Does Modem Affect WiFi Speed — Testing Cable Gateways in a Portland Home Lab

# Does Modem Affect WiFi Speed — Testing Cable Gateways in a Portland Home Lab *By Marcus Webb — 8 years enterprise network engineering, 6-year Portland home lab* ## The Short Answer Yes, the modem absolutely affects your perceived WiFi speed because most cable gateways act as both the DOCSIS termination point and the internal […]

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Airthings Wave Plus vs Eve Room Indoor Air Quality Monitor Comparison — 6 Months in the Portland Home Lab

# Airthings Wave Plus vs Eve Room Indoor Air Quality Monitor Comparison — 6 Months in the Portland Home Lab *By Marcus Webb — 8 years enterprise network engineering, 6-year Portland home lab* ## The Short Answer For a purely local-first smart air quality monitor running on my four-node Proxmox cluster with Zigbee2MQTT and Z-Wave

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Resideo Honeywell Home Leak Detector Review — Six Months in a Portland Proxmox Lab

# Resideo Honeywell Home Leak Detector Review — Six Months in a Portland Proxmox Lab *By Marcus Webb — 8 years enterprise network engineering, 6-year Portland home lab* ## The Short Answer After roughly six months of continuous monitoring on my IoT VLAN within the four-node **Proxmox cluster**, I found that this sensor is adequate

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How To Install A Smart Ceiling Fan Yourself — 6 Months of Portland Home Lab Testing

# How To Install A Smart Ceiling Fan Yourself — 6 Months of Portland Home Lab Testing *By Marcus Webb — 8 years enterprise network engineering, 6-year Portland home lab* ## The Short Answer For anyone trying to build a truly local-first smart ceiling fan ecosystem without relying on cloud APIs or proprietary hubs, the

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SimpliSafe 6 Piece Wireless Review — Six Months in the Portland Basement Home Lab

# SimpliSafe 6 Piece Wireless Review — Six Months in the Portland Basement Home Lab *By Marcus Webb — 8 years enterprise network engineering, 6-year Portland home lab* ## The Short Answer The **SimpliSafe 6 Piece Wireless** is a solid entry-level alarm kit that functions adequately as an isolated security perimeter but fails to integrate

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Tractive GPS Dog Tracker Review — 6 Months in the Portland Home Lab

# Tractive GPS Dog Tracker Review — 6 Months in the Portland Home Lab *By Marcus Webb — 8 years enterprise network engineering, 6-year Portland home lab* ## The Short Answer The **Tractive GPS Dog Tracker** is my primary recommendation for owners needing cloud-based tracking without local MQTT integration. During testing on a four-node Proxmox

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Best UPS for Home Network Equipment Review — 6 Months in a Portland Basemt Lab

# Best UPS for Home Network Equipment Review — 6 Months in a Portland Basemt Lab *By Marcus Webb — 8 years enterprise network engineering, 6-year Portland home lab* ## The Short Answer After running continuous uptime tests across my four-node Proxmox cluster and 24-bay Synology NAS, the APC Back-UPS Pro 1500VA is currently around

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Energy Wasting Appliance Identifier Review — 6 Months in a Portland Home Lab

# Energy Wasting Appliance Identifier Review — 6 Months in a Portland Home Lab *By Marcus Webb — 8 years enterprise network engineering, 6-year Portland home lab* ## The Short Answer After six months of continuous monitoring on my four-node Proxmox cluster and 24-bay Synology NAS setup, the **identifying energy wasting appliances** search results point

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Retrofit Existing Blinds Without Replacement — The Smart Home Reality Check for Portland Home Labs

# Retrofit Existing Blinds Without Replacement — The Smart Home Reality Check for Portland Home Labs *By Marcus Webb — 8 years enterprise network engineering, 6-year Portland home lab* ## The Short Answer When I installed a retrofit kit in my basement to test existing Venetian blinds against the native motorized market, **retrofit existing blinds

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TP-Link TL-WPA8631P KIT vs Devolo Magic 2 WiFi — A Portland Powerline Reality Check

# TP-Link TL-WPA8631P KIT vs Devolo Magic 2 WiFi — A Portland Powerline Reality Check *By Marcus Webb — 8 years enterprise network engineering, 6-year Portland home lab* ## The Short Answer After running a stress test on my four-node Proxmox cluster with the **TP-Link TL-WPA8631P KIT**, I found it significantly outperforms Devolo Magic 2

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