When I decided to do a fun project with my old Raspberry Pi 3B+, I purchased the 4GB model of Raspberry Pi 4 to have as a replacement (update: now they have an 8GB model that would be nice to have). Since I am working from home due to COVID-19, my main PC is completely utilized for work during the weekdays via a VPN connection. I thought it would be convenient if I had a second computer at my desk so that I can listen to background music from my Plex Media Server or use it for personal things such as banking, shopping, paying bills, and browsing the web during lunch.
When creating content for this website, I often have the need to take screenshots of the OPNsense web interface. Sometimes I am able to use my actual home network router to take screenshots, but I have to be careful not to modify any settings. I sometimes have to resort to tweaking the screenshot slightly after taking it in order to show what the interface should look like without everything already configured.
I managed to make the doorbell video stream look like something from the movie "The Matrix"...
I recently bought the Amcrest video doorbell (affiliate link) since I like my other Amcrest IP cameras, and I wanted a doorbell that was less cloud connected (the Amcrest doorbell requires an online account for the initial configuration but can be used completely offline at the expense of losing push notifications to answer the doorbell). The doorbell has the RTSP capability, so the video stream can be recorded based on motion events and/or 24/7 recording with video surveillance software like BlueIris or hardware such as the Amcrest NVRs (affiliate link).
When my family is spending time in our backyard especially when weather is nice, there have several times we brought a small Bluetooth speaker outside with us so we can have a little bit of music while the kids are playing. We also have birthday parties which we play some background music during the party. The Bluetooth speaker was stored in our walkout basement when it was not being used so we had relatively easy access to it.
A DMZ (demilitarized zone) is a segmented part of a network that is used to host all publicly accessible websites and services. The intention is to protect the internal network from external threats. It is an effective strategy to minimize public exposure of your critical assets as well as limit the damage caused when an intruder is able to penetrate your network. A great definition of a DMZ can be found here.
