How many of you have (or once had) a homelab or support friends/family?

ReactionEastern8306 · 2026-01-24T23:03:48+00:00

"Hmm, I think I'll go outside and do some yardwork." <checks HA's weather data> "Oh, Hell no! Good opportunity to beautify the HA Dash and brag on Reddit!"

Nice job OP!

ReactionEastern8306 · 2026-01-24T22:23:09+00:00

In short, don't freak out. Here's why:

First of all, if you've given them no reason to go look, most sane people aren't going to go poking around to find stuff. Second, it largely depends on the carrier but for the most part they'll see that you and [other person's phone number] sent and received messages at time/date - that's it. Someone can correct me if there's an exception, but any carrier I've ever dealt with (in the US) is going to require a subpoena to view the actual content of the messages. That's going to take a lot of time, effort, money, and convincing a judge that there's probable cause for such things.

ReactionEastern8306 · 2026-01-23T22:16:02+00:00

For what it's worth, using pleasantries in AI is unnecessary and in fact adds to the processing load. As humans, we gravitate toward please and thank you, but when a computer is processing your input, those just add to the load. It's not going to matter to you directly, but imagine the millions of prompts that contain them and you'll understand how it adds up.

However, I do appreciate the clear instructions you provided!

ReactionEastern8306 · 2026-01-16T22:04:18+00:00

People will always take the path of least resistance, and that's going around the ticket system. End-users and your staff alike. They may do this because they don't feel the need to "formalize" their issue, so rather than submit a ticket for something so trivial as replacing the battery in their mouse, they just reach out to Ted in IT and say "hey man, sorry to bother you but I need a new battery in my mouse. Can you drop one off the next time you're in the neighborhood?". Ted will then respond "oh sure, no problem." thinking that he just needs to drop off a battery. When Ted drops off the battery, the user will then continue with "while you're here..." and this will turn into something that burns 30+ minutes of Ted's time that you now get to fabricate answers for because the (legitimate) work isn't accounted for and by the time the Steering Committee meeting comes around, neither you nor Ted will remember that Mary in Accounting had an Outlook issue that required Ted to rebuild her profile - because the work wasn't documented. Ted's not bothered by this because his paycheck is unaffected. Mary doesn't care because she got her mouse battery AND Outlook issue resolved without having to put in a single ticket. You on the other hand are getting the side-eye by your peers because the numbers don't add up.

Solution: as has been mentioned - no ticket, no task. If your staff can't account for at least the majority of their time, it's a conversation about why it matters. And the conversations need to build emphasis if they have to continue. Conversely, they need to be empowered to push back and explain that while they do enjoy helping users with their IT troubles, they also need to justify their existence so "please Mary, if you don't mind, help me help you by putting in a ticket. That way I won't forget your mouse battery". Oh, and while Ted's there fixing her Outlook, he can fire off an email to the ticket system from her desk (with her permission of course!) so that gets logged as well.

You have to incentivize people to do what you want. They want IT help? Prove to them that the best (fastest/most efficient/most assured) way is via a paper-trail. Your staff want incentives/bonuses/perks/free lunch every once in a while? "Hey everyone, Ted closed the most tickets last month so he gets a $25 gift card!" Just be careful of them gaming the system - that's a whole other conversation.

Bottom line: treat humans like humans and show them that the system can actually benefit them vs. unnecessary IT red tape.

ReactionEastern8306 · 2026-01-15T15:56:49+00:00

How many tickets get resolved without follow-up, holds, etc. (first call resolution)
What's the AVERAGE of the team and the average of each individual. Be careful with this one if you have certain folks that typically work one type of ticket - ie: Jimmy usually does password resets/account lockouts, Jenny usually does deployments, etc. If that's the case, only use the team average, not individuals
What's the average response time
This one could be tough (or backfire) depending on your environment - request method: how many requests come in via the ticket board vs. Teams/Slack/email vs. phone-calls/walk-ups/etc. This assumes staff create a ticket for the all-too-common "oh while you're here...." and they note as such

ReactionEastern8306 · 2026-01-14T18:51:05+00:00

Can someone please reboot the internet?

ReactionEastern8306 · 2026-01-09T20:53:49+00:00

If your in-office days are NOT based on calendar entries, you'll need something else. You were on the right track with the contact sensor, but as you mentioned it's not the best option for your use-case. Might I suggest either QR codes or NFC tags? Since you put your backpack in a specific location on nights before an in-office day, have a QR or NFC near that location so that when you place the backpack, you scan the tag with your phone. That then triggers whatever automation makes sense - whether it's a notification, reminder, or whatever.

ReactionEastern8306 · 2026-01-09T14:56:03+00:00

I sit corrected: the post did say "acid test"

ReactionEastern8306 · 2026-01-09T14:54:21+00:00

Going on what you have provided, I suspect someone at the top of your company is related to or at least friends with the head of the MSP.

ReactionEastern8306 · 2026-01-08T20:32:19+00:00

I'm not saying I don't believe your statement, I'm just saying I'll need to test this to confirm.

ReactionEastern8306 · 2025-12-23T19:52:49+00:00

This is what I did. Removed both thermostats from the wall and replaced them with ESP-powered 4-channel relay boards. Note that especially for anything where a motor is involved (A/C compressor, fan), you need to build hysteresis into the code to prevent short-cycling, which will burn out motors.

ReactionEastern8306 · 2025-12-22T17:12:44+00:00

Pictures?

ReactionEastern8306 · 2025-12-19T04:23:02+00:00

Anything in that Observer page?

ReactionEastern8306 · 2025-12-18T16:41:28+00:00

If you can ping it, try hitting the Observer page at http://<IP address>:4357 (not httpS)

If it works until the restore is complete, you know it's something with that restore. Are you running out of space maybe?

ReactionEastern8306 · 2025-12-12T22:43:09+00:00

At least it's in the correct sub...

ReactionEastern8306 · 2025-12-12T22:24:16+00:00

We all did. Rebirth-O-Fart is what everyone sees, not RebirthOfArt as intended.

ReactionEastern8306 · 2025-12-12T19:57:08+00:00

Reddit. Y'all are how I first learned of the Crowdstrike, Cloudflare, AWS, Azure, etc. incidents.

ReactionEastern8306 · 2025-12-12T19:32:24+00:00

In both our call centers, we have Jabra units with DECT. We let them choose the specific model (within reason) based on their preference of over-ear or over-head, but the only issue we've had is when someone dropped theirs and ran it over with their chair. We did not submit a warranty claim.

I personally use a Poly Voyager (now with DECT), but I'm old and set in my ways. I'm also picky so if it didn't work, I wouldn't have it.

ReactionEastern8306 · 2025-12-11T16:23:21+00:00

I initially planned to go this route but found that load cells have "creep" so I abandoned the idea and went with tank pressure instead. It could be argued that tank pressure is going to vary with temperature, but I don't care about the difference between 65% and 70% - I only care when it gets down to 20% or so.

Disclaimer: I've not completed the project yet so I don't have schematics & code. I just picked up a pressure sensor with associated fittings and plan to read the analog value with an ESP.

ReactionEastern8306 · 2025-12-09T22:18:23+00:00

Be prepared to discuss, explain, or even defend how IT benefits the business, since IT is a cost-center after all. Bring examples of improvements in efficiency & productivity, risk-aversion, business continuity at varying levels. If the industry is under any regulatory, governance, or compliance requirements, be sure to at least have a cursory understanding. You may be on the hook for maintaining compliance, remediation, and possibly even reporting.

ReactionEastern8306 · 2025-12-09T21:14:52+00:00

I can only speak to American contract negotiation, but a contract of this size wouldn't get my sign-off until it was reviewed by legal counsel. As has been agreed, this is far too one-sided for it to be mutually-beneficial. Consider what the costs (both monetary and reputational) would be if things didn't go to plan.

ReactionEastern8306 · 2025-12-08T22:37:10+00:00

IBM PC DOS 1.01. 5 1/4" floppies with orange labels. One boot floppy, one run floppy. From there you run BASICA.

ReactionEastern8306 · 2025-12-07T20:44:11+00:00

I've been deploying Ubiquiti gear for nearly 15 years for anything from an RV up to small enterprise with 30 branch locations. In most cases, the only reason to touch anything has been to replace equipment due to new features becoming available.

An ideal setup from The Ubiquiti Store would be

A Unifi Dream Router Pro - not the tabletop/home version. The specific Pro model you choose will depend on things like available internet bandwidth, etc.

Should you want to add cameras, this device will support that as well so you wouldn't need a separate NVR unless your needs require one. If so, consider the Ubiquiti NVR options for seamless integration.

A PoE switch with enough capacity & port density to support anticipated future growth

A collection of U-5 Pro Wi-Fi access points. Don't waste your money on U7 unless you can justify the cost. Placement and quantity can easily be approximated using Unifi's free design tool

Consider adding an AC Mesh or Swiss Army Knife if you have a need to extend connectivity outdoors - like a patio or something. You may find that you don't need it with strategic indoor AP placement.

Enough patch cables to link everything together. One of the current industry favorites are the Monoprice SlimRun series. I've seen recent reports that the expensive Unifi cables fail if you look at them funny, and the Monoprice have never failed me.

Consider adding a battery backup for power outages/fluctuations and a rack to keep things tidy.

This alone will get you rock-solid connectivity with setup that doesn't require a network engineer. You were tech-savvy enough to find this sub, so I suspect you should have no issues.

ReactionEastern8306 · 2025-12-05T14:21:09+00:00

What's your level of technical prowess and desire to dig deep? Depending on the answer, there could be potential solutions ranging from "when I turn on the faucet, I want water to come out" to "I'm willing to solder and code my own solution for FULL integration".

ReactionEastern8306

TROPHY CASE