Blog

  • DHCP, VLANs and subnets in home networks

    In the article VLANs for home networks I wrote about how VLANs and subnets can improve network security by creating different segments, usually associated with a subnet. With multiple subnets, assigning addresses in each subnet via DHCP becomes more complex. DHCP IPv4 uses broadcast packets to ask for an IP address. VLANs create separate broadcast…

  • DNS for home networks

    In very simple terms, a Domain Name Service (DNS), is a service that turns specific network names (host names, service names) into IP addresses. It allows to use mnemonic names (mypc.example.com) instead of IP addresses (192.168.121.234) accessing internal network resources. There are several advantages in using DNS names instead of IP addresses directly: One simple…

  • QoS for home networks

    QoS stands for Quality of Service and in a computer networks means a set of technologies to improve the perceived quality of network services, by modifying how network packets are managed, prioritizing the delivery of specific ones, as defined by a set of rules. Usually network packets are processed using the simple FIFO (First In,…

  • VLANs for home networks

    Home networks are becoming increasingly complex, and security threats as well. Once they were used mostly for personal communications, and entertainment. Now work at home, home automation, and more and more complex tasks performed online at different security levels make simple flat networks inadequate, especially form a security perspective. Does it really make sense that…

  • Manage your own PKI with XCA

    Protecting connections with TLS requires the proper certificate/private key pairs, that need to be issued by a trusted Certificate Authority. You can buy certificates form several public CAs, or obtain free ones form entities like Let’s Encrypt. Sometimes you may need your own private CA and certificates for systems that do not need to be…