“When you finally get tired of your ISP router, one of the most-recommended replacements is making your own with a custom OPNsense firewall. This puts the power back in your hands, limits what your ISP can do to your connection, and gives you plenty of protection and features you’ve been missing all this time. But one of the awesome things about OPNsense isn’t just that it’s a powerful router, but that you can make it even better by installing other services as plugins.”

OPNsense is a fork of PFsense, with a more modern UI, more regular updates, and slightly lighter resource requirements.

The plugins listed are all very useful, but it is worth also just making some comments about some of them here, as I’ve been using a few of them myself after having considered alternatives:

• Zenarmor can be used for free, but it will then lack the device tracking and alerting for unknown devices, as well as the more advanced rules management and additional profiles. For me, the device identification and management was quite key. Zenarmor is ideal for protecting the LAN side of the firewall by inspecting every network packet, and blocking/altering regarding known and emerging threats. It is similar to the free ntopng plugin, but ntopng really only analyses and inspects, and does no blocking. If you are interested in buying the Zenarmor subscription, my referral code SVNCDQ4TQW294 will get you 10% off your first payment (month or year).
• OPNsense does have a built-in IDS/IPS system, but the issue really is you have to configure the rules to be downloaded, and then set them to alert/block, and it is a rather cumbersome process.
• CrowdSec is ideal for blocking threats from outside your WAN, also compared to known threats. The free version is usually good enough for most people, and it adjusts the blocking rules of OPNsense.
• Tailscale is a remote access tool that is based on WireGuard. For me, its big advantage can be that it is easier to configure end devices for access, and it will work well with dynamic IP addresses. Although Tailscale is a commercial product, the free version will do what most home users require.
• The linked article mentions os-git-backup plugin for backing up config changes, but I am using the Nextcloud plugin to back up automatically to my own Nextcloud.

It is really worth exploring the OPNsense plugins as they can provide some really rich extra functionality. Just bear in mind everything may not work, e.g. the SMART drive plugin does not work with my Protectli eMMC drive.

See xda-developers.com/opnsense-pl…
#Blog, #networking, #OPNsense, #security, #technology

“Listmonk is an amazing feature packed self-hosted email newsletter manager. It offers loads of features like analytics (clicks, opens, bounces), templates, public subscription pages, importing subscribers and much more!”

Listmonk is not perfect, as it cannot by default trigger from an RSS feed (although there is a GitHub-based workaround) and it does still need to connect to a mail service. The latter could be a pro or a con, as it certainly gives flexibility and can for example connect to a free service like Gmail.

It does track opening of mails, mail bounces, etc and whilst some may not like this, the point is it is the individual sending the newsletter who tracks and acts on this. It is not some 3rd party corporate who is doing who knows what else with the addresses or embedded tracking.

I started using a “free” mailing subscription service, and I am regretting it now, as I’m getting suspicious of the embedding I did on my website to get it working (this after I removed Google tracking and other similar services).

I do like that listmonk offers the basics of having to actively opt into a mailing list, there are easy opt out options, wiping of user data, and it does all the basics most probably need. The pain though is sometimes finding a good mailing service you don’t have to pay for. Good one’s, for example Proton, don’t allow this type of functionality.

Interestingly, too, I see listmonk can connect using HTTP webhooks to send SMS, Whatsapp, FCM notifications, or any type of messages in fact.

So, I’ll be looking into this open source offering in future to migrate my own mailing list.

See 4rkal.com/posts/listmonk
#Blog, #mailinglists, #opensource, #selfhosting, #technology

Se passer de téléphone portable serait un véritable cauchemar pour la plupart des gens. C’est pourtant ce qu’acceptent de faire des lycéens de Dresde en Allemagne : pendant une semaine, ils n’ont accès ni à leurs smartphones, ni aux ordinateurs, ni à Internet.

Coupés du reste du monde et des réseaux sociaux, ces jeunes découvrent les vertus de la déconnexion sur leur vie, leurs relations amicales, leurs modes de communication et l’image qu’ils ont d’eux-mêmes. Leni, Mayu, Maxi et Emelie font partie de la génération Z, la première à avoir grandi avec les smartphones et Internet. Enfants du numérique, ils sont connectés en permanence, toujours joignables. Selon la dernière étude réalisée, ils passeraient en moyenne 9 heures par jour sur les écrans. Pour ces lycéens de Dresde, rester déconnectés pendant plusieurs jours de vie est donc un véritable défi. Ont-ils du mal à se passer des écrans ? Comment occupent-ils ce temps libre ? Un sevrage aussi radical a-t-il des effets secondaires ?

La détox numérique est devenue tendance. En Pologne, les participants à un stage de survie sous tipis ont une démarche encore plus radicale. Le temps d’un week-end, ils renoncent à quasiment tout le confort de la vie moderne.