My OpenVPN installations are aging a bit and every time I go from one major operating system version on the server to the next, it takes some effort to adapt the installation. As I am coming closer to such a point again, I was wondering if I should rather spend my time on a different approach. In recent years, an interesting alternative has gained popularity: Wireguard. Now that Ubuntu 24.04 Desktop comes with built-in Wireguard client support, I thought I’d have another look and see how much effort would be required setting up a Wireguard VPN server.
Continue reading Wireguard – A Server With DockerStarlink – Research Papers
And just to finish with my Starlink Mini post chain for the moment, here’s a link to a web page at the University of Victoria in Canada, which contains interesting links to research papers on Starlink, interesting maps of gateways, POPs and interconnects. One thing I learned from there, for example, was that Starlink has a global 15 seconds handover scheme, i.e. the network or terminal evaluate once every 15 seconds if a different satellite might provide better service. Well worth a look!
Starlink Mini – Part 4 – Being Ahead of the Cat Videos
Perhaps a bit of a strange title for this post but when I recently went to the countryside for a long weekend, I took my Starlink Mini along, just in case. And well, I’m happy I brought it along for the ride.
Continue reading Starlink Mini – Part 4 – Being Ahead of the Cat VideosStarlink Mini – Part 3 – Performance and Obstruction
Continued from part 2: With the truly ‘mobile’ Starlink Mini, I set off with my bicycle and also with a car a few days later to try out satellite Internet connectivity in a number of different places. Particularly, I was interested in how obstructions impact connectivity. Like for the big dish, the connectivity equation is actually quite simple: At least half the sky must be visible and unobstructed, and trees are the natural enemy.
Continue reading Starlink Mini – Part 3 – Performance and ObstructionStarlink Mini – Part 2 – Power and Performance
Once having made the decision to order a Starlink Mini, it only took a few days to be delivered. And indeed it is very small and portable compared to the previous hardware and can easily be carried in a small backpack. Part 1 has an image of the Mini on my bike for size comparison. So what about power and performance?
After ‘unboxing’ I went up to the roof of my house to set-up Mini-Dishy there and was rewarded with Internet connectivity around a minute and a half later. Speeds were a bit mixed that evening, but I was able to get around 100 Mbps in the downlink direction and 30 Mbps in the uplink direction in a first speed test with a round trip delay time of around 30 ms. That speed seems to be a bit slower than what I could previously get with the larger dish, but not much, if at all.
Continue reading Starlink Mini – Part 2 – Power and PerformanceStarlink Mini – Part 1 – Intro
This summer, Starlink launched another hardware iteration of their terminals, the Starlink Mini. I have to admit that I only stumbled over it by accident, but I was immediately intrigued because it is significantly smaller than the Starlink terminal I tested in 2023.
Continue reading Starlink Mini – Part 1 – IntroThings That Moved Me in 2024
It’s the time of the year again to reflect on what has happened in the last 12 months and looking back, I’m happy to say that it has been an eventful year again. So let’s jump right into it.
Continue reading Things That Moved Me in 2024Anker Prime Power Bank – Simultaneous Charge and Discharge
In the previous post, I’ve had a look at the Anker Prime 200W A1336 power bank and its features. One thing I wanted to do a separate post on is the simultaneous charging and discharging feature.
Continue reading Anker Prime Power Bank – Simultaneous Charge and DischargeReview: Anker Prime Power Bank 72Wh
It’s not often I review a product on this blog other than notebooks with Linux on them, but I’ll make an exception for the 72Wh Anker Prime power bank, because it has a number of features that made it very interesting to me, and a few quirks that are not mentioned in the advertising. I bought this power bank, as the one I bought 2 years ago is limited to USB-C 60W Power Delivery (PD) and there has been a recent application for which I needed at least 100W PD. So I looked for something new and ended up with this one, which can deliver 100W on each of its 2 USB-C connectors. So here’s how it performs for me in practice.
Continue reading Review: Anker Prime Power Bank 72WhEduroam Configuration for Android in 2024
In addition to a notebook, I recently also configured an Android phone for Eduroam for a University of Vienna user. Fortunately, things have become a lot simpler in recent years, and no special knowledge or app is required for Android 14. The screenshot shows the parameters to be set. For added security, I set the minimum TLS version required to 1.2. There is also a version 1.3 setting, but it looks like the University is not yet using this TLS version. So back to 1.2, better than the default setting. It’s nice to see there is a field to configure the ‘domain’ which makes me hope that the device does indeed check the domain during the certificate exchanged for increased security.