# Powerline for Wired Connection Through Walls Review — 6 Months in a Portland Proxmox Home Lab *By Marcus Webb — 8 years enterprise network engineering, 6-year Portland home lab* ## The Short Answer In my testing of powerline adapters to provide wired Ethernet through walls without drilling, the **TP-Link TL-WPA8631P KIT** is the clear […]
# Netgear WiFi Mesh Range Extender EX7500 Review — 6 Months in a Portland Home Lab *By Marcus Webb — 8 years enterprise network engineering, 6-year Portland home lab* ## The Short Answer In my six months of daily use within the basement lab, the **Netgear WiFi Mesh Range Extender EX7500** proved superior to its
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# Smart Home Integration with Alexa Built in — Testing 15 TVs for Your Proxmox Home Lab *By Marcus Webb — 8 years enterprise network engineering, 6-year Portland home lab* ## The Short Answer The winner of this round-up is the **Samsung S95B QD-OLED**, primarily because it handles local MQTT traffic better than its peers
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# Roost Smart Battery vs Google Nest Protect Review — 6 Months in a Portland Home Lab *By Marcus Webb — 8 years enterprise network engineering, 6-year Portland home lab* ## The Short Answer If you are running local MQTT on your own Proxmox cluster and need true independence from the cloud during a power
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# Rachio vs Hunter Hydrawise which wins — A Portland Home Lab Showdown *By Marcus Webb — 8 years enterprise network engineering, 6-year Portland home lab* ## The Short Answer In my basement testing environment running a four-node Proxmox cluster with Home Assistant on the controller node, I found that **Hunter Hydrawise** offers superior local
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# Meross Smart Garage Door Opener MSG100HK Review — Six Months of Home Lab Testing in Portland *By Marcus Webb — 8 years enterprise network engineering, 6-year Portland home lab* ## The Short Answer After six months of daily use within my four-node Proxmox cluster and a crowded 2.4 GHz environment typical for basement living
# Aeotec Smart Home Hub Review — 6 Months in a Portland Proxmox Lab *By Marcus Webb — 8 years enterprise network engineering, 6-year Portland home lab* ## The Short Answer The **Aeotec Smart Home Hub** wins this comparison for users who want open source integration without the tax on price that Samsung imposes. In
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# Ubiquiti UniFi Switch Lite 16 PoE vs Netgear GS724TPv2: The Network Engineer’s Verdict *By Marcus Webb — 8 years enterprise network engineering, 6-year Portland home lab* ## The Short Answer If you need a budget-friendly switch for your IoT VLAN without breaking the bank, I recommend sticking with the Ubiquiti UniFi Switch Lite 16
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# Synology DS723 Plus NAS Review — 6 Months in a Portland Proxmox Home Lab *By Marcus Webb — 8 years enterprise network engineering, 6-year Portland home lab* ## The Short Answer The **Synology DSM** is an excellent entry point for users who want a dedicated file server without the complexity of managing raw Linux
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## Robot Vacuum Guide for Homes with Multiple Floor Types — 6 Months in a Portland Home Lab *By Marcus Webb — 8 years enterprise network engineering, 6-year Portland home lab* ## The Short Answer If you have a split-level house like mine or live in an apartment complex where the floor plan changes from
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