Jacen's Blog

My thoughts that I think other people deserve to read

The Whole-Home AdGuard Proxy

July 14, 2025

I've talked about adblockers in the past, particularly my dislike of Pi-hole and preference toward AdGuard. However, AdGuard comes with a number of hangups, namely that you need a license for every device in your home that you want to protect. But what if you could protect your entire home from a single server? Is it doable?

IT Pro Tip - Don't Deny Permissions

July 12, 2025

You're setting up a new shared folder on a Windows file server, probably one that holds sensitive information. You want to be sure that no one unauthorized can access the files, so in the Security tab, you set a new permission entry to deny access to the "Everyone" object.

You've just fallen for one of the oldest pitfalls in the book. Let's go over Windows file permissions and why the "deny" permission is one of the most dangerous.

IT Pro Tip - Recovering Local Admin Access

June 21, 2025

Even in a domain environment, once in a while things go wrong and you need a local administrator account. Maybe you're taking over for an unhelpful rival IT department, or maybe you've had an employee who didn't document things correctly. Regardless of the reason, sometimes you just don't have access to everything you need to do your job.

The GL.iNet Comet - A Review

May 3, 2025

A while back, I purchased GL.iNet's AC1300 router for a project that never ended up materializing. Despite that, it is still a staple in my backpack, and it put GL.iNet on my radar. So, when I received an email about the GL-RM1 Comet remote KVM, my interest was definitely piqued.

Reviewing the Gamer Supps Experience

May 2, 2025

A Twitch streamer I watch got an affiliate code with Gamer Supps recently and has begun shilling it pretty hard. I like trying new foods and drinks, and I'll try almost anything at least once. Because they have a free sample option, I decided to use his code to get a couple of free packs to see just what it tasted like.

IT Pro Tip - Viewing Outlook Rules Using Powershell

April 23, 2025

With people continuing to insist on using poor and easily guessable passwords, hacked emails are something I deal with occasionally.

Of all cybersecurity incidents, hacked emails are some of the easiest to remediate. Once you've kicked the attacker out by forcing a global sign-out and resetting their password, then informed any affected recipients about the hack, you're done, right?

Wrong. There's a step I've seen even experienced IT techs forget about. Inevitably, you'll receive another call from the user informing you that they aren't receiving emails anymore. Let's take a look at how to troubleshoot that.

IT Pro Tip - Don't Use .local

April 14, 2025

It's a tale as old as time. You're setting up a new Active Directory domain environment for the Example Corporation. As part of the setup, you're asked to choose the domain you want AD to use. Mindlessly, you enter "example.local".

Stop right there. This will cause problems for you down the line.

Let's dive into why you shouldn't do that.

IT Pro Tip - Robocopy

March 24, 2025

I run into many situations where I need to copy numerous files, particularly when trying to move a user profile from one computer to another. A mistake I see even experienced IT techs make is using the standard Windows "drag-and-drop" to do these copy tasks. Doing things this way can take hours. There are also tools like Transwiz that can handle this for you, but I've found them to be less reliable than I would like.

There's a much more efficient tool for copying lots of files, and it's been built into Windows for over a decade. Allow me to introduce you to Robocopy.

The Framework 16 - A 1-Year Review

February 3, 2025

About a year ago, I received my Framework 16 laptop. While I did a post reviewing my first impressions, it's difficult to properly judge a device after only a couple of weeks. I decided I wanted to do a follow-up after daily driving it for longer.

The amount of hype I saw leading up to the release of the Framework 16 was way more than I've ever seen for a laptop before. The question is, does it actually live up to the hype? Let's dive into that.

Migrating from WriteFreely to 11ty

January 8, 2025

For someone who doesn't blog regularly, I change blog platforms a lot. I've used WordPress, Jekyll, WriteFreely, and now 11ty. We'll see how long this lasts for, but let me dive into why I made the change and how I have everything set up.

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