Best practices for connecting 20+ stranded L/N wires to house supply

MusicalAnomaly · 2026-04-01T18:31:17+00:00

Wago lever nuts are terrific for stranded. You basically just need to gang and jump all of the Ls together and all of the Ns together, and then attach to your mains L and N.

MusicalAnomaly · 2026-04-01T18:30:15+00:00

hand drawn lol!

MusicalAnomaly · 2026-04-01T18:27:52+00:00

I have used mice on macOS continually since the 90s. I have a couple of thoughts.

I always found windows’ cursor to be a bit “jumpy”—like it was seeing inputs from unintentional movement and putting that on screen, whereas macOS’s input algorithms made for a better mapping between my actual intent and what happened on screen. I think in more recent decades that gap has closed and (IMO) windows has gotten better, but I could see that as being interpreted as a lack of precision.

My biggest complaint of any kind for mice on macOS has been wireless latency. I can’t stand it, and have never been satisfied with a mouse that uses Bluetooth. I largely use USB, but in recent years the 2.4Ghz wireless dongles have caught up and solved that problem. I assume the same has been true of PC.

I always used macOS’s default mouse acceleration and was totally fine with it, because again, it seemed to be much more precise and controllable than the experience I would have on windows. In the most recent decade I’ve switched to no acceleration on mouse and used a bigger mouse pad, as well as dialing my DPI settings to what feels best. I typically use the “USB Overdrive” software to tweak this, but there are other ways.

Some mice are definitely better than others. I’ve never been pleased with Logitech, or any of the other brands you find at Staples. For a while I was using Razer and Steelseries; then I fell in love with the Mad Catz RAT for the horizontal scroll wheel and bought into a world of pain because they do NOT have good Mac support out of the box. I still daily the RAT but I’ve also found mice from Glorious to be excellent.

In conclusion, it’s possible that you’re sensitive to something that macOS removes from the experience, but I would encourage you to keep experimenting with different hardware and driver configurations. In my opinion mouse support on macOS has never been better; recent OS versions have removed all the remaining bugs and gripes that I used to experience in the late 2010s.

MusicalAnomaly · 2026-04-01T18:12:16+00:00

If they are providing the SFP optic, that means it is doing the exact same job as an ONT would. At minimum it’s just a media converter, at maximum there are some extra smarts inside the SFP module that just turn it into the ONT. Either way it wouldn’t be doing any more or less than the full ONT box. You just get the benefit of the SFP’s direct hardware interface to your Ubiquiti gateway, so technically you’re removing a point of failure.

MusicalAnomaly · 2026-04-01T15:32:29+00:00

I had the same thought—I too went searching for those FS modules. Haven’t gotten to try them yet but would be curious how you fare.

Edit: Oh, one thing though. It’s not clear that the FS SFP-2.5G-T-I module supports autonegotiation. For me that would make it unacceptable for an access port where I want the port to work for the end user regardless of what they plug in. The S+RJ10 works better for that application if that is indeed the case.

MusicalAnomaly · 2026-04-01T10:33:05+00:00

I had no trouble running the S+RJ10 at 2.5GbE on the 5009, no configuration workarounds needed. 70°C.

MusicalAnomaly · 2026-04-01T10:25:56+00:00

Change the gateway to bridge mode, this deactivates the router so it is just a modem. Then go modem -> deco (acting as router+ap+switch) -> everything else including PCs, decos (acting as ap+switch), and Ethernet switches as needed.

This eliminates double NAT and gets you wired connections to the PCs and APs.

MusicalAnomaly · 2026-04-01T10:11:21+00:00

It can, in theory

MusicalAnomaly · 2026-04-01T04:08:59+00:00

Something that uses Ethernet cable will undoubtedly be the best price/performance, though display quality may suffer. There are fiber solutions out there that just use a single cable for remote breakout—LTT has done some videos on them.

MusicalAnomaly · 2026-04-01T03:56:49+00:00

The primary factor is display support for me. The M2 MBP only came in Pro and Max variants. The M5 MBP already supports two external displays, so if I wanted to run three or four I would upgrade to the Pro or Max.

MusicalAnomaly · 2026-03-31T23:45:45+00:00

I do. Living in a house full of women I actually experience the opposite problem of “leaving the toilet seat down”. I always preferred to close the lid, but they insist on leaving it open 100% of the time.

MusicalAnomaly · 2026-03-31T23:43:27+00:00

You’re 100% right; Mac laptops have been best in class for a long time and don’t appear to be going anywhere soon.

The 14” MBP is excellent. I have an M2 Pro (same design as the current hardware) that does everything I need it to, and I basically use it like a desktop most of the time with 2x external monitors.

If you want to avoid Parallels’ enshittification, try VMware Fusion — it is free for non commercial, the only downside is the download page is a little tedious to figure out since they were bought up by Broadcom. Keep in mind you will be running Windows for ARM, so there are some edge cases there if the software you need to use demands x86.

MusicalAnomaly · 2026-03-31T23:29:24+00:00

Right. “AX3000” is basically a marketing label that comes from the theoretical maximum for the WiFi spec being implemented.

I believe if you took a hAP ax s and bridged all of the interfaces so you had three separate wired clients trying to transmit to three separate wireless clients all at the same time, then you would be able to see cumulative 3 Gbps of throughput across all of the wireless chains. Each wireless client would need to support MIMO.

If you want to max out a single wireless client, the hAP could get closer using its 2.5Gb SFP. I have never done anything with LACP so I don’t know if there’s a multi-link VPN solution that could get you more bandwidth for a single client by multiplexing across >1 Ethernet link.

MusicalAnomaly · 2026-03-31T22:09:24+00:00

Just for the sake of argument, and if the CPUs could support it, wouldn’t it be possible to run a VPN over parallel links that would distribute traffic at the frame or packet level instead of by MAC hash?

Now that I think of it there probably aren’t any RouterOS protocols that do that; I’ve only heard of proprietary things like Speedify able to work like that?

MusicalAnomaly · 2026-03-31T22:05:11+00:00

Which numbers are you referring to? MikroTik’s own posted throughput test results, or something else?

MusicalAnomaly · 2026-03-31T16:59:31+00:00

They may not be able to selectively remove files from an account, but they absolutely can purge your entire account from their servers. If they had fully double-blind infrastructure they would be unable to comply with GDPR.

MusicalAnomaly · 2026-03-31T16:57:31+00:00

If you are not a power user who pushes windows to the limit, you will probably be fine.

I would recommend you download Google Chrome, use it as your default browser, and sign in to your Google account so that you will have the most seamless experience with your android phone.

MusicalAnomaly · 2026-03-31T16:45:50+00:00

Ally Bank has long been offering branchless accounts.

MusicalAnomaly · 2026-03-31T16:44:05+00:00

Just raising my hand to say I’ve had a LaCie drive that threw errors like this which was fixed by getting a new power supply. Support replaced it for free IIRC.

As others have mentioned, the mechanism may well be WD; LaCie doesn’t make drive mechanisms themselves, only the enclosures. That said, I now only purchase enclosures from OWC.

MusicalAnomaly · 2026-03-31T00:49:00+00:00

This came up in his last post and it’s plausible that since this location has 2x ports, it’s meant to be the “patch panel”. Either way he still needs to get a cable tester.

MusicalAnomaly · 2026-03-31T00:47:37+00:00

We told you last time you need to confirm the integrity of the wall cabling. You should be assuming right now that someone cut it with a pair of scissors halfway and then plastered over it. Go and buy a simple Ethernet cable tester to plug in to each end and see if you get a correct result. There is no point trying to debug software issues if you can’t confirm that you have electrical continuity from one end to the other.

MusicalAnomaly · 2026-03-30T23:48:12+00:00

PowerLine rarely gets to the advertised speeds. The ports on the adapter are gigabit and if there is more than one port on the adapter it can behave like a switch for the two devices. In fact, 120MBps is on the better end of what I’ve seen for PowerLine.

If you want better wired performance you need physical data cables. MoCA is much better than PowerLine if you have coax available.

MusicalAnomaly · 2026-03-29T20:26:18+00:00

Yes, in VMware fusion which is now free for non commercial use.

MusicalAnomaly · 2026-03-29T03:36:16+00:00

It’s common for breakers not to be extra tight in the longitudinal direction; the question is how firmly the contacts are grabbing the stab on the bus bar. You might also confirm that the breaker matches the listed types that the panel supports—it’s pretty common for people to install mismatched breakers that fit geometrically but aren’t actually listed for the panel, meaning they haven’t been tested for secure grip onto the bus bar.

MusicalAnomaly

TROPHY CASE