Nick
@nick@shore.me.uk
170 following, 248 followers
Years ago, software developers came up with the metaphor of "tech debt" to describe all the important corners one cuts—code quality, maintainability, testing, documentation, security—when in a rush.
The metaphor no longer works as a warning, since we've got a managerial class that likes tech debt so much they've made a fully leveraged, collateralised tech debt market, with derivatives and futures, and entire teams dreaming up exciting new ways of getting into even more tech debt.
Please can I ask the Fedi hivemind for some computer advice? I own a Surface Go 3. It is showing its age. I've eked some extra life and performance out of it with Linux, but it really just doesn't handle heavy modern websites well and even with the Windows bloat taken away it struggles.
Thing is, I really like the form factor. So, is there a machine like the Surface Go 3 but more powerful? I don't really want an Android tablet or iPad; I prefer a "proper" desktop OS.
Suggestions welcome!
As in, you'd like a tablet with a detachable keyboard?
If I were to buy any small computing machine right now, it would probably be a Chuwi MiniBook X, but it is not a tablet etc. (And I have not bought one, because I think it would annoy me.)
@neil Yes, specifically a relatively small tablet or computer with a detachable (or foldable away) keyboard and a stand.
I've not heard of Chuwi but they look interesting. I'd like to know why it would annoy you though, if you wouldn't mind sharing?
> a relatively small tablet or computer with a detachable (or foldable away) keyboard and a stand.
You could also look at:
https://starlabs.systems/pages/starlite
But £££!
> I'd like to know why it would annoy you
What I really want is a tiny ThinkPad. But no such machine exists.
I've got quite a few "small" machines, and none really do it for me.
@neil yes, that is a bit toppy! I’m intrigued by your first suggestion, and it’s cheap enough that it’s almost in impulse purchase territory. I’m going to dig in a bit further. Ta!
@hedders Would something like a ThinkPad Yoga work for you? The keyboard doesn't detach, but it folds all the way back instead.
@hugh it would, I think, if small enough? I’ll take a look. Thanks!
@hedders @neil Ah right, yes. That would be a big jump.
Maybe a 12" Surface Pro is the right sort of thing? (https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/surface/devices/surface-pro)
I know from family members they were very happy with previous generations, but I have no personal experience. Beats an Android tablet, though!
"Britain’s national grid, already under pressure over soaring demand, is facing a new challenge: AI data centres have been given government authority to jump the queue for scarce power connections, ahead of housing development"
#Housing #AI #NationalGrid #UKPolitics #Energy
The UK tech energy grab: how AI data centres are delaying the building of new homes
https://www.thenerve.news/p/ai-data-centres-electricity-grid-housing-new-homes-energy-delay
Ok, small experiment to see if this scales…
We've developed a new open standard to create the best music experience across multiple devices and rooms. It's called Sendspin.
You can try it in the latest release of @musicassistant, or try the live demo on our website:
https://www.sendspin-audio.com
Let me know what you think!
Going all in with GenAI, the case study.
@GossiTheDog This is the sort of news best described with german loan words...
In fairness, with GenAI you can accelerate things - eg the business directly into a wall.
A thing being repeated across businesses worldwide, including at Microsoft, is C level execs struggling to know why most staff aren’t using Copilot for M365, despite how much it costs.
Because most staff don’t spend all day in Teams meetings reading out PowerPoint slides to people who pretend to care. They have actual jobs. Doing work. Which they know how to do. Because it is their job.
@nick At this rate I’d be happy living in House of Cards even. Frank Underwood may be corrupt but at least he has a plan.
England's problem with cars and the school run.
An environmentally-conscious family member took her children to school by car, although it was only a 15 minute walk. Why? Because on the route the road narrowed and there was no footpath (council priorities showing!).
One terrifying morning of facing half-awake drivers rushing to work was enough.
There are some patches for the problem which need initiative and co-operation rather than government intervention.
Leeds is making an attempt. But while children are free to attend any school there will always be parents who drive their kids. And that makes it unsafe for all those who are going to their local school so their parents drive them too. I think that's what's known as a feedback loop.
https://www.leeds.gov.uk/parking-roads-and-travel/school-streets
Fans react angrily after Reform’s publicity stunt at Ipswich Town leaves the club facing reputational damage | Peter Thurlow
https://eastangliabylines.co.uk/politics/reform-stunt-embarrasses-ipswich-town-and-sparks-fan-outrage/?fsp_sid=7857
@BylinesEast the club has now responded and the fans are angry about that too. And rightly so. I wonder if the US background of the clubs CEO has coloured the response.
https://www.twtd.co.uk/ipswich-town-news/51707/town-issue-statement-on-farage-visit
@gorsefan From what I'm hearing, I don't think so. The fans have been happy with the way the club has been run. We've put out another article on it today.
@BylinesEast yes, I’m a fan and have been for decades. I meant that the fans were angry about the incident and also the response by the club too. Thank you 💙
After the North American daylight saving time shift, I took off for Europe (they haven’t done their #DST move yet) and got my extra hour of morning daylight back for a couple of weeks. Now I’m heading home and am not looking forward to losing it again.
Thinking about the time I was in Tokyo on business and I went to a toy store with some Japanese coworkers and we came across a chopstick training game where you have to pick up little plastic soy beans and put them in a cup. They dared me to play it, expecting me to do badly at it, and were very surprised that I did just as well as them.
One quirk of my upbringing is that we had Chinese neighbors, and our families were very close, so we’d host each other for dinner all the time. As a consequence of this they made absolutely sure I was good at using chopsticks, and they’re second nature to me.
It’s always surprising to me just how badly non-Asian friends of mine struggle with them, though.
This ramble brought to you by me treating myself to Panda Express for lunch and always forgetting that I have to specially request chopsticks and literally nobody else here is using them
Also on that same Tokyo trip, one of my US-based coworkers came as well and he decided he’d finally learn how to use chopsticks, and bought kid training chopsticks (like the ones my neighbors shamed me for needing once when I was 7) and he used them at all the restaurants and got such weird looks from all the waiters, because none of them could conceive of adults not knowing how to use something so simple.
Which is to say that it’s worth remembering that not everyone has the same experiences as you and motor skills are acquired, not innate.
So I guess here’s a poll about it: what’s your upbringing with chopsticks and how good are you at them?
| Raised with chopsticks, proficient: | 0 |
| Raised with chopsticks, not so great: | 0 |
| Not raised with chopsticks, proficient: | 7 |
| Not raised with chopsticks, not so great: | 2 |
@fluffy I'm Asian, and can barely use chopsticks. My extended family in Malaysia call me "the strange Englishman" because of this, and I get a great feeling of imposter syndrome in Chinese restaurants (although they will at least discreetly provide you with a knife/spoon and fork 😁 )
@vfrmedia @fluffy Absolutely baffled the staff of a joint in Osaka some years ago when I (very Anglo-presenting) was instructing a colleague (very Asian-presenting) in the use of chopsticks. Both of us were raised in the States and it happened I'd learned when I was an undergrad, and he never did for whatever reason.
I'm curious. For people who have both cats and dogs, at least one of each, how do they interact? #Poll #Polls #CatsOfMastodon #DogsOfMastodon
| They get along great!: | 16 |
| The cat bothers the dog more.: | 6 |
| The dog bothers the cat more.: | 6 |
| Can't tell. They fight too much.: | 0 |
boostedLooking for book recommendations for a precocious 8 year old reader who we got started on @philipreeve.bsky.social@bsky.brid.gy - first Adventuremice but since has also devoured Railhead and is onto the Mortal Engines books! I think Sci-Fi is becoming his thing... Ideally books without swearing or sex please!
@sjoy.lol maybe too young, but Beast Quest series (there's tonnes of them). But my boy (now 14) recommended the Cherub series (though not sci fi) which he mainlined a few years back
I am quite keen on the idea of an electric car.
I am less keen on the idea of a car which spies on me.
@neil This. I don't think it's restricted to EVs though. I disabled manufacturers network access, and never link car to phone. Don't know how effective this though.... ☹️😡
@neil Buy an older EV like a Nissan Leaf. My car doesn't spy on me because it doesn't have all the "software" the new EVs have.
Tesla love to spy on anyone. BYD. ? Don't know. Their latest does 600 miles on one charge. 250 miles on a 5 minute recharge.
@neil There's the rub...
I've been a "car phreak" since I was old enough to walk. I own like a dozen cars... half of them are even on the road and drivable.
I used to like all cars. Nowadays, I have zero interest in pretty much anything post ~2010 due to the complexity of trying to maintain it and more and more due to the invasive software and policies in cars newer than around that age.
Some makes and models are better than others. Would I buy a new BMW? LOL, are you serious? Would I buy a new MX-5... Maybe.
On the electric car front it seems like Hyundai/Kia have the best "normal" electric options in my market (Canada). Would I buy one... maybe... if I had to... I'm more inclined to find a good value used car regardless of propulsion I think.
I'd really like something electric as a new (to me) car when the time comes. Not sure I can do it given the software.
If I lived in the UK I'd probably be all over the Renault 5 / Alpine A290 twins as a daily struggle car. In my market we are stuck with the punitive auto industry BS from the south. It may change but ... we'll see. I have no idea what those cars are like from software or policy though. Maybe I'd walk out of the showroom.
@neil Btw, if you are really thinking about getting an electric car, check out Jonny Smith's channel on Youtube (The Late Brake Show). He has done a lot of sensible reviews of electric cars over the years and is UK based.
@neil
I think beyond a certain date they all spy on you. 2012? Don't know. But that would mean any modern all electric vehicle is another computer on wheels sending telemetry back to its producer and associated advertisers. You'll probably need to ID Verify, sorry 'age verify' to use it at some point.
Some people try to disable stuff but then cars either won't start or it invalidates insurance.
I miss driving and I'd hate to run an old gas gusler, but I'd also hate to have to buy a modern car.
@neil There was an option for a model one up from the EV we bought (MG4), which does have an internet connection. We couldn't justify the extra 10% for the bells and whistles, but now I'm quite happy about that.
But all cars are part of surveillance capitalism these days, one suspects.
@neil I got an mg5 a year ago - would definitely recommend. It has a screen for radio and you can connect it to android auto but apart from that it's all physical knobs and buttons and as far as I can tell it's got no internet connection internally.
@neil I suspect, not that this answers your point, that any new petrol or diesel would likely spy on you to a similar extent. Again, acknowledging the tangential nature of this comment.
@neil@mastodon.neilzone.co.uk Then I can recommend Stellantis. Seems safe to assume that their spyware will be poorly-designed, buggy and unreliable.
@neil are you in or near any car sharing catchment areas?
Do you have a car already, just not an electric one?
@neil spying aside, I find things like being able to preheat/cool the car to be a huge bonus of having an EV. I have not had to scrape the ice off a car for years. Home Assistant knows our schedule and automatically preconditions the car at the right times. I do wish I could replace the SIM and have the car talk to my own server instead of VW's though, especially since car manufacturers now seem to think it is ok to charge quite high monthly subscriptions to use these facilities!
@tobifant presumably only of use when at home though? My car will preheat for things like leaving the pub, driving home from swimming, my wife leaving university in the evening, etc.
ICE vehicles generally use their waste engine heat for heating, so you have to wait until the engine has warmed up before you get any useful heat from them. Conversely, my EV has a 6 kW PTC heater that will get the cabin nice and warm within a couple of minutes and certainly deice the windows in 5.
@neil A few months ago we bought a low milage 2020 Kia Soul. I haven't activated the Kia app so it isn't spying on me. It could still be logging and reporting its location and performance details but it isn't linked to me. Or not directly. Does it collect data from my phone? Possibly but that's registered with a fake name Gmail address I don't use for anything else. Does Kia collect and link data from their dealer who serviced it? 🤔
@neil As I'm sure you know, it's not just electric cars, it's new cars in general. A breakdown of connected car security issues from a few years back: https://arstechnica.com/cars/2023/09/connected-cars-are-a-privacy-nightmare-mozilla-foundation-says/
Do you have the engineering skill to retrofit an old car with an electric motor? 
You could be the guy fixing up a car in their garage AND the kook tinkering on something in their garage! 
@neil I pulled the fuse for wireless tech/onstar in my chevy bolt, so its a "dumb car" but still a sparky car. :)
@neil I'd really vibe with a stick-shift BEV.
Or a hybrid where I could somehow control the power split myself.
Or an automatic with throttle-by-wire and an ECU which simply didn't spy on me 🙄
@neil you can get a good idea of what each vendor collects here: https://www.mozillafoundation.org/en/privacynotincluded/categories/cars/
@neil I've had two Leafs (mk.i & ii) Both had an opt-in function when you switched on. Range on the mk. ii is fine (40kWh) mk.i was not so good!
Now I have an eCorsa which does not have an opt-in so I assume it is reporting to base... On the plus side it does not seem to have any features that depend on this.
HTH
@neil I for one cannot wait to read a blog post and/or updated Toot with ye answer
It's a question I would very much like an answer for but with not enough drive to replace my 2019 reg car; 5 years into owning a car from basically new feels far too early, maybe I'll actually do it in another 5, we shall see. Cars be expensive
@neil
I drive several EVs all part of a car sharing co-op. I am assuming that 100s of people driving the same car really messes with the algorithm.
@neil Whether a car spies on you or not is more about modern vs old analog cars. Modern combustion powered cars spy on you like electric ones do.
Annoyingly it turns out you cannot change the IP range on a Virgin Hub 5.
So that is a bit of a pain in the backside short term.
Medium term I need to implement my actual plan of placing a BSD gateway box between the home network and the router. But I'm not really prepped for that.
Might just raise the old gateway IP on my desktop for now and route via that to the virgin box. IIRC that is a thing that can be done... maybe, my networking is very rusty.
@yvan Do they still offer "modem mode" where all the routing on the hub is disabled and your own router can get the external IPv4 address?
@Edent @steve my plan is to just stick a gateway box with 2 NICs on my side of the Virgin hub with the Virgin box's network its side and my network my side. I'll investigate this "modem mode".
For now I am up and running now via the quickest approach I could think of... I raised the old gateway IP on my desktop and set it up to route for the existing internal /24 via the Virgin box gateway. Seems to be working, that took a lot of dusting off old skills lol... seems nothing has really changed since I last used to do this sort of stuff at least (or the "old ways" still work per se). I thought I was getting it all wrong but just for fun the NIC driver for my desktop seemed to be having a moment... couple of kernel panics... yay... reboot fixed that. (A concern for another day, it's just some default on-mobo NIC.)
@nick TBF I have run double-NATted setups like that for years previously and it generally seems to be fine, albeit can certainly be a little trickier to navigate/configure for some things... albeit since we moved into our current place we've just used the BT router as I never had time to set things up again properly until now.
I shall certainly investigate modem mode options. The Mikrotik hardware looks budget friendly, I can find the hEX in the UK for under 50 quid, which is less than I was expecting to spend on something for this! (Expecting to find some random old hardware on eBay, or stick a second NIC in some random old hardware I have lying around.)
If there's a memory of elephants, a murder of crows, and a gaggle of geese, what would a bunch of sex-bloggers be called?
Many years ago, someone tried to get me into cryptocurrencies. "They're the future of money!" they said. I replied saying that I'd rather wait until they were more useful, less volatile, easier to use, and utterly reliable.
"You don't want to get left behind, do you?" They countered.
That struck me as a bizarre sentiment. What is there to be left behind from? If BitCoin (or whatever) is going to liberate us all from economic drudgery, what's the point of "getting in early"? It'll still be there tomorrow and I can join the journey whenever it is sensible for me.
Part of the crypto grift was telling people to "Have Fun Staying Poor". That weaponisation of
FOMO
was an insidious way to get people to drop their scepticism.
I feel the same way about the current crop of AI tools. I've tried a bunch of them. Some are good. Most are a bit shit. Few are useful to me as they are now. I'm utterly content to wait until their hype has been realised. Why should I invest in learning the equivalent of WordStar for DOS when Google Docs is coming any-day-now?
If this tech is as amazing as you say it is, I'll be able to pick it up and become productive on a timescale of my choosing not yours.
I didn't use Git when it first came out. Once it was stable and jobs began demanding it, I picked it up. Might I be 7% more effective if I'd suffered through the early years? Maybe. But so what? I could just as easily have wasted my time learning something which never took off.
I wrote my MSc on The Metaverse. Learning to built VR stuff was fun, but a complete waste of time. There was precisely zero utility in having gotten in early.
Perhaps there are some things for which it is sensible to be on the cutting edge. I took part in a vaccine trial because I thought it might personally benefit me and, hopefully, humanity.
But I'm struggling to think of anyone who has earned anything more than bragging rights by being first. Some early investors made money - but an equal and opposite number lost money. For every HTML 2.0 you might have tried, you were just as likely to have got stuck in the dead-end of Flash.
There are a 16,000 new lives being born every hour. They're all starting with a fairly blank slate. Are you genuinely saying that they'll all be left behind because they didn't learn your technology in utero?
No. That's obviously nonsense.
It is 100% OK to wait and see if something is actually useful.
#AI #crypto #future #technology
Alt...
Robot faced Mark Zuckerberg is wearing a VR headset - it digs painfully into his smiling cheeks.
Just found out (according to Peter Theil) that critics of AI are "legionnaires of the antichrist"¹
Hello fellow legionnaires!
¹Thank John Oliver (again).
Internet person: "But this unsubstantiated datapoint about a heat pump that 'someone I know' / my plumber mate / [insert random third-party] says they're shit"
How about near-realtime data from every single of the real Cosy heat pumps installed by Octopus Energy?
That's what we've done with the Cosy Heat Pump Fleet Performance Dashboard.
Hi all,
I'm James, and I built my own proper #SmartHome (and I build them for others too).
I now review the tech that goes into them, and do how-to's whenever I come up with something that I think others might find interesting.
I use #HomeAssistant, #AppleHome and #SiriShortcuts primarily. But I've also recently delved into #3DPrinting to add another tool to my belt in solving problems around my home.
I wrote up a deliberate process of narrowing down a performance issue using a profiler (with a brief digression into benchmarking tools). Fortunately (given that I was writing the post in parallel with doing the actual work) it turned out well, delivering a 30–40× speedup. #MyElixirStatus
Brilliant news! The UK's Labour Government are going to make "plug in solar" legal.
Grab some panels from Lidl, hang them off your balcony or out your window, plug them in to your mains. Done!
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-to-go-further-and-faster-in-becoming-energy-secure
boosted@Edent
For anyone reading this who thinks "you can't buy plugin solar panels from Lidl!" here's a link to Lidl Germany where that is definitely a thing:
https://www.lidl.de/h/stromerzeuger/h10031840?pageId=10067761%2F10067532%2F10031840&sort=price
@Edent this could be the start of something big. As someone renting a house with a large garden and paved area against a south-west facing wall, this is very interesting...
If I'm reading this correctly this allows consumers to feed solar into the grid. Do they get paid for doing it or is it just a case of if the sun's shining you might want to put your washing on?
@OneInterestingFact
Yes. If you have an export tariff you'll get paid for every kWh you pass back to the grid.
@Edent I look forward to the govt's publicity making that clear.
I look forward to the government ever making anything clear.
@Walrus What did your MP and Senedd member say when you complained to them about this?
Oh, come on. I do't have to make sense when I take cheap shots, do I?
@Walrus Kinda, yeah.
I used to work for the UK Government. We spent a lot of time and energy publishing things as clearly as possible.
Then some cleverdick would complain that we hadn't done a good enough job when, in reality, they just hadn't bothered looking.
I think that press release is pretty clearly written. If you genuinely don't then, yes, you should write to your representatives and complain. That's the only way feedback gets heard.
@Walrus @Edent Aren't the issues with unlimited / random feed back in to grid related to the infrastructure to handle it.
I may be wrong, but I assumed the hassle to get the limit one what we can feed in to to technical, not political.
If it is purely political, then hell yeh. Feed in that sunshine, and battery,
@revk
Yeah, the DNO can object if you're planning to put dozens of panels up and they think the grid can't handle it.
But balcony solar is likely to only be a couple of panels per household. Results from Germany are encouraging (albeit a different grid to ours).
@Edent I thought 3.1kW was allowed or some similar amount, for feed in without approval, so that sort of already covers it, no?
@revk TBH, it seems to change regularly. When we had ours done 5ish years ago it required DNO sign off, I think.
But, yeah, with all the grid upgrades going on it looks like it is just a regulatory problem.
@Edent @revk from the press release it seems the govt are working on making the process and regulations clearer to deal with (a consumer is going to have to tell the supplier to get the export enabled on the smart meter and the second MPAN allocated)
However DNO infrastructure isn't always the best (neighbour with 0 export, EV's or anything like that had a service cable failure, it took a month for UKPN to remove the temporary link from the next door house and rebuild the cable, which involved a week of having the road up and parking restrictions outside my house). There's also been at least one "make pumps 2" fire from an overloaded service cable on my street..
@Edent @OneInterestingFact Plug-in solar is usually not enough that feeding into the grid is actually worth it (mostly depends on how many forms you have to fill, but you are usually also not paid enough). The main reason you want to have a solar panel on your balcony is to cover your own consumption. Add battery storage to it and you can be quite independent of the grid for a large part of the year.
@phoerious @Edent
The devil is, as usual, in the detail. If every smart meter is automatically configured to measure export then maybe we have a winner.
If you don't get paid for energy put into the grid then balcony solar looks like an expensive way to make very small savings for those who don't have a way to shift consumption to the middle of the day or to store the energy they would have exported.
Adding a battery to my existing 4.4kW(p) PV system would have saved <£70 last year. Not viable.
@OneInterestingFact @phoerious
Yes, every smart meter in the UK can measure export. I've done it on several smart meters. You'll need to tell your energy company so they can pay you correctly.
@Edent @OneInterestingFact how would that work, I currently have a second meter on a feed from the inverter to export power and I get a lower price than I pay to import. It doesn't sound like plugin solar will have that and if it just runs the meter backwards then they are getting a better deal than I do.
Plus my system has to automatically disconnect from the grid in a power cut so as not to electrocute power workers.
@ianturton It won't physically run the meter backwards. Any SMETS meter will detect it as export.
Plug in solar also has to automatically disconnect.
@Edent It is good news but I can't help feeling that we're all about to be scalped in terms of pricing.
I hope not, but big retail in the UK has a nasty habit of artificial scarcity and price bumps.
"The portable, plug-in solar panels can be placed in gardens or on walls and balconies"
Especially interesting since the price of a solar panels is competitive with the price of fence panels
@Edent excellent news if it turns out they don't screw it up.
but.
"plug it into your mains"? really? how does that work?
edit: even if it does work — how would i know it was doing anything?
edit^2: the relevant search term here is "G98". i'm still very confused what the hell this is, but it is a thing, in some areas.
@Edent I *love* this. These ultra low-friction options are absolutely key to popular adoption in the early stages.
@Edent in case anyone missed it, here's a primer on the potential of solar.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KtQ9nt2ZeGM
Watch or listen to the end.
@Edent I wonder why they were illegal in the first st place, are they notorious shoplifters or something?
@inpc because the grid was originally designed to support electricity flowing in one direction.
It's a bit like asking why it's illegal to connect your sewage pipe back into the mains. It wasn't designed for that and it carries risks.
Thankfully, the grid is mostly upgraded and can now handle energy flowing in both directions.
On that subject: I discussed your post this evening with a friend who's not on Fedi, and she raised an interesting question: when there's a line fault, how do you disconnect all the solar panels and keep them disconnected while the repair is carried out? Just as you say, the grid was designed for power flowing in one direction only. Is there a breaker by each house that the DNO can flip at will?
@Edent @CppGuy @inpc In the US, rooftop solar still requires an outdoor cutoff switch, even though the equipment is not supposed to send voltage back to the grid if there is no charge present. There was a lot of political resistance to plug-in units (ostensibly in the name of safety), but it does look like the US may make them legal soon!
@Edent
Not if you live on a listed residential estate
@Christo_459 You should write to your MP and assembly member to let them know your concerns.
But, it looks like you can apply for consent for a listed building.
https://historicengland.org.uk/advice/technical-advice/building-services-engineering/installing-photovoltaics/consents-permissions/
@Edent @Christo_459 You can in theory but unlikely to be worth it for plug-in if your local authority wants you to do a planning application.
@annehargreaves @Christo_459
Sure, but you lose nothing by asking.
As ever, people need to engage with their local politicians rather than just feeling hopeless or ranting on the Internet.
@Edent @annehargreaves
I will certainly mail my MP but we also have a very strong residents association
I'm.travelling home to London on Friday so next week will set to.
@Edent power / sec nerd here. How does this not energize intentionally-deenergized lines? Mustn’t cook line repair crews.
@InkomTech because an inverter matches the frequency it sees from the grid. If there's no frequency, it doesn't output.
That's how all solar inverters work.
@Edent I’ve seen these in Germany and it discombobulates me to think that I can feed electricity into my house the “wrong” way.
@Edent this does not say of there are any requirements for the plug-in solar. The main objections here in Norway is the potential for shock from touching the prongs on the plug, from something else plugged into the same circuit and from anyone working on the main powerlines, since the panels produce power even if there is no power from the grid. Are these things considered in the UK?
@gundersen no, we just let people die.
Of course they are considered. All inverters continually check for the presence of the grid's frequency. If the frequency is lost, it immediately de-energises.
@Edent haha, good to know you think of the people 🤣
I'm just sharing the objections of the Norwegian government. Is there a legal requirement for the balcony panels to have that kind of inverter? There doesn't seem to be an EU law, apparently. It would be good if we could just copy your laws, seeing as my government is mortally afraid of taking any decision on their own, but European champions in copying others laws
@Edent
Better to have batteries too or your solar can't be used at night or during power cuts.
Solar UPS systems have been sold for years and legal everywhere. They have an MPPT controller to charge the LiFePO4 batteries, an inverter to give 230V AC from the 12V to 48V nominal batteries and a mains charger to recharge the batteries if not enough sun.
Can be used to "move" cheap night time electricity to daytime in winter.
Far better than simply feeding solar power to the grid. This is a sop.
@raymaccarthy
What do you mean "a sop"?
Balcony solar works really well in Germany. Even without a battery, this will offset people's energy costs by letting them use solar in the day.
@Edent
Because Solar UPS doesn't need this "law change".
The LiFePO4 (unlike Lithium Ion) are safe and maybe 10 to 20 years life.
It's short sighted and a rubbish system to have no batteries.
There is less than 1/10th solar in Dec/Jan compared to Jun/Jul. Adding batteries means cheaper winter daytime electricity and typically 10 hours backup for vital stuff in Jan/Dec to indefinate during the summer.
Also many of the plug in cheap micro-inverters are poor quality & high radio interference
@Edent
I've halved our electricity bill and have the 12 panels on two shed roofs.
No contractor or law change needed because it's Solar UPS. No power fed to grid.
two systems: Bluetti & their proprietary batteries and Victron with a generic battery (both LiFePO4),.
Runs 3 freezers, fridge, internet/pcs, TV, satellite & some lights.
We'd save more with a smart meter as we then could charge at cheap night rate and use that during the day. Solar only is only good for the summer and no security.
@Edent it doesn't say when, which is important.
I do wonder though how likely anyone will now be to take action against someone who hangs panels on a balcony or wall.
Not very, I'd think.
#balconysolar
@Photo55 it literally says they're consulting now.
The action wouldn't be against hanging a panel (although their could be some health and safety things if not tied down). It's about making sure that the things are electrically safe.
@Edent
A subsidy, plus mandatory Solar + batteries on all new buildings.
Add to bus shelters, bicycle shelters, car parks etc.
This encourages poor quality solutions and changes nothing.
@raymaccarthy you do know the UK hugely subsidises solar, right?
And that new-builds will have solar by default. That's already law.
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/rooftop-solar-for-new-builds-to-save-people-money
I've got to ask, why are you such a doomer about this good news?
@Edent
Because it's mostly PR.
The Solar UPS was already possible without this is change and far better as It can make bigger savings & security.
The so-called "balcony" solar makes little difference. This is ONLY useful for people wanting to sell to grid that have maybe only one or two panels. You need a lot more, especially the darker half of the year to make a difference and then the extra cost of a certified electrician isn't significant.
Solar without the LiFePO4 batteries is stupid.
@raymaccarthy
No, that's not really correct.
A battery is only good if you can plug stuff in to it. Which means you need to route your cables around - and it'd be impossible to plug an oven in to it.
Balcony solar goes:
* Panel out of window
* String to inverter
* Inverter to mains via plug
Then *all* of your devices can use solar. Not just the ones within cable reach of your window.
Anyway, if you want more of my thoughts on solar - https://shkspr.mobi/blog/tag/solar/
@Edent
No, that's nonsense.
Talk to an electrician and look at power of panel.
A typical 400W panel only gives that for a few hours each day in clear sky in Jun/Jul. A cheap "balcony" system is 1/2 that.
Maybe 10W to 40W at noon in Dec/Jan on average.
Without a battery you can't use ANY of the 400W if the mains supply fails.
You don't plug anything into the battery!
You plug into the inverter or inverter/UPS. The Electricity companies don't pay well for the Solar to grid!
Oven is irrelevant
@raymaccarthy
I have rather a lot of experience with domestic solar.
The point of balcony solar isn't to power your whole house. Nor is it to island your home in event of a power cut.
You're arguing against something that it explicitly isn't designed for.
It's to trickle feed energy into your home in order to reduce what you're drawing from the mains.
@Edent I concur. My solar panel (400W, absolutely not ideally positioned) does cover the base load of my apartment easily on most days when delivering power. That has reduced my electricity bill by around 15% compared to the year before. So it basically pays itself back in around 3 years. Good enough for me. @raymaccarthy
@matthewcroughan @raymaccarthy
Yes, that's the point of this proposal. You'll be able to hang them on your flat's balcony, or our a window. No need to drill into your roof.
Brilliant news! The UK's Labour Government are going to make "plug in solar" legal.
Another of their tricks to try and take votes from green by grabbing their policys.
Remember how many promises Labour made, and how many they have broken, like most of them....
@Kerplunk you didn't read the Labour Party manifesto, did you?
They explicitly mention solar and other green policies.
Not sure how making it easier to get solar power is a trick. Do you want these policies now or only after another 3 years when Zack is PM?
@Edent don’t you still need a bi directional meter to use solar with your mains? Idk if it’s different there but here in the states almost nobody has those by default and has to get them swapped. We can’t just plug a solar panel in and call it a day
@officialdeathscythe Yes and no.
All smart meters support bi-directional power - although you'll need to tell your supplier so they can pay you properly.
If you have an old meter, it will spin backwards. See my video at https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2013/12/free-money-from-the-sky/
@Edent
A great idea. I can't put solar on my grade 2 listed cottage. If this means I can put some in the garden, it's brilliant news.
@Edent any suspicion when from? Do we think weeks or months away?
@seanhood Write to your MP, tell them you think it is a brilliant idea, and ask when it will be in place.
That will show them (and the department) that their constituents are interested in green energy.
@Edent I love the idea of this, but the suicide plug on the end scares me. Assuming they have some pretty quick cutoff times or something in case you pull the plug out?
@jpwsutton Yes. The inverter which turns DC from the panels into AC for your home needs a "carrier" frequency to work. It has to match the Hz in your wires.
If it loses that, it instantly shuts down.
That's how all inverters work.
@Edent Makes complete sense. I guess I'd just never considered that would be fine on a type G plug too, but no reason why not I suppose!
@matthewcroughan
See my answer at
https://mastodon.social/@Edent/116233685137748142
@inpc because the grid was originally designed to support electricity flowing in one direction.
It's a bit like asking why it's illegal to connect your sewage pipe back into the mains. It wasn't designed for that and it carries risks.
Thankfully, the grid is mostly upgraded and can now handle energy flowing in both directions.
@matthewcroughan
Knock on your neighbours' doors. Ask them who installed their solar and whether they'd recommend them.
@Edent
Don't forget the battery bank, inverter, control box.
Oh, and a balcony.
Or a roof.
Or even a garden.
@WellsiteGeo You don't need the battery bank. That's the point. If you have no space, you can literally hang them out of a window.
If you live somewhere without windows, you have bigger problems!
@Edent I thought it was already, and that you just couldn't get an MCS certificate for it (and be paid for the export)
@Edent ... And discover your internal wiring can't handle the power and burns the shed down?
@Edent Brilliant news indeed, ty.
Strikes me that plug-in solar isn't just for those unable to do a full-on permanent rooftop install due to not having roof access and so on, but also for those of us who'd love to go ahead with rooftop but can't afford the minimum four figure initial outlay.
That is: IIUC (maybe I don't?) the cost to entry for My First Plug-In Solar System will be a lot smaller than My First Rooftop Solar Installation; achieving the former will help save up for the latter.
@Edent "Plug them in your mains"? Not *that* simple, but yes it is good news!
@lbhudda
I mean, yes?
Solar Panel - Small Inverter Box - Mains Plug.
That seems pretty simple to me.
@Edent Sure thing, but that's *not what you wrote*! You can't plug a solar panel into the mains, and an invertor isn't a solar panel. I feel your message is misleading!
@Edent @lbhudda Wait really? I'm kinda curious how this works, since the current is gonna be flowing out of the inverter and into the plug? Does that mean that the plug has mains energised exposed prongs? Or some protection in there so it only turns on its supply when it detects mains voltage at the plug and so logically the plug is in the socket and safe
@Edent Happy days. Been waiting a while for this. With panels and batteries at an all time low these are exciting times. :-)
Alt...
My wood store with solar panels leaning against the front powering a Lipo4 battery in my shed.
@Edent "The Energy Secretary will today outline a package of measures to go “further and faster” in the pursuit of national energy security as a response to events in the Middle East. "
It's a shame it took a war to come to this decision...
@chewie
You know they've been doing a bunch of stuff *before* this latest conflict, right?
Massive amounts of wind and solar, plus all the grid upgrades.
@Edent sure, but balconsolar isn't exactly revolutionary
@chewie
OK, how about building the biggest off-shore windfarm in the world?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cn9zyx150xdo
Is that revolutionary enough for you?
@Edent I don't care whether it's revolutionary or not, it's just annoying that it's taken a war to focus their minds on something that should be a "quick win", and has already demonstrated it's potential in other countries.
@chewie I don't think that's quite correct.
The proposals have been in the works for ages.
See https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/solar-roadmap/solar-roadmap-united-kingdom-powered-by-solar-accessible-webpage#fnref:28 from mid-2025.
@Edent So by "plug-in", does it mean I literally just plug it into a wall socket and go about my business?
For anyone interested in my “Scalable and Secure Self-Serve RouterOS Remote Management” presentation at the MikroTik Professionals Conference in Prague, the slide deck, #Docker, and #ContainerLab files can be found here. https://github.com/ghostinthenet/l2vpnLab #MTPC #NetEng
Donating! 🩸 If you can, please do, too!
Alt...
My left arm while donating blood. You see the tube, but not the needle.
Heh, it's the same dance every time.
"Have you donated from this arm before?"
"Yes, always the left arm."
"This is a very narrow vein. I will call a more experienced colleague [this time a super young lady in a headscarf 💚] to do it."
(I'm happy they do check! It's just always kinda funny ... I can tell them by now that there are two veins and that it is easier to feel them than to see.)
And then they are surprised that I'm done in 5 min max. Narrow veins but good blood flow.
And the reason I post about donating is rather simple: I long procrastinated on starting to. And then folks I followed on twitter kept posting about them going donating so that at a point I made the jump. So trying to give back into the circle of encouragement...
@vicgrinberg do you get free biscuits and snacks afterwards? We do in the UK 🙂
@Edent yes! They actually encourage you to drink and eat something afterwards. And it's really nice Dutch bisquits, raisin bread or nuts at my location. You can also get a "soup in a cup" and similar, though I usually go for the sweet stuff 😅
@vicgrinberg soup! We get water or fruit squash. But, yes, lots of sweet snacks and crisps.
Thanks for donating.
@Edent well, it's instant soup... (but I have to admit that I have some of it at home myself - lively childhood memories!). And thank you for donating, too!
@Edent
Oh, so I was wrong complaining (in my head) about pasta with tomato sauce and cake with coffee? Good to know.
@nick
Look, at the place I was donating blood in the city I used to live we would get 25€ for additional food expenses due to the blood loss. Back in the days me and friends would spend the money at a local restaurant. Compared to that, some pasta with tomato sauce is... you get the point: I didn't know, how good I had it. ;)
This thread is now developing into that meme ("you guys have xyz?").
@Edent @vicgrinberg
@nick
Don't you get some souvenirs like a mug or a small book shop vocher?
Oh man, Germany starts feeling like a luxurious blood donor's paradise...
@nick @ditol @vicgrinberg
Oh yes! Great for laptops and other gadgets.
https://mastodon.social/@Edent/115400793572610711
The NHS gives out the best laptop stickers.
Get yours at https://www.blood.co.uk/
Alt...
A "regular donor" sticker for O Rhesus Positive.
@vicgrinberg
I agree, but 25€ once every 2 or 3 months wasn't enough to be considered proper money even in my uni years. It really felt like reimbursement and they did their best to explain it like this. But I guess, with the recent cuts to the welfare state we may end up in a situation, where 25€ every couple of months DOES feel like proper money to many people...
I heard the sound of my cat in the kitchen hacking away. I went to have a look and it turned out I was right – he was establishing an SSH connection to a custom port while wearing a black hoodie.
does 111 not count as an emergency number in the UK? seemingly cant get through with phone in "emergency only" network state.
boop @vfrmedia figured you may know the answer to this
@LottieVixen its not classed as emergency number on mobile networks, only 112/999 (some mobiles will even recognise 911 and present it as 112 in the network, leading to British kids becoming confused and thinking 911 is an emergency number here)
I do set up VOIP systems at work so 105/111/112/999 are all on the emergency route, but thats more so it picks a trunk with correct and reliable address info and sends that to network (as all these services will use the address if they have it)
@vfrmedia *sigh* i figured from my experience of trying to call twice.. but thank you mew.
maybe having 999 have an option to hit to go to 111 would be a potential workaround to this (or just add 111 as emergency in this regard)
@LottieVixen 999/112 and 111 go through completely different routes (with nines having more resilient circuits) - I've had to learn about this very recently as I'm changing over all remaining analogue circuits at work to VOIP and thus am responsible for being sure any outbound emergency calls are correctly dealt with..
@vfrmedia makes sense ugh I just wish there was something.
situation
so currently struggling with a dental pain issue, local bupa dentist is only taking NHS patients through 111 and maybe walk-ins (unsure but currently thinking about being a walk-in)
just got a new SIM, unsure if I have service yet, tried 111 online and calling (which failed) and the options they gave are "see a dentist or take a callback" which I can't do because no active number yet... bleh
sorry to dump just frustrated with the current state of things.
@LottieVixen ouch! I also set up the mobile devices for frontline staff its annoying how long a SIM can take to activate sometimes (I've had anything from them working within minutes to taking several hours)
@nick @neil @revk @dan @bencurthoys I suspect a lot of this depends on whether any of the family is under 18
@interpipes @nick @neil @dan @bencurthoys Does the law define child as under 18, or just my progeny?
@revk @interpipes @nick @neil @bencurthoys it's not dependent on age as such, but on whether you're in the schedue - https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2023/50/schedule/1
Breaking news
.
.The US military had begun air strikes across IRAN in conjunction with Israel.
Bastards
Anyone had any luck with an external 4G antenna? Looks like there are a bunch of questionable ones on Amazon that might be just the ticket to turn a spotty, near useless 4G router into something passable.
@gadgetoid It is a minefield. I used to have one on top of a warehouse roof that worked... it was the second one I tried, the previous cheap one was total bullshit, did nothign at all ... just going to see if I can find them in the old business Amazon history.
@yvan thank you! It does seem like the sort of thing that could easily do nothing, and for that to be near impossible to prove. At least the signal is bad enough that I'd know if it got usefully better 😆
@gadgetoid this is the one that worked: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00C1DGFPS
It was "only" 80 quid when I bought it mind. Has gone up a tonne! Not cheap!
It was put to serious use a few times as our whole office/logistics relied on an internet connection and the BT copper on the street was totally flakey. We got usable failover internet by plugging this into the 4G dongle on the router (without it we had zero bars, but it was inside a giant metal warehouse, the antenna OTOH was mounted on the apex of the roof outside at the other end of 5 metres of cable, and I did test with just the cable and no antenna and it didnt' work so the antenna being connected did do something.)
This is the one I bought that appeared to do approximately nothing: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07Y1N9ZTF
@yvan wow that gives me a ballpark to work with, thank you. The ones I had been looking at were around the £40 mark and they are probably junk. I suspect by the time I've invested in good hardware and managed to mount it somewhere useful I could have been enjoying a decent, no-hassle fibre connection just for the want of a few extra quid 😆
@gadgetoid there has gotta be cheaper options than that that'll work...
In actual fact I should have that one in storage somewhere I think. I'm tempted to crack it open and see what kind of bullshit is inside. (I cracked open the one that didn't work and IIRC it was just a PCB with some dubious "antenna" traces on it.)
@yvan hahaha, I'm almost tempted to order a cheap one from Amazon and have a peek. I'd bet just measuring the dubious antenna traces should give you a pretty good idea whether it can even physically work or not.
@gadgetoid yeah, I never had time to try and analyse them... that one is actually still up the top of a pole on the house.
I have also tried these ones: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bingfu-Outdoor-Waterproof-Vodafone-Cellular/dp/B086J9NBQ8/
But I am struggling to remember if I ever confirmed how well they worked. I vaguely recall they may have done something, but I never properly tested it and the site those ones were on had pretty much 100% reliable wired Internet so I don't think we ever had to use the failover.
@gadgetoid oh, haha... I clicked on the review with the most interesting looking photos... and the review is actually from me. Fuck my memory. 😂
Alt...
Screenshot of a review for this product: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bingfu-Outdoor-Waterproof-Vodafone-Cellular/dp/B086J9NBQ8/
With a couple of photos and text:
he antenna does improve signal, and using two of these with a 4G gateway device and the antennas in a high window gave me good a good 4G bandwidth boost. If they were still working I'd mention some exact signal gains... but an antenna broke.
This is why I'm rating this 2 stars and writing this review. These antennas are of very fragile design. The cable is fixed only by solder joins. So with use/movement of the cable one of mine has detached completely.
And they are not easily user servicable as the casing is very much glued shut. So I had to get the Dremel out and cut the bottom off...
What these need is a cable retainer device really. What I am going to do is solder the cable back on and then smother with epoxy or hot glue. I'll also squirt silicone into the metal cable entry to fix the cable (and improve water proofness.) And glue the butchered casing back together.
Water proofness is another issue I notice. The o-ring on the antenna base isn't any use with the provided brackets. But I guess it is for a whole other use case? (Mounted through sheet material... vehicle roof?)
Anyway - if you buy this I recommend at least pumping some odourless (non-acetic) silicone into the cable entry tube to secure the cable and prevent the breakage I have suffered.
@yvan @gadgetoid I mean... that looks like it's basically a couple of square inches of PCB copper, with a bit of steel wool stuck on the end for good measure.
@ahnlak yeah, I find the whole pcb-antenna magic a bit of a dark art... beyond my understanding. I also wonder if the antennas need to be connected onto a bigger ground-plane to work well (i.e. vehicle roof)... there is a not-fantastic electrical connection between the board and the metal-disc/brass-tube which I improved when I fixed this one by thickening up those outer pads with added solder. (It's all slowly coming back to me.) I then mounted the two antennas in an outdoor box offset at 90 degrees from each other [more wild stab in the dark than any knowledge/skill on my part.] That's presumably all still stuck to the side of a chimney at a pub in Cambride lol.
The "steel wool" is just a bit of foam that fairly pointlessly braces the board against some slot or something in the top of the housing IIRC.
@yvan @ahnlak so you’re saying if I get a ladder there’s a pub in Cambridge with antennas going? 🤣
Getting the darn thing up high is going to be a challenge, it’s in a sparse housing area but I think the line of sight to the nearest cell is blocked by a bunch of stuff and I’m pretty sure the house is chimneyless and there might be words said about unsightly antennas 😬
@gadgetoid @ahnlak ladder: yeah, kinda... said pub may well be using the antennas, albeit may not be aware of the fact... it was all left in place connected to the 4G dongle on the Virgin router. They may or may not notice 😂
Best way to determine antenna location is to test it I guess. So much depends on the location, lie of the land, etc.
@gadgetoid 🚨 WARNING WILL ROBINSON, WARNING 🚨
DO NOT BUY THIS ONE! I saw a coke machine with this identical antennae so I thought “What the hell?” and I bought this. Once connected to my T-Mobile 4G gateway it did exactly NOTHING.
Just my $.02 worth (or 2p worth 😂)
@gadgetoid We have https://www.solwise.co.uk/4g-outdoor-omni-232.htm on our boat and it works ok for 4G (need to ensure you connect it to the primary socket on the router). Doesn’t work for 5G as that needs multiple antennas working together. Looks like https://www.solwise.co.uk/A-PUCK-0002-V2-01 is the modern equivalent. Poynting seems to be the brand to go for.
@rebelmike oh wow it’s been a hot minute since I’ve heard of Solwise! Used to review their gear probably more years ago than I’d care to remember 😬
Added to the list of considerations, thanks!
A Texan in Suffolk reminds us that the UK is not so bad, and points out the positives | Jenny Rhodes
https://eastangliabylines.co.uk/lifestyle/culture/from-texas-to-suffolk-what-happens-when-you-start-a-new-life/?fsp_sid=7182
Just spent half day reconfiguring #SIP trunks on #FreePBX and #Asterisk (using chan_pjsip) as one of our providers silently yoinked #IAX2 support - #VOIP is as cursed if not more so than #PSTN / #ISDN circuits, except you don't have to crawl around as much in corners and roofspaces amongst spiders, mouse-like rodents and possibly snakes (if you have them in your country), and there's less chance of ending up on the wrong side of 100-120 volts (either AC or DC, depending on whether its ringing voltage or the strong DC voltage that British Telecom and others used to send down certain ISDN lines in 90s/00s)
@vfrmedia What a non-boring life you have in Good Old England! Do you have any telecom operators that provide the IAX2 interface? Then run from FreePBX (it's still a PBX for blondes) to a normal Asterisk and you can even use chan_sip for now, it looks like it won't be disable anytime soon. And don't forget to take the system indoors, out of the attic where the prim British rats roam and the Victorian vipers crawl behind them.
I feel your pain 🙂
chan_pjsip + FreePBX can turn into a rabbit hole very quickly, especially when providers change capabilities without proper notice. IAX2 can actually be a relief in some cases (NAT-friendly, fewer SIP headaches), but of course it depends on the use case.
If you need a second pair of eyes on the config (PJSIP/IAX2, NAT, codecs, security), feel free to reach out.
Also happy to help with EU DID ranges and UK geographic numbers if that becomes relevant.
Had to open 5060 inbound to get one providers trunk to signal inbound calls (either #STUN isn't working there or some #NAT issues), with predictable results..
Got older version of #fail2ban on this box to yeet all blighters trying to get in - by turning on security logging in /etc/asterisk/logfiles_custom.conf (add entry security_log => security), updating regexes in /etc/fail2ban/filter.d and pointing failt2ban jail to check /var/log/asterisk/security_log (main Asterisk log is in wrong format and I don't know enough regex to fix that)
Also registered a #Voipfone virtual PBX extension to use as an extra trunk (needs contact-user and from-user set in #PJSIP config)
The picture @alex drew a few months back sums up exactly what dealing with these #VOIP #trunks is like
Alt...
Drawing of elephants trunk with snake head at the end
remembered to add the new security_log file to #Asterisk conf in /etc/rotate.d - hopefully this works and I don't get huge log files on the server..
Alas, log does not seem to get picked up by logrotate - changed filename to /var/log/asterisk/fail2ban (already in /etc/logrotate.d and previously working) to see if thats any better (as apparently #FreePBX can alter /etc/logrotate.d but its not clear exactly where this happens!)
it turns out maybe some regexes in fail2ban may have been fine, but the full log generated by #Asterisk didn't contain "security" events so it couldn't find any to catch). I've also added "notice" to the security log and the regex *now* seems to snag these!
Turned off FreePBX software #firewall as fighting with #fail2ban #iptables rules (never worked straight anyway and didn't guard #SIP traffic), checking if config persist across reboots and services start correctly.. #VOIP
Everything now seems to be working. Now I know SIP trunks work even on this old server and versions of #Asterisk / #FreePBX I can plan for when our main analogue lines have to be ceased and reprovided as SIP (and will be looking into using a cloud server / VPS as its hardware is getting old, and should stop a problem we have at a remote site where the ISP controls the router and won't open up firewall ports other than as chargeable work (which means I had to use a different cloud #PBX service for that site)
Just over a month and I've tamed all the #trunks (with abundant snake heads at the end), made sure 1500+ #blighters are yeeted (with more trying every day) got inter #PBX #trunk working between on-premises and cloud #FreePBX - just waiting for porting of first analogue number to check this (and CLID presentation) works and then main office one can follow.
Took many late evenings, a lot of research of everything from old #BritishTelecom training manuals to some from Universities in India and the Indian telecom companies, and I've learned a lot more about #SIP even since 2008 when I built the first #VOIP #PBX used at work.
Thankfully #routers seem to handle #SIP over #NAT a lot better than they used to (even got an extension it working over #LTE with #Linphone)
@nick one provider won't deliver inbound calls without it being open and the numbers attached to it are well known and in regular use (we were previously using IAX2 trunks for these numbers which didn't attract many attack attempts but the provider abruptly stopped IAX2 support without warning us)
@nick some of them do, the others don't (I'm looking at porting out the numbers from the ones which do not provide a modern level of support)
I've investigated what is going on and fail2ban is catching them anyway, things look worse as SNGREP is catching the packets at kernel level before they hit the firewall..
@vfrmedia The fun thing is when you have to resort to using E1 links to tie a Cisco SBC and SIP switch together because they can't agree on SIP/RTP handling of V.150 modem signalling (for "special" telephones). You know it's a mess when the NSA has to publish guidelines on how to make it work (SCIP-216).
Firewall settings add to the hell that is VOIP.
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