2025-11-03
pfSense — a tank in the world of firewalls.
Is updated less often, but runs for years without surprises.
🏢 Who pfSense is for
- Corporation with 100+ users
- Needs official support
- Has old but reliable hardware
- Value stability
📚 pfSense Features
- Multi-WAN and automatic failover
- Traffic Shaping — bandwidth management
- Captive Portal — guest authentication
- OpenVPN and IPsec — encrypted tunnels
⚙️ Installation
- ISO → USB
- Install → configure WAN/LAN
- In about 10 minutes — a ready firewall
Example HAProxy config:
2025-11-02
OPNsense — it’s like pfSense, but prettier, faster, and with an API.
Want an office firewall you wouldn’t be embarrassed to show your boss? Here it is.
💼 Who OPNsense is for
- Office of 10–50 people
- VPN for all employees
- Backup internet connection
- Modern web interface
🎨 Apple-like interface
- Dark theme
- Real-time graphs
- REST API for automation
- WireGuard out of the box
⚙️ Installation in 5 minutes
- Download the ISO from opnsense.org
- Write it to a USB stick (
dd or Rufus) - Boot → assign interfaces → done!
Auto-update via API:
2025-11-01
Imagine: an old router for 2000 ₽ blocks ads, shares a VPN, works as a Mesh system and doesn’t slow down even with 50 devices.
This is not magic — this is OpenWRT.
🏠 Who needs OpenWRT
OpenWRT turns an ordinary router into a mini-server. If you have at least one item from the list — it’s definitely time to try it:
- Want AdBlock for the whole house
- Need a VPN without a subscription
- Have an old router lying around
- Like to tinker with settings
90% of users install OpenWRT — and forget about the router forever.
2025-10-31
n8n is a powerful open-source workflow automation tool that allows building complex workflows without deep programming. One of the key scaling mechanisms in n8n is queue mode, where the main instance delegates task execution to separate processes called workers. Workers allow distributing load, enabling parallel workflow execution and improving system performance.
In the n8n community and practical guides, two types of workers are often distinguished: light workers and heavy workers. Although the official documentation doesn’t use these terms directly, they reflect differences in task types and configuration. Light workers are aimed at fast, frequent operations, while heavy workers handle resource-intensive tasks. In this article we’ll examine their differences, how they work, and why they are necessary for effective scaling.
2025-10-30
A PostgreSQL proxy or connection pooler is an intermediary application that sits between your client applications and one or more PostgreSQL servers. It speaks the PostgreSQL network protocol, which allows any standard client (for example, your web server or an application in Java/Python/Go) to connect to the proxy believing it is talking directly to a PostgreSQL server.
Unlike MySQL, where proxies are often used for read/write splitting (R/W split) or caching, in the PostgreSQL world the main task of a proxy is efficient connection management.
2025-10-28
MySQL Proxy is a proxy application that sits between client applications (for example, your web server) and one or more MySQL servers. It uses the MySQL Network Protocol, which allows any standard MySQL-compatible client to connect to the proxy without changes, believing it is talking directly to a MySQL server.
How MySQL Proxy Works
In its basic configuration the proxy simply forwards requests from the client to the MySQL server and returns responses back.
However the key feature of MySQL Proxy and its counterparts is monitoring, analyzing, and modifying the passing traffic:
2025-10-25
In the world of modern applications, especially in the era of AI and big data, storing unstructured data is a key challenge. MinIO is a high-performance object storage distributed under the AGPLv3 license. It is fully compatible with the Amazon S3 API and allows you to deploy storage locally or in the cloud. Designed to scale to exabytes, MinIO is ideal for AI/ML workloads, analytics and web applications. In this article we’ll cover why it’s useful for a developer, evaluate pros and cons, and look at alternatives.
2025-10-23
Hello! If you’re new to the world of remote server administration, you’re probably familiar with SSH — a reliable tool for connecting to remote machines. But what do you do when the connection is unstable: Wi‑Fi drops, you switch to mobile data, or your laptop “sleeps”? This is where Mosh (Mobile Shell) comes in — a “mobile shell” that makes remote work comfortable even in poor conditions.
In this article we’ll look at what Mosh is, why it’s better than SSH in certain scenarios, how to install and use it. Everything simple and step‑by‑step — for absolute beginners. Let’s get started!
2025-10-21
Tired of intrusive ads that slow down page loads and track your every move?
Browser extensions are good, but what if you could block ads for your entire home network — smartphones, Smart TVs and IoT devices — all at once?
Meet: Pi-hole. It’s a free open-source tool that turns your small computer (for example, a Raspberry Pi) into a DNS server and network-wide ad blocker. It works at a level browser plugins can’t reach, providing a clean and fast internet for all your gadgets.
2025-10-17
In today’s world of networking technologies, combining two remote offices into a single entity is a fairly routine task. Usually, L3 tunnels are used for this (for example, IPIP or IPsec). However, there are situations when simple routing is not enough and full L2 connectivity is required, as if remote devices were connected to the same switch.
Let’s figure out when this is necessary and how to configure such connectivity correctly so that it is not only working but also fault-tolerant.
