CoreLabJoe

Yeah honestly CBC Gem isn't expensive in the grand scheme of things (Especially if you get the annual sub on sale) and has pretty good Canadian content!

Hey thanks for the update & reading the post!

I know they are available, when someone can find one! But people are still reporting the region lock issue right up to Nov 2025! https://troypointinsider.com/t/onn-setup-out-of-country/125239/32

I also had this snippet in about the ethernet: "😲Warning - The Onn 4K Ethernet Bug & The Fix: The Onn 4K Pro has a known firmware bug with generic USB Ethernet adapters. If you want hardwired Gigabit speeds, you MUST use an adapter with the ASIX AX88179 chipset (like Cable Matters), not the Realtek ones."

I haven't used Kodi since about 2014 so I wouldn't feel comfortable giving advice about it to be honest. That and IMO it became cumbersome to manage with a higher barrier technically, for entry compare to plex at the time, and now we have jellyfin as an option of course.

The last person I know using Kodi switched to jellyfin about 2-3 years ago.

I have a step by step guide on how to deploy the aarrrs and even a docker compose generator =)

https://corelab.tech/arr-stack-docker-compose-guide/

A good point indeed!

Two current methodologies in practice these says, mostly.

1. Dump your 'smart' devices (Including the spyware TV) into their own "IOT" style VLAN and block it from touching your own network but allow it to reach internet, or NOT.
2. Network wide adware/spyware/analytics blocking via adguard/pihole/unbound etc...

I'll end up writing a guide for this at some point ;)

OOhh very nice! ...

I've been hesitant to include links for this on the blog / guide but, this is quite the 'educational resource' you've shared!!!

Glad you read & enjoyed it! I aim for comprehensive coverage of a topic so some of the posts can be a bit long, but in the end cover a lot of ground.

Thanks - Cross-posted over there!

HHhhmm... Do container/docker install option. This is why it's probably stagnated in adoption from the selfhosted community.

It needs a container based install, no one likes installing dependencies and crud onto their pristine environments any longer.

OOhhh I didn't know about this!!! Thanks so much, I'll be playing with that later...

Hahaha yes... I agree... I was very hesitant to include this as my header pic but I was like, eehhh, it's realistic at least! The key is it shows certain 'apps' running on that Google TV. 😆

Yes sadly there's a bit of a stranglehold on the market regarding sports. It's the one thing that is held very close to the chest by the large Corps & broadcasters.

Thanks for taking a read through! Lots more to come ;)

I've been using Unifi APs since 2017 and they are fantastic. I control them with the Unifi Network Application via docker compose. Incredibly well priced APs that fit right into the 'prosumer' market for sure and still powerful enough to do SMB no problem.

As for FOSS Networking options - OPNsense FTW !!! It's an open source firewall/router based on FreeBSD and extremely performant, feature rich, stable and secure... Absolutely love it, it's the core of my network.

In regards to ZFS, I've been running a ZFS system of one type or another at home since 2013/2014... Totally valid & usable for home networks, many many do use ZFS storage systems. I'm very preferential to OpenMediaVault which is a NAS OS, but based directly on Debian! Debian is basically the Linux OS you want for reliability but paired with OMV's gui - makes having a custom NAS easy.