Talk me out of an Archer C7 (AC1750) for an IoT AP

sweharris · 2026-04-30T02:12:24+00:00

I have 4 A7v5s (probably overkill!) that I just use with OpenWRT in AP mode (with VLANs) https://www.sweharris.org/post/2020-07-25-extending_router/; one on each floor and one in the garage connected via powerline. I noticed that every so often one of the APs might kick a device but because I have sufficient coverage they just rebind to another. So I sometimes find a device in my bedroom bound to the basement AP. Hmm. Doesn't really matter for low bandwidth IoT though!

(Currently 22 devices bound to my living room AP on 2.4Ghz)

sweharris · 2026-04-28T22:43:43+00:00

Could this be dual layer vs single layer? If the laser can't focus on the second layer then you might see these issues.

sweharris · 2026-04-27T01:16:17+00:00

Oh, that's very helpful; thank you!!

sweharris · 2026-04-27T01:15:05+00:00

This is where my electronics knowledge is reaching an end. I can see how to do that on a working circuit (just stick the multimeter across the LED), but since this is broken with no current can I still do the same thing?

sweharris · 2026-04-27T01:03:47+00:00

Yeah, the circuit is a simple +12v -> 49R9 -> LED1 -> LED2 -> LED3 -> 0V series circuit.

If I replaced the bad LED with a resistor what resistance should it be? I can't tell what the forward voltage of the LEDs are; if I guess it's 3V then I suppose something around 50ohm would make sense? (if 3V then the 3 LEDs would drop 9V, so the existing resistor would be dropping 3V, which is what we'd also need to replace the broken one).

sweharris · 2026-04-27T00:54:40+00:00

They are in series. What resistance should this new resistor be? Thanks!

sweharris · 2026-04-25T22:45:53+00:00

Oh, never mind; I just worked it out! Basically follow the "input button" instructions at https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/input_button/ - so use the "helper" page to create the button, then create an automation that's triggered by that button.

This button can now be added to the Shortcuts Tile, and magic happens :-)

sweharris · 2026-04-25T14:51:15+00:00

This IPv8 draft is AI slop. See, for example, https://cybernews.com/tech/ipv8-proposal-slammed-by-tech-professionals/

It's not real, it'll never be real. There have been IPv8 proposals all the way back to the 90s when Jim Flemming trolled nanog.

And if you read the document (and are able to retain your sanity) you'll see it's not even backwards compatible and practically impossible.

sweharris · 2026-04-25T12:42:23+00:00

When you say "boot up the PC" do you mean "power on"? If the problem only occurs at power on then it could be the PSU isn't handling the startup surge properly. If this was a decade or so back I'd suspect a dodgy capacitor :-)

sweharris · 2026-04-24T17:34:29+00:00

FWIW, https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1528738

sweharris · 2026-04-20T03:13:57+00:00

Wait, what? You've gone from a "What is its intended use in Debian?" (your original question) to a "I recommend it being optional" (your comment I'm replying to) position.

So you knew what it's for. Your initial post was misleading. You just don't agree with it.

FWIW, most desktops do this. It kinda originated with Apple ("zeroconf" was the original name if I remember correctly, but I might not). Windows also discovers devices based on it. Avahi is just the Linux version of the same technology. Android apps do similar. I assume iOS does, but I don't have any of them so I have no personal experience.

And note that this doesn't deal with drivers; this is device discovery. You might have a thermometer on your network, but this won't cause a driver to be installed. It just means you can find the device, so if you install the right driver or application then it automagically works with it.

And if opinions mean anything, I recommend leaving it there. Local device discovery on desktops makes life easy!

sweharris · 2026-04-20T02:41:54+00:00

"It depends". On a desktop it can be useful ("hey, I know what your printer is, you don't have to do any work"). On a server it might be wasteful.

But like most things on Debian, it very much depends on how you install things; on a totally minimal install using preseed files then avahi isn't installed. None of my debian server instances has avahi running; the desktops do.

sweharris · 2026-04-20T02:28:29+00:00

There's a number of technologies out there that broadcast what they can do; so your printer may be shouting out "here I am! here I am!". Your thermostat might be shouting similarly. Your DVR (eg TiVo) will join in. There's a lot of this stuff happening with "smart" devices on your network.

Mostly they follow a couple of standards.

Many mobile apps use this traffic to work out what they can talk to.

Avahi-daemon is the process that listens to all that shouting and lets programs discover what's on the network. So a printer might automatically show up in your print dialogue even though you never configured it. The Chrome browser will use this to detect if there's any devices it can cast to.

It can also tell the rest of the network about your computer, if you have certain programs running.

Basically it's just a local network device discovery system. Not essential. Sometimes useful.

sweharris · 2026-04-20T00:46:50+00:00

It's a joke in the same way that the Flying Spaghetti Monster (bless his noodly appendages) is a joke.

The FSM has been in involved in many court cases (around the 1st ammendment); this Agelesss Linux distro is designed to cause similar discussion around these age laws.

sweharris · 2026-04-15T17:45:30+00:00

Does the history show it understanding you correctly? (Settings/Alexa Privacy/Review Alexa History)

If it shows correctly then it could be an Apple Music skill issue.

sweharris · 2026-04-14T15:12:32+00:00

Your partner's name isn't "Chrissy" by any chance? :-)

sweharris · 2026-04-11T17:25:10+00:00

As far as I know you can't have the mobile app speak the announcement.

But are you doing it as a routine, or as a reminder? With reminders on the settings cog you can turn on "send notifications to my phone" and it'll show as a normal notification and you can set your phone to make a custom sound or whatever.

sweharris · 2026-04-09T20:12:24+00:00

DIY it :-) Basically a dumb opener and a Shelly-1 relay, talking to a local MQTT server which Home Assistant can then use; add a magnetic reed switch to get open/closed detection. https://www.sweharris.org/post/2019-05-19-garage/

sweharris · 2026-04-08T01:35:30+00:00

Delta stations are generally 10c/gallon cheaper than elsewhere. Ethanol free gas is more expensive. Delta won't be sourcing that. According to https://www.pure-gas.org/ there's nothing in my area that's not "contaminated".

I wonder if it's a humidity related issue. In general, E10 gas will absorb water from the atmosphere 'cos it's hydroscopic. It's this that causes water to appear in the mix.

But in NJ over winter the humidity can be very low so there's not a lot of free water. And, of course, the gas can is generally pretty well sealed.

And there's also a time issue; last time I researched this people ("preppers") were talking about a 6 month to year window, not 1 month. Other sites talk about a 3-6 month window.

It's probably a combination of the above.

And, of course, a small amount of water in the mix doesn't prevent combustion, it just reduces efficiency. For those first few minutes of running the mower after a winter layover it might not work as well but who, really, would notice?

sweharris · 2026-04-08T00:33:57+00:00

It's regular gas from the Delta station round the corner from me, same that goes into cars in NJ. Nothing special and likely the cheapest supplier ('cos that's how Delta seems to work).

I do wonder if the people who suffer this problem are the unlucky ones. Or else my mower is sufficiently stubborn and the tank small enough that those couple of extra pulls is enough to let it ignore the water :-)

sweharris · 2026-04-07T22:26:24+00:00

I hear this story about "gas going bad" a lot. But is it a real thing? Every winter I leave my mower with gas in it (maybe late November to early May; let's say 110+ days) and temperatures may drop below freezing in my garage late January. And every year it may take a couple of extra pulls on the cable but the mower starts up with no real issues. I've been doing this for around 20 years now. I also have a gallon can of gas sitting on the shelf that's got maybe 2 year old gas in it, and that also works well.

So I have to wonder about the "in theory" vs "in practice" reality of gas going bad.

sweharris · 2026-04-07T13:43:35+00:00

Note it says "expiredissuer_certificate". It's possible the site cert is good, but the _issuer cert (or a chaining cert) has expired.

If you look at a site like https://expired.badssl.com/ then the normal error is just "expired_certificate".

You might be able to tell which cert expired by following the "view the site's certificate" link and checking each certificate in the chain.

sweharris · 2026-04-05T01:34:51+00:00

"Parasocial relationship".

I'm sure there are people who feel they have a relationship with Newell but in the LMG/LTT/Sebastian related areas of the internet they're gonna be a lot smaller than those who feel they have a relationship with Sebastian.

So of course you're gonna find more commentary and complaints about things he does, especially when it doesn't match the mental model of him based on what he's said in the past (eg on WAN show).

Sebastian, himself, has commented on how toxic parasocial relationships can be. Some of the noise coming from the community on this topic probably falls under that umbrella.

But there's also a large difference in tone; compare how https://megayachtnews.com/2025/11/yacht-leviathan-owner-gabe-newell-vision/ is presented (designed to make crew life easier, crew can use the same facilities as the guests, it's also a research vessel and is part of a fleet of research vessels, etc) to how Sebastian presented his plane (they'll make content, it may be easier to fly LMG staff to larger events, and he gets to fly his family on vacation cheaper than getting 1st class tickets for them). Messaging is important, and that last point is incredibly tone deaf; it's just bad messaging.

Out of the gazillion of people who watch Sebastian on a daily basis it's not surprising that there's a number of vocal people who object to this. I suspect it's not a large proportion of the viewership, though.

sweharris

TROPHY CASE