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# Zooz ZEN77 Smart Dimmer Review — Six Months in a Portland Home Lab *By Marcus Webb — 8 years enterprise network engineering, 6-year Portland home lab* ## The Short Answer After running this device through my four-node Proxmox cluster with Zigbee2MQTT for the last six months, I found that the **Zooz ZEN77 Smart Dimmer** […]

# Aqara M3 Hub Review — 6 Months on a Portland Proxmox Home Lab *By Marcus Webb — 8 years enterprise network engineering, 6-year Portland home lab* ## The Short Answer The Amazon Echo Dot 5th Gen is the clear winner here for anyone living in an apartment building with noisy neighbors or running Zigbee2MQTT

# How to Get Litter Box Alerts on Phone via WiFi Routers & Mesh Systems Review *By Marcus Webb — 8 years enterprise network engineering, 6-year Portland home lab* ## The Short Answer You cannot get direct litter box alerts from a router firmware update; the reality is that you must bridge your mesh system

# Gated Property Entry Systems Review — 6 Months of Real Network Stress Testing 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 a modern Linux-based smart home with an OpenThread border router or Zigbee2MQTT coordinator, the **Aiphone

# VPN Router & Privacy Appliance Review — Technical Control for the Home Lab Engineer *By Marcus Webb — 8 years enterprise network engineering, 6-year Portland home lab* ## The Short Answer For technical users demanding full command over their perimeter security and privacy architecture, there is no single “plug-and-play” box that wins; you must

# Motorola MB8611 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 over the last six months within the basement environment of our four-node Proxmox cluster setup, the **Motorola MB8611** holds its own as

# Basement Flood Protection Systems 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 After installing over two hundred smart water sensors across my basement and crawl space of a typical Pacific Northwest craftsman, the **basement flood

# Difference Between UPS and Surge Protector in a Portland Home Lab Power Guide *By Marcus Webb — 8 years enterprise network engineering, 6-year Portland home lab* ## The Short Answer If you are running critical infrastructure like my four-node Proxmox cluster or a Synology NAS, the difference between a standard surge protector and an

# Bedroom Blackout Shades with Schedules 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 testing over the last half year inside this basement Proxmox cluster, I found that **bedroom blackout shades with schedules** generally struggle

# TP-Link AV2000 Powerline vs Netgear PLP2000: The Real Deal for Portland Home Labs *By Marcus Webb — 8 years enterprise network engineering, 6-year Portland home lab* ## The Short Answer After running simultaneous tests across my four-node Proxmox cluster in the basement of a typical 1920s craftsman here in Oregon, I found that **TP-Link