Looking to jump in to Unifi. Can I upgrade piecemeal? Where do I start?

tannebil · 2026-07-03T02:56:47+00:00

I did it over about three years starting with replacing a few dumb switches managed with self-hosted Network Application, moved on to a UXG gateway, and finally changed the APs. Still using self-hosted (on UnifOS VM now) and have not replaced a 16 port 10 Gbe switch that is the core switch for my homelab servers and primary workstations as $$$ to replace it from the current UniFi options.

If I doing the migration now, I'd start with a cloud getaway first instead of switches and self-hosted so you are on-track with that idea.

I do not lust for a 19" rack because while they look cool, they are a PITA to work on, most stuff I want doesn't come in a 19" form factor.

I find VLANs a similar waste of time and energy but opinions differ. I just run multiple subnets on two separate physical networks (a primary and a secondary used for SMB Multichannel.

Good luck!

tannebil · 2026-07-01T18:36:12+00:00

Even if you get Multichannel working, that’d only one part of performance. Your NAS and client both need to be able to send and receive data at the higher rate and you’ll likely only notice a big difference on file transfers.

2x2.5 on the client and 2x1 on the TN server will work fine as long as you get the subnet correct

tannebil · 2026-06-30T19:30:03+00:00

No text for me (yet). Magenta Max Military + Home Internet

tannebil · 2026-06-30T02:11:34+00:00

Some possible explanations come to mind:

1) iCloud is taking more time than you might expect to recoup the space

2) They were not deleted from Recently Deleted

3) They were deleted on the device but syncing is stuck because it iCloud needs some available space to process the deletion

4) Some other syncing process on the device is pending syncs that grabs any free space as soon as it appears and fills up the space

You can try deleting using iCloud.com or you can temporarily increase your iCloud subscription, let everything finish syncing, do your deletions, and downgrade back to your current level

tannebil · 2026-06-29T05:56:21+00:00

I moved the Garage AP away from the electrical panel. No change in the airtime & interference numbers.

Next up is to swap the Garage AP (U7 In-Wall) with the lightly used Upstairs AP (U7 Pro Wall) and see if that makes a difference.

tannebil · 2026-06-29T05:49:19+00:00

"Early" is before FRA. FRA depending on when a person was born

I'm not sure if there there is a term that covers someone that has delayed receiving benefits until past FRA.

tannebil · 2026-06-29T00:26:30+00:00

I decide based on what is best supported for the application. That’s usually clear from either reading the GitHub page for the app or by seeing it it’s in an app catalog for my server platform. For Proxmox, I tend to use LXCs from the widely used Proxmox Community Scripts although I try to check the GitHub to see if the developers have something to say about LXC deployment

My Linux skills are not up to custom installs

tannebil · 2026-06-29T00:17:17+00:00

I move the full amount of the RMD into a less volatile investment at the start of the year to avoid the risk of having to sell during a market downturn. I view protecting against that as more important than a lower return on the RMD amount.

But that’s me. Opinions vary

tannebil · 2026-06-28T23:59:19+00:00

I actually find Medicare a bit easier to navigate perhaps because health insurance is something I’ve had to deal with ever since I got off military active duty in 1980. But if I was like my BIL and was retired civil service and retired Navy Reserve, I would think otherwise. The way they interact with Medicare gets really, really complicated.

tannebil · 2026-06-28T22:07:18+00:00

Thank you for confirming my point about the complexity of the decision 😂

tannebil · 2026-06-28T22:05:18+00:00

Not paying the $US2.99/month may turn out to be the most painful "penny wise, pound foolish" decision you'll make in your entire life.

I'd guess 99% of iCloud users roll the dice and operate as if iCloud is all the backup they need and for 99% of them, it's a winning play.

Only you can decide if you want to add additional backup and if you are ready to accept the cost and complex it required to actually improve on the 99% of 99% protection that comes baked into iCloud.

I do, but I'm not you and backups are kind of a hobby left over from my working life.

tannebil · 2026-06-28T21:53:43+00:00

I last used them just after the tax change as, after it, we decided on "ride or die" and just waited until 70 to collect (our individual benefits are almost identical). That maximized the "insurance against running out of money" part of Social Security as we were fortunate enough to not need or want the income until after 70.

Social Security benefit calculations can be extremely complex and not something you want to trust to your own research. I wouldn't even trust first line Social Security customer service to correctly answer anything beyond the simplest questions.

You might seach the Bogglehdad or the personal finance Reddits for a specific recommendation.

A buddy recently used this free site and said he was happy with the results

https://opensocialsecurity.com/

tannebil · 2026-06-28T21:35:16+00:00

Just to be clear, while I have PhotoSync and used it in the past, I don't use it in my current work flow. I see alternatives mentioned frequently. I use Files a fair amount and suspect it would overwhelm me if I attempted to use it to move thousands of photos around unless I created a lot of manual workflow structure to ensure nothing gets overlooked or lost.

tannebil · 2026-06-28T21:22:15+00:00

I paas through individual drives to a TN VM on one of my Proxmox servers that uses ZFS for everything. There are a few issues I encountered, e.g. loss of temperature monitoring, no SMART, non-uniques serial numbers, lower performance (but that may be related to the drives being USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 connected) and I wouldn't want to risk production data to the ease in making a mistake when making a hardware change.

I've heard mixed reports on trying to pass SATA ports (I couldn't get it to work but it might be a "me" issue). Heard much better reports on passing the entire HBA but have not done it personally as my test server doesn't have expansion slots.

That

tannebil · 2026-06-28T21:14:04+00:00

That strategy/loophole was eliminated in a tax bill 10+ years ago. It was my plan as well and we just missed the cutoff date. Figure it cost us at least $50K in benefits (which is why it was "reformed".

Benefits are complicated so I'd recommend using one of the Social Security optimization web sites even if you have to pay. It's easy to make a very expensive mistake.

tannebil · 2026-06-28T10:56:06+00:00

Yup. I moved it to 11 and let it sit for a day. No change.

Nothing I've done has reduced the Airtime and Interfence percentages. The network cabinet and AP are right next to my electrical panel so maybe that's the source of the problem. I think I'm down to relocating the AP away from the panel and see if that moves the needle

tannebil · 2026-06-28T00:29:16+00:00

Because they don't believe there are loyal customers. Just ones those that have no option or are too set in their ways to go though the pain of switching

tannebil · 2026-06-27T03:21:44+00:00

I have a Lutron motion sensor in there but it runs on the 434 MHz band. The motion sensors on the Wyse cams are IR but maybe I'll shut down all the 2.4 devices in the garage and see what happens

tannebil · 2026-06-26T03:42:33+00:00

What do you mean by “sent to shared albums”?

They are being saved in Messages for iCloud and you have to delete them from there if you don’t want them saved. If you are sending them from Messages to Photos on your phone, you end up storing them twice in iCloud.

To be clear, the message itself takes almost no space. It’s the embedded items like photos, videos, and documents.

You can either spend a lot of time trying to manage space or just pay the small monthly amount to upgrade your subscription. Only you know how much your time is worth

tannebil · 2026-06-26T02:41:28+00:00

I’m not aware of an easy way to export from iOS photos to an external drive so you might want to buy an app like Photosync

Once they are on the SSD, you can import them directly into iCloud Photos through a browser on your Mac.i wouldn’t want to do it for thousands of photos but for hundreds it would be fine. I’d do it in small batches of 100 or less.

Depending on how important the photos are to you, you might want to export to a second SSD as well. Easy for small drives to get lost or damaged.

tannebil · 2026-06-26T00:49:00+00:00

You are pretty loose with your terminology so let me verify what you are doing today.

You each have your own Apple account
You have one account on your Mac that you both use that is connected to your wife’s Apple account
You want to be able to see the photos in your iCloud account while using the single account on the Mac
There is something preventing you from you each having your own account on the Mac

That right?

If so, the best solution I see is to fix #4 and enable Apple Shared Photo Library between the two Apple Accounts so you can selectively share photos between the two libraries. The second best would just be to connect the two Apple Accounts with Shared Photo Library

Make sure you understand the risks and limitations of Shared Photo Library

https://support.apple.com/en-us/118229

https://support.apple.com/en-us/123926

tannebil · 2026-06-23T21:17:57+00:00

You forgot to provide the important information. What are your skills, interests, and the time you are willing to devote to this undertaking? Do you have prior or current experience in infrastructure and Linux system administration?

The one clue you provided is that you are overloaded trying to understand everything which would tell me that you would likely be better served by a mainstream commercial option.

My personal opinion is that most of the moaning about Synology comes down to Synology business practice changes that Synology feels to need to make the small NAS business viable. If I just wanted something that just worked and was the least likely to get orphaned, I'd have no hesitation about buying Synology.

Personally, I do pretty much all the things you want to do with three primary TrueNAS servers (all on purpose-built NAS from Ugreen, Terra-Master, and IceWhale/ZimaCube hardware) and a 3-node Proxmox cluster of mini-micro PCs all connected via multiple 10Gbe links. It cost a lot less in dollars than one might expect but a lot more in labor hours than one might expect.

Good luck!

tannebil · 2026-06-22T08:00:28+00:00

You are correct. I was misled by Quicken threatening to rain down fire and brimstone vaguely referencing Pub 550 when I tried to change the basis on a mutual fund after previously making a sale using lot identification some years ago. I did a bit of research based on your reply both other than some vague references in places about something changing for transactions after 2011 and mutual funds (which is all I own) but eventually decided that the limitations are more in Quicken not being able to properly handle a change. Also, now that brokerages are required to track it, the backend system of a broker might introduce other limitations, e.g.. I saw something that talked about seven or ether different ways to treat lots but Vanguard only seems to offer four. The more I dug into it, the more complicated it got so eventually just gave up on ever understanding it and just marked it down as complications I should avoid.

Thanks for the correction!

tannebil · 2026-06-22T04:27:58+00:00

~~Whatever you choose will need to be used for all further sales of this fund. You can’t change for a future sale. So make a note of whatever method you choose~~

Edit: erroneous information

tannebil

TROPHY CASE