Marcus Webb

Netgear CM1200 DOCSIS 3.1 vs Motorola MB8611 — The Portland Cable Modem Showdown

# Netgear CM1200 DOCSIS 3.1 vs Motorola MB8611 — The Portland Cable Modem Showdown *By Marcus Webb — 8 years enterprise network engineering, 6-year Portland home lab* ## The Short Answer In my testing within the Portland basement lab, the **Netgear CM1200 DOCSIS 3.1** takes the win for DIY enthusiasts, offering superior upstream stability and […]

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Rabbit Air MinusA2 Review: Is It Worth It?

Smart Air Purifiers / Marcus Webb

# Who Should Not Buy The Rabbit Air MinusA2 If you are running a high-density smart home environment where local control is non-negotiable, stop reading and look elsewhere. In my testing, the Rabbit Air MinusA2 is a hard no for anyone relying on a 4-node Proxmox cluster or a Home Assistant instance that lives entirely

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Eve Room Indoor Air Quality Monitor Review: Is It Worth It?

Smart Air Quality Monitors / Marcus Webb

# Who Should Buy The Eve Room Indoor Air Quality Monitor If you are running a Home Assistant instance on a dedicated Proxmox node in your basement, this device is a solid addition to your environmental monitoring stack. Specifically, if you need granular data for a multi-room setup where you are aggregating MQTT topics into

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Levoit Core 600S Review: Is It Worth It?

Smart Air Purifiers / Marcus Webb

# Who Should Buy the Levoit Core 600S This unit makes sense for three specific profiles in my basement lab. First, if you are running a Home Assistant instance on one of my four Proxmox nodes and need a device that supports local MQTT control without relying on a cloud handshake, the Core 600S fits

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Govee Water Sensor vs Yolink Water Sensor: Which Should You Buy?

Uncategorized / Marcus Webb

# Govee Water Sensor vs Yolink Water Sensor: A Home Lab Reality Check ## THE SHORT ANSWER **Buy Govee Water Sensor if:** * You are running Home Assistant with Zigbee2MQTT and need a device that offers a 30-day battery life without frequent replacements, which I found essential during my winter testing when the basement humidity

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Aqara TVOC Air Quality Monitor Review: Is It Worth It?

Smart Air Quality Monitors / Marcus Webb

# Aqara TVOC Air Quality Monitor Review: My Portland Basement Reality Check I’ve spent the last six years building a Linux-based smart home ecosystem in my Portland basement, running a four-node Proxmox cluster and a 24-bay Synology NAS. Before going independent, I spent eight years as a network engineer for a managed services provider in

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Aqara Water Leak Sensor Review: Is It Worth It?

Uncategorized / Marcus Webb

# Aqara Water Leak Sensor Review: The “Good Enough” Zigbee Sensor for Local-Control Homes ## WHO SHOULD NOT BUY THE AQARA WATER LEAK SENSOR Before you spend your money, let’s address the scenarios where this sensor will actively annoy you or fail to meet your expectations. If you are running a high-frequency MQTT topic publisher

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Can Smart Appliances Save Time And Energy

Smart Kitchen Appliances / Marcus Webb

THE SHORT ANSWER If you are asking if smart kitchen appliances save time and energy, the answer is a qualified yes, but only if you prioritize local control and energy monitoring over flashy app features. My top pick is the Philips Hue LightStrip Plus (often used for under-cabinet lighting in smart kitchens) paired with a

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Hunter Newsome 52 Inch Review: Is It Worth It?

Smart Ceiling Fans / Marcus Webb

# WHO SHOULD NOT BUY THE Hunter Newsome 52 Inch If you are running a Home Assistant instance directly on a Docker container within a Proxmox cluster without a dedicated MQTT broker, stop reading. In my testing, the Hunter Newsome 52 Inch fan relies heavily on a stable local network stack. When I placed the

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Frontpoint Starter Package vs Cove Home Security System: Which Should You Buy?

Smart Home Security Systems / Marcus Webb

1. THE SHORT ANSWER When I’m looking at a security system for my own four-node Proxmox cluster setup, I need to know exactly where the data goes and how the protocols stack up against my existing Home Assistant instance. Here is the breakdown based on my six years of building this Linux-based ecosystem: Buy Frontpoint

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