Posts on ilar.in

Dynamic DNS (dyndns) with Namecheap on Unifi Security Gateway Pro 4

Fri, 27 Mar 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Home network users commonly deal with dynamic IP addresses that change unpredictably. This can be troublesome when using a VPN, as the IP can change at any time. Dynamic DNS solves this by running a daemon that updates DNS records whenever the IP address changes, creating the illusion of a static address.

Namecheap Configuration

Log in to your Namecheap account
Select “Manage” for your desired domain
Navigate to Advanced DNS
Activate the Dynamic DNS service and save the password
Add an A+Dynamic DNS Record type
Use @ for naked domains or specify a subdomain
Set 127.0.0.1 as the initial IP address (the daemon will replace this)
Save changes

USG Controller Configuration

Log in to the USG controller
Go to Settings > Services > Dynamic DNS
Click “Create new dynamic DNS”
Enter these details:
- WAN Interface: Select your active WAN interface
- Service: Choose Namecheap
- Hostname: Use @ or your configured subdomain
- Username: Your domain name
- Password: The Dynamic DNS service password from Namecheap
- Server: dynamicdns.park-your-domain.com
Click Save

That’s it — the daemon will now keep your DNS record updated whenever your public IP changes.

My Home Network Setup

Mon, 23 Mar 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Previously I had a Ubiquiti Edgerouter Lite, two managed Netgear switches and a Unifi AP-SHD WiFi. When my Edgerouter Lite suddenly died and there was no warranty left, I thought I could redo my home network and learn something new while doing it. I had some principles I wanted to fulfil:

The setup needed to be robust
The setup needed to offer great configurability
I wanted the possibility to isolate different devices into different VLANs
I wanted PoE capability

For this task I chose the Unifi product family from Ubiquiti because they combine quality hardware with great configurability, and I had heard good things about them. I decided the Unifi AP-SHD WiFi was good enough to stay, but the rest I wanted to replace. I got the following gear:

WireGuard with Unifi Security Gateway Pro 4

Mon, 23 Mar 2020 00:00:00 +0000

As part of my home network I have setup VPN connectivity so that I can access my stuff also when I’m not at home. Unifi Security Gateway offers PPTP and L2TP VPN servers out of the box but there are better alternatives available like WireGuard and OpenVPN. As with everything I wanted to learn new stuff so I chose WireGuard for this task. “WireGuard is an extremely simple yet fast and modern VPN” that “aims to be as easy to configure and deploy as SSH.” A VPN connection is made simply by exchanging very simple public keys — exactly like exchanging SSH keys — and all the rest is transparently handled by WireGuard. Unfortunately the information on how to get WireGuard up & running and make the installation persistent after USG upgrades could not be found from one single place. This is why I decided to gather the data under this one post.

Two-factor Authentication: How to Do It in a Secure and Usable Way

Sun, 22 Mar 2020 00:00:00 +0000

If you enable two-factor authentication on every service where it’s possible — and you use many of those services every day — you’ve probably felt the friction of manually entering 2FA codes. The usual process: open your authenticator app (Authy, Google Authenticator, etc.) on your phone, find the code, type it in. Do this several times a day and it becomes cumbersome. But there’s a better way.

When Your Pet Gets Sick

Wed, 03 Jan 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Last few days have been really hard for us as our older cat Tuure has been ill. First we thought that he was just stressed as we were away for two days at the years end but when the problems with eating continued we had no chance but to take the cat to doctor. He got some fluids and some medicine that helps to eat but unfortunately that did not help as we had to take him back to the doctor today. Doctor investigated him again and the end result was that we had to leave him there for the night to be monitored and investigated more. Even though we’ve had our cats only few months it’s feels really awful and stressful when one is ill. Even the slightest feeling that we might lose Tuure feels so distressing. And all we can now do is to wait.

Sleep

Tue, 02 Jan 2018 00:00:00 +0000

One might say that a proper night’s sleep is only valued when you have missed one. For me it’s always the night before the first workday after a vacation that I sleep really poorly. And last night was no exception. There are many things that affect how well you sleep and everyone should be aware of these things. In the end sleep is the only way to charge your batteries in the long run :)

My New Year's Resolutions

Mon, 01 Jan 2018 00:00:00 +0000

It’s time to revive my blog by doing some new year’s resolutions. Last half of the 2017 was really busy. Getting up to speed with my new job, helping my parents with their housing things and getting two new lovely cats to our family has kept me really busy. I’ve at least partially neglected my overall well-being and I want to fix that so here are my new year’s resolutions for 2018:

IPv6: Not So Ready Yet

Mon, 17 Apr 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Once I got my home network setup with separated VLAN’s I started thinking what next? IPv6 of course!

As SixXS had just recently announced sunsetting SixXS (really interesting read btw!) I thought it would be worthwhile to check the IPv6 status of my ISP as it was so long time ago when I setup my first IPv6 tunnel.

They surely had the setups already up and running as the need for IPv6 was clear! But for my surprise both of the major ISP’s here in Finland, Elisa and Telia, were still not offering IPv6 to all of their customers.

Upgrading Firmware for Netgear GS105Ev2 Switch on Mac OS

Sat, 08 Apr 2017 00:00:00 +0000

I recently got a Netgear GS105Ev2 and GS108Ev3 managed switch and wanted to update their firmware. The GS108Ev3 updated easily through its web interface, but the GS105Ev2 required a different approach using TFTP. Here’s how to do it on Mac OS.

Download the latest firmware from the Netgear support site
Extract the downloaded .zip file
Download the MacTFTP Client
Connect your Mac and the GS105Ev2 switch directly to each other with a wired connection
Remove all other network cables from the GS105Ev2 switch
Power off and power on the GS105Ev2 switch
Configure your Mac to use a static IP address of 192.168.0.1 with netmask 255.255.255.0
Connect to the GS105Ev2 switch via web browser at http://192.168.0.239 with password password
Head to Maintenance → Firmware Upgrade and press “Enter Loader mode”
Change the URL manually to http://192.168.0.239/index.htm
Fire up the MacTFTP Client downloaded earlier
Select “Send”, use 192.168.0.239 as the address and password as the password
Select the firmware file using the “File…” button and click “Start”
Wait for a minute for the upload to complete, then for the switch to update and reboot
Connect to http://192.168.0.239 — it will ask you to upload the -VB.bin bootloader update file

Critical Thinking Outside April 1st

Sat, 01 Apr 2017 00:00:00 +0000

It’s funny how people were today really critical on what one said to them. Are you trying to fool me!?!? I myself did not try too fool anyone but was instead pondering things regarding critical thinking. How could we transfer the positive side of this criticality to our daily lives? Especially when reading something from the internet?

Place for My Daily Thoughts

Sat, 01 Apr 2017 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve been thinking for some time already should I start writing my blog again. The idea got buried under some other things like changing my workplace but now seems to be the right moment to start again. Don’t know if anyone is actually reading these but here I come!