...

I have recently found a new free stock photo website...

Email newsletters are great, sure you can go to websites such as Sitepoint or Smashing Magazine and view articles themselves. But I find receiving newsletters makes sure I read the most relevant and important articles at the end of a week. I mostly sign up for newsletters to keep myself up-to-date with the latest web ...

A collection of some of my favourite CodePens.

I have wanted my own always-on Status Board, ever since I installed Panic’s Status Board app on my iPad I decided it would be better to have a dedicated device to display the information. Buying a new iPad just as a Status Board would be overkill, however I did have a spare cheap 7″ Android ...

On the 3rd October 2013 Adobe announced they suffered a major data breach as reported by Krebs on Security. Recently security researchers have analysed the leaked passwords used by Adobe's customers, a news article by The Register shows this information clearly. It turns out that 1.9 million users were using '123456' and another 3.5 million were using 'password' as ...

Over the last couple of years I have begun storing more and more data on my computers, I regularly perform a backup of files and full system images every month. I currently store my backups on two 1.5TB and a 400gb external hard drive, you may say that storing backup data on that amount of ...

I have wanted to setup my own server to host websites for quite a while, although looking at the prices from VPS providers such as Rackspace and Linode; the prices range from around$15 and \$20 a month, too much for what I wanted to pay. My sites don’t get enough traffic to justify that ...

The OUYA is a small Android powered game console which originally received funding from a Kickstarter project back in August 2012. It reached it’s target goal of \$950,000 but went on to receive much more. The final total when the Kickstarter project ended was \$8,596,474. I wish I’d heard about the OUYA before the Kickstarter ended as would ...

One Thing I Know is a book put together by selected organisations in the UK. The book features a large array of article from creative leaders discussing interesting topics such as promoting your business and using social media effectively.  The book itself is around 110 pages and features many outstanding illustrations by Fiasco Design. It’s free ...

Podcasts can be thought of as shows, either video or radio shows. They cover certain topics you may be interested in. For me, I subscribe to a variety of Web Design and Technology related podcasts. There are thousands to choose from, using websites such as poodle.fm and the Yahoo Podcast directory will help you discover new podcasts. Apple’s iTunes program also ...

This is going to be the home of my writing. I will be posting regular articles about the web design industry ranging from design to development, I may also occasionally post articles about some of my interests. I will try to get my first article posted soon. In the mean time please subscribe to this Blog using ...

For quite some time I have found the need to have a small dedicated computer to act as a file and print server for the multiple computers I have running at home. I did research of the best possible hardware for the tasks which I needed the server to perform. Since the server will be ...