# Western Digital My Cloud EX2 Ultra Review vs QNAP TS-264: 180 Days in the Portland Home Lab *By Marcus Webb — 8 years enterprise network engineering, 6-year Portland home lab* ## The Short Answer After 180 days of live testing alongside a Synology DS923 Plus and four-node Proxmox cluster, the **Western Digital My Cloud

# GE CYNC Smart Bulb 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 daily use on my four-node Proxmox cluster running Zigbee2MQTT with an Aeotec Z-Stick 7, the **GE CYNC Smart Bulb** is

# Sonoff S31 Smart Plug 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 **Sonoff S31 Smart Plug** earns my recommendation for Linux-centric smart homes because it pairs instantly with Zigbee2MQTT on the ZBDongle-E and maintains

# Google Assistant Ecosystem 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 across the four-node Proxmox cluster and 24-bay Synology NAS ecosystem, the **Google Assistant ecosystem** proved superior for users prioritizing local-first automation with