Lowyat.NET: Latest topics by xxboxx

Create aliases to protect your email account

xxboxx — Fri, 17 Jan 2025 21:40:33 +0800

Alright guys, I don't know if you know already know or not. Microsoft Outlook allows you to create alias email address and set it so that only the email alias can be used to login into the account.

As with most people that have their email for years or decades, my email address have been leaked too many times and probably traded for less than a tenth of a cent in dark web. Email account now is more important than ever due to online digitalization of our lives. Losing access or some bad actors gaining access to your email account can even causes all your money to be stolen.

Outlook can show you the login activity of your account and honestly it is depressing to see so many login attempts by some bots as the picture below.

I got more than 10 login attempts everyday! btw Google is a pecker for not showing login attempts logs.
As you can see the last unsuccessful attempt is on the 30th Dec and there's no more unsuccessful attempt after that. That is when I created the alias. So here I make a guide on how to do it.

Login into outlook.com. Once you in the email, as image above shown, first go to top corner and click "My Microsoft account"

Then click on "Your info" on the left side and then click "Edit account info"

After the page load it will show your current primary email, click on "Add email"

Put some creative name for your alias if this is the email you'll use for login and not for corresponding with others, then hit the "Add alias" button. Creative name will help to avoid being guessed by bots.

Once created, it will now show 2 email addresses. Click on "Make primary" to make it as your main account. Your account's primary alias is displayed on your Microsoft devices (such as a Windows PC, Xbox, or Windows Phone)
Right now both email can be use as ID to login into the account. Need to follow below steps to disable login with old email.
And don't be a smartass and choose the "Remove" on old email address, doing so will delete all the email you receive from old email address.

Still at the same page, click on "Change sign-in preferences"

Untick on the old email address and click "Save"
And that's it! Your old email cannot be used to login to the account, it still can receive and send email as before but you need to use the new email as ID to login.

By doing these, hacker or bot can't even try to hack your account as they doesn't know your login email. You can also create additional aliases for sort of burner account, useful when some service need an email to signup or register but you don't want it to start spamming you with useless email or worse sell your email address info to telemarketers, scammers or dark web.

Ollama - Offline Generative AI

xxboxx — Fri, 26 Apr 2024 22:10:05 +0800

I searched but there doesn't seem to be any thread about Ollama and nobody discuss about it too. And I think this is the correct sub-forum to discuss about this.

Anyway, been dabbling with Ollama for almost a month ever since they release Windows installer version. At first been using it on CMD / Terminal, mistral and llama2 seems like the best models that time. And then learned about pairing Ollama with PrivateGPT for it to ingest data.

Now after a month, recently Meta release llama3 and Microsoft release phi3 model, the AI intelligence level got even better. I'm now using Open-WebUI instead of PrivateGPT as it looks to be a lot more stable and can change the model easily.

I tried giving this puzzle to the AI, if you seen Alice in Borderland you'll know the answer. Only 1 give impressively correct answer.

QUOTE

There are three on/off switches on the ground floor of a building. Only one operates a single lightbulb on the third floor. The other two switches are not connected to anything. Put the switches in any on/off order you like. Then go to the third floor to check the bulb. Without leaving the third floor, can you figure out which switch is genuine? You get only one try.

mistral:

QUOTE

To determine which switch controls the lightbulb on the third floor with just one try, we can apply a method called "process of elimination." Here's a strategy to follow:

1. Test the switches in a specific order and record the results. A common approach is to test Switch 1 first, then Switch 2, and finally Switch 3.
2. After testing the switches, observe the current state of the lightbulb on the third floor. Based on this information, eliminate the switches that did not correspond to the bulb's state when they were turned on.
3. Now, you are left with the switch(es) that could control the lightbulb. Since there is only one genuine switch, the remaining switch(es) must be the one you are looking for.

Here's an example of how this process might work:

- Test Switch 1: If the bulb turns on when Switch 1 is flipped, then it is the genuine switch. If not, proceed to the next step.
- Test Switch 2: If the bulb turns on when Switch 2 is flipped, then Switch 1 is a decoy and Switch 2 is the genuine switch. If not, proceed to the next step.
- Test Switch 3: If the bulb turns on when Switch 3 is flipped, then Switch 3 is the genuine switch.

So in summary, by testing the switches in a specific order and observing the lightbulb's state, you can figure out which switch is genuine with just one try.

llama3

QUOTE

A classic puzzle!
Let's think about it step by step.

First, let's assume that all three switches are on. We'll then go to the third floor and turn off the lightbulb. Now, we're back on the ground floor. Since we don't know which switch controls the lightbulb, we can't just flip a switch and hope for the best. Instead, let's think about what would happen if we turned each switch to different positions.

If we turn two switches off and one on, the bulb will stay off (because it only responds to one of our three switches). If we turn all three switches off, the bulb will still be off. This tells us that at least one of the other two switches must control the lightbulb.

Now, let's consider what happens if we turn two switches on and one off. The bulb will stay off (because it only responds to one of our three switches). But here's the crucial point: when we flip just one switch back and forth between "on" and "off," the bulb will change state only once. This tells us that this one switch must control the lightbulb.

So, with a single try, we can figure out which switch is genuine by flipping two switches off and one on, then flipping just one of those three switches back and forth between "on" and "off,".

phi3

QUOTE

To determine which switch controls the lightbulb without returning to the ground floor, perform these steps:

1. Turn on switch 1 and leave it on for a few minutes.
2. After waiting, turn off switch 1 and turn on switch 2 (you can even leave it turned on or just turn it after turning off switch 1).
3. Proceed to the third floor with lightbulb in sight.
4. Observe the state of the bulb:
- If the bulb is lit, then switch 2 controls the lightbulb (because you turned it on and left it on when going upstairs).
- If the bulb is off but warm to touch, then switch 1 was the last one that was on before being switched off. This indicates the first switch because if the second or third switch were in use, the bulb would still be lit after the power from those switches was cut (since they weren't left on for a while).
- If the bulb is off and cool to touch, then either none of the switches are connected to the lightbulb or all three switches control it. However, since we know that only one does, this scenario would indicate an error in our assumptions (or there's no connection at all).

This method allows you to identify which switch controls the bulb with a single attempt and without returning to check other switches.

Anyone else playing around with Ollama?

OpenVPN server on Synology NAS

xxboxx — Tue, 10 Oct 2023 21:59:27 +0800

This is a simple guide on setting up OpenVPN using Synology built in VPN server. I was using OpenVPN server on my Asuswrt-Merlin router when suddenly it decided to die. Before I can get a replacement router, I have to use the TM free router as temporary solution. But that leave me without a VPN to connect back to my home network. Then I remember there are ways to use OpenVPN on Synology NAS. It only took just few minutes to set it up and running, that is after minus the time I took to Google the steps and understanding what does what.

One thing to note, you need to have public IP for the VPN to work. Type "what's my IP" on Goggle Search, if the IP shown is the same as what was shown on your router, then you have public IP. If you don't have, other option is to use Tailscale or Wireguard where they will act as intermediary to establish the connection between the client to server. Maybe in future I'll try using it and make a guide.

Now let's get started. First thing to do is install VPN Server from the Package Center.

It will ask which volume it should install on if you have more than 1 volume.

Before we start setting up the VPN server, we need to have DDNS for the VPN. I'll go with Synology's own DDNS to simplify the steps. For the VPN to work, it also need certificate. I just tick on the "get certificate from Let's Encrypt" and click Ok, it will do the process of getting the certificate and install the certificate on the NAS. But I still need to go into Control Panel > Security > Certificate and change the VPN Server certificate option to the one from Let's Encrypt.

After done with DDNS and certificate, now we open the VPN Server app. Click the OpenVPN tab and tick the "Enable OpenVPN server" to enable it. Tick the option for "Allow clients to access server's LAN" so that after connected it will be able to sees other devices on you local LAN. Also don't forget to set the port number that will be use and port forward that port number at your router setting. There's also option for Verify TLS auth key and Verify server CN but I was not able to connect the VPN when I enable it. Need to do more testing on these settings.

On the setting can set max number of total connection and also max connection per account. It will use Synology DSM account and it's password to connect to the VPN.

You can also set which account can use the VPN at the Privilege tab. Useful if you have many accounts on your NAS but not all account need to connect from external network.

Once done, click Apply and then press the Export Configuration button. It will download a zip file. Inside it contain the VPNconfig.ovpn file. Extract it and open the file in Notepad. Replace the "YOUR_SERVER_IP" with your DDNS address that you setup earlier and save the file. If you want full tunnel, that is all your internet traffic will go to the VPN and use your home IP to access the internet, enable the "redirect_gateway" option. After all is done, now move this file to the device that you want to use as the OpenVPN client.

For this example, I'm going to use this on my phone. Open the OpenVPN app (or install the app first if you haven't do so), click on the + sign at the bottom right and click "Upload File" and browse for the VPNconfig.ovpn file. Put in your Synology's DSM account and password then click connect. If everything was done correctly it will show successful connection.

Back in the VPN Server app, on the Connection List tab, once a user connected to the server it will show the user name and it's external IP.

And that's it! Now you can securely tunnel back to your NAS and local home network with your own private VPN.

DS423+ Review & Hyper Backup

xxboxx — Sat, 06 May 2023 01:24:52 +0800

So Synology recently released their more price conscious 4 bays models, the DS423 and DS423+. DS423+ is the more powerful of the 2 option, it's CPU floating points is almost double than that in the DS423. It is essentially the same with DS920+ but with lesser RAM and without the expansion port. The price is cheaper by about 30% than the DS920+. DS423+ price also just few hundreds Ringgit more than DS423. If you considering between these models and your data growth after some years would still not need to have more than 4 drives, in my opinion DS423+ is the better option than the other two.

This is the review of DS423+ and I also going to set it as a remote off-site backup, or vault as Synology named it, at my relatives house and they also will use it as their cloud storage and also connect back to my DS1522+ as their remote off-site backup. If you and someone else also using Synology NAS, both of you can use each other storage space as off-site backup and there's also security in place that will not let the other party from accessing your data without the password that you set for the backup. It is also an incremental backup so only the new changes made will need to upload into the off-site vault, no need to upload the entire backup every time. Remember, having your data that can be edited or deleted is not a backup, that's a storage. A proper backup strategy is such as 3-2-1 backup rules, in addition to your storage data you also have other 2 backup copies and one of it is stored off-site.

HARDWARE

As usual with Synology packaging, it comes in brown box and the white sticker indicating the model. On the side there are printed information of this NAS hardware and the package content. Inside, beside the NAS itself, there's power adapter and it's cable, 2 CAT5e cables, screws, keys to lock drive tray and Quick Installation Guide. Same stuff with most of their other NAS.

The NAS itself, it's look exactly the same with their other plus series 4 bays models, the only indicator is the model number below the power button. Also below each drive tray there's number indicating the drive slot, easy to miss as it was rather inconspicuous. There's a USB port in the front for easy file transfer with external drive. On the right cutout at the Synology name, can see the motherboard inside, such design will give good airflow.

At the back, 2 LAN ports with Gigabit speed each, additional USB port, power in and Kensington lock. The difference with DS920+ is there's no eSATA port that is used to connect to expansion unit.

Inside the NAS, same design with other 4 bays model, there's SATA port with power, single empty DDR4 slot for expandability, the other 2GB RAM is soldered. Bottom of the NAS there's 2 slots for adding m.2 NVME SSD. As with DS923+ model, the m.2 SSD not only limited for use as cache, it can also be used as storage pool now. But I'm not sure if it's still only accept Synology own m.2 SSD for storage pool. It also can't store the OS in m.2 pool, it need to have at least 1 SATA HDD/SSD drive to install the OS and boot from it.

The power adapter output is slightly lower than the one that comes with DS920+, 90w vs 100w. Compared to DS920+, there's no eSATA port and the USB port placement is different. For now in goes the 2 4TB HDD that I will configure to use as SHR RAID, giving me 4TB of space with redundancy. In future by adding 2 more 4TB HDD, it will have a total of 12TB space with redundancy and no need to change the RAID type next time. Whereas if I use RAID-1 now, in future when I add 2 more 4TB HDD and want to have 12TB space, I need to wipe the RAID-1 and all the data in it before can create RAID-5 with the 4 HDD.

INITIALIZING

Once the NAS has boot up and connected to the network, I find it by going to https://finds.synology.com and the browser will detect the new NAS. Press Connect and it will ask to automatically download and install the latest DSM or manually upload from computer. I choose download option and in few minutes it finish download and start the installation process. It took about 10 minutes lo complete the whole process of installing and initializing the new OS and it's apps.

Once completed, it will show the welcome screen. First thing to do is give a name for the NAS and create an admin account with strong password that at least 14 characters. By creating the account it will disable the default admin account in DSM that is named "admin". It will also ask to choose what to do once there are DSM and packages updates available. For better security, at least choose the recommended setting, automatically install important DSM and package updates.

It will then ask to create a Synology account or sign in if you already have it. This is different than the admin account that was created for the NAS, this is for connecting to Synology server for some online functions. Bear in mind that if you want to use Secure SignIn or QuickConnect or Active Insight, you need to have a Synology account. It will also backup the NAS settings to Synology server if you have Synology account.

Once completed, it will load the dashboard, or the home screen. As with any newly initialize NAS, it don't have storage pool and volume configured yet so that's the first thing to do.

Going into the Storage Manager, I'll create SHR type of RAID as in future when need to add more HDD and expand the RAID, no need to wipe the current RAID. For now since I'm using two 4TB HDD, SHR will set it as mirror of each HDD, just like RAID-1. When next time more HDD being added to the pool, SHR will arrange it to be more like a RAID-5.

For volume, you can allocate less than the maximum if want to create more than 1 volume.

For file system, better to use the recommended BTRFS as it can do snapshots and replication, think of it like an undo button but this is for the files in NAS. It also will perform data integrity checking every time it read any file. It also can perform auto self-heal for any data corruption if the pool have 2 or more drives and also using SHR or RAID 1/5/6.

The first photo above show Package Centre, here is the place to manage installed apps and also to install new app. Newly initialized DS423+ have very little apps installed, 9 to be exact. Secure SignIn Service is an important service for the NAS security. You can use it for passwordless sign-in to NAS by installing the app on your phone, when want to sign-in the app will prompt for approval. When some hackers or bots try to sign-in the prompt serve as warning that your NAS are being targeted. If don't want to use passwordless sign-in, Secure SignIn app can also be used as 2-Factor Authentication (2FA) for approval or generate 6 digits OTP, after sign-in with password then the app will prompt for approval or generate 6 digits OTP. Secure SignIn Service need QuickQonnect service to be enabled because the app need to contact back the NAS to inform about the approval.

Other apps to install that might be useful for starting your own personal cloud service are Drive, Photos, Calendar, Contacts and Note Station. With your own personal cloud server, your data all saved locally and don't need to worry some big corporate use your data for machine learning or profiling. Plus all these apps are totally free to use. If you want to go more further also can set own mail server, chat server, WebDAV server and many more. There's also open source and apps that maintained by third party developers.

Coming back to what I want to accomplish as a remote off-site backup, the apps I need to install are Hyper Backup and Hyper Backup Vault. Hyper Backup is for creating and managing the backup while Hyper Backup Vault is for handling data from other Synology NAS. If the NAS only upload the backup to remote off-site and not act as vault then no need to install Hyper Backup Vault. For my case, both NAS will upload and also act as vault so I need to install both apps.

For the off-site backup purpose, I will create a user account that will be used to sign-in remotely into the DS423+ and it can only access the folder for saving the vault, the account will not have access to other folders. By default DSM didn't enabled user home service, if you want all the user to have their own Home folder, you need to enable it at Advance settings in User & Group. As for my off-site backup, I'll create a shared folder for the vault.

Next, I'll create a user account in DS423+ that will be used by DS1522+ to access the vault. With DSM 7, Synology also have added the function to generate random password but as you can see in the image above, it only generate 8 characters as that's the default minimal password length. To make it longer, you need to change the minimal length in User & Group > Advance. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) recommend to have at least 12 to 14 characters length but if can go for longer will be even better. The password should be mix of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers and special symbols. It should also not have memorable keyboard paths, not based on your personal information and is different than any other passwords that you use.

Beside limiting the folders that each user can access, it can also set the quota limit that each user can use for each shared folder. This is useful when you don't want a user hogging more data space than he/she is allowed. The image above is after I already done the backup, I set the limit to 1TB quota and the account have used 222.82GB of space.

Another thing to note, by default DSM doesn't enable Firewall. You can enable it at Control Panel > Security > Firewall. You can customize it such as block IP not from Malaysia. Auto Block is auto enable and the default block is after 10 attempts in 5 minutes, you can change it to suit your preference. Below it there's option to enable Denial-of-Service (DoS) Protection.

Synology NAS Migration

xxboxx — Sat, 22 Apr 2023 17:34:22 +0800

This is long overdue guide, finally got time to complete it. I want to share here how I migrate data from older Synology NAS to another NAS. Synology offer 3 ways to migrate when want to change NAS, either by using:
1. Migration Assistant
2. Hyper Backup
3. Moving the Hard Disk Drive (HDD)

With Migration Assistant and Hyper Backup, the new NAS need to have HDD with space same or bigger than the old NAS. Since I'm limited by the HDD that I have, I opted for moving the HDD method. There are limitations for this method, such as can't move from single bay to multi bays and vice-versa. Also some CPU architecture can't be migrated to different type of CPU architecture. So make sure you check it properly if choosing this method. Synology have a detailed information in this page to fully understand which method is suitable for different cases.
How do I migrate data between Synology NAS (DSM 6.0 and later)?

To ensure least likely of encountering any problem, update both NAS DSM to latest version that's available at the time. Also update all app packages to ensure better compatibility for moving to another NAS.

Since I'm changing from DS920+ to DS1522+ and both have same type of tray, I just need to take out the tray with HDD from DS920+ and slot it into DS1522+. Synology tutorial mentioned that when slot in to the new NAS, need to follow the same slot sequence as the old NAS. I stick numbered sticker to each tray as way to identify each tray which will help to avoid it from being mixed up.

Synology mentioned that NVME cache can also be migrated but I don't want to add more possibility for something to go wrong so I opted to remove the cache from storage pool before doing the migration.

I have 1 SATA SSD that I configure as single storage pool in my old NAS. I don't want to use it on the new NAS so I choose to remove the storage pool but when it prompt me things that will be removed then only I remember that I have installed few Synology packages on this pool and these packages will also be removed together. There's no option to move these packages into different pool. It would be better if Synology added the support for moving packages to different pool in same way as moving shared folders.

I made backup of those packages using Hyper Backup, after uninstall these packages then I installed back but this time I choose the HDD's storage pool as the location and then use Hyper Backup to restore the data and settings. I also moved shared folders from SSD's storage pool to HDD's storage pool but doing so will delete all snapshots of the shared folders.

Synology tutorial also ask to make a backup of system configuration and then export it to other device, such as to PC. After complete the migration and login into DSM, I use the system configuration backup to restore the system configuration.

Now I can start the process of moving to the new NAS. Shut down the old NAS, and also new NAS. Take out the HDD from old NAS and put at same slot number in new NAS. Power on the new NAS and wait it to finish boot up, then type http://find.synology.com/ on the web browser. Once it found the NAS it will show option to Migrate as below

Important! If it show something else and a warning message similar to all or some drive's data will be deleted, that means something is wrong. Maybe the drive is not arrange in correct order. Power it off then try to arrange it in the correct order. If still cannot, Synology recommend to perform migration by Hyper Backup instead. If you still proceed, it will wipe clean the data on those HDD. So remember, Migrate is okay, anything else is not okay.

After I press the migrate button, it ask me whether I want to retain the system configuration or reset it. If you choose reset, you will have to configure everything from scratch again, just like a new NAS but with shared folders intact. Another thing to note, before migrate it will have different IP than the old NAS, so make sure to remember or write down the old NAS IP as when after restore the system configuration setting, it will change to use the old NAS IP back. I choose retain system configuration.

When installing DSM, it will also ask to automatically download latest DSM or manually upload latest DSM image file from PC.

With that it will start download (if choose auto download), installing, restarting few times and configuring the DSM. For this DS1522+, it takes around 6 minutes to complete.

After the final reboot it have applied the old NAS setting, including the IP address. The page show it can't connect to the NAS. Simply type the old IP in browser to connect back to the NAS. Then can login into the NAS.

The only problem I encounter is there's some issue with Hybrid Share and it can't be repaired. I fix it by reinstall it and restore it's setting from the backup made earlier. SMB package error not sure why it appear but it can be updated.

The certificate will also be different so need to redo or renew the certificate. Other than that everything else back as how it is on the old NAS. All the user account working as usual and like there's no changes to them. If they have set stay signed-in then they would need to sign in back.

Synology DS1522+ Review (5-bays NAS)

xxboxx — Fri, 28 Oct 2022 01:43:48 +0800

Edit: Added Synology Drive mobile app version 3.2.0 for editing Synology Document and Spreadsheet part

Hey I'm back with another review of NAS. This time it is the Synology DS1522+, a 5 bays NAS with some upgraded of hardware from previous model of DS1520+. The price is about RM3,800 currently. As the model number suggested, this NAS support additional 10 bays through 2 DX517 expansion units, giving total of 15 bays for use. The CPU now is using AMD Ryzen R1600 which support for ECC RAM. It came with 8GB ECC RAM and support up to 32GB of ECC RAM. There's a PCIE slot for optional 10GbE LAN card. Other than these it is the same with previous model. Consider quite an upgrade from DS920+

If you looking for step-by-step guide on getting the NAS up and running, please see this review of DS920+. The steps is for the older DSM 6.2 but mostly still the same procedures. In this review I'll just briefly touch on the setup and initialization, while focus more on the features and usage, especially on Drive usage as I think this will be what most people will use the most once they realized how useful it can be. It is not just a cloud storage but helps with organizing and collaborations.

WHAT'S IN THE BOX

The box comes in plain card box material, synonym with Synology products. Inside there's 2 small boxes that houses it's accessories and below it the NAS itself. There's very little use of plastic material in the packaging which is good for the environment, kudos to Synology. They probably produce millions of packaging for their product every year, not using plastic will ensure the packaging can be recyclable.

The DS1522+ itself and the accessories. It retain the same iconic shape as before with small footprint. 1 USB port that support 5Gbps bandwidth and below it the power button that light up blue color when in use. On top of the USB port, there's 6 LED that glow yellow for each bay indication and also for NAS status. The accessories are power supply that support input 100-240V, drive bay lock key, screws for 2.5" drive which you should keep it properly, I'll explain why shortly. There's also 2 CAT5e ethernet cables and quick start guide.

By removing all the disk tray, we can take a peek inside. The SATA board can be seen clearly, and it connect to the right side which houses the motherboard and CPU. On bottom we can see part of the board for the NVME slots. A lot of opening between the metal to help disperse hot air. For years that I use DS920+, never did it feel too hot or the system report overheat.

On the right side we can see the 2 slots for RAM. 1 slot already preoccupied with 8GB DDR4 ECC RAM, which is one of the benefit of using AMD Ryzen CPU as it support for ECC RAM. The maximum official support is for 2 x 16GB RAM to give a total of 32GB RAM. From the right side outside we can barely see the motherboard component from the holes. Also make sure to keep some free space between the right side if you want adequate air flow for cooling the CPU.

Going to the back of the DS1522+, 2 massive fans to suck out the hot air from inside the NAS. 2 eSATA port for connecting to expansion unit, this NAS support DX517 which have 5 bays. With 2 expansion units connected to NAS, you will have total of 15 bays. Below that is the power/DC in port. Beside that there's cover that you can remove to have access to a PCIe slot, as seen from the picture above. It is for E10G22-T1-Mini, a 10GbE RJ-45 network card. The card support transfer rate of 10 Gbps/5 Gbps/2.5 Gbps/1 Gbps/100 Mbps. Moving on, there's 1 USB port and 4 RJ-45 gigabit port which support link-aggregation. The plate for the bottom half that hold all these ports are made of steel instead of plastic, that will help to ensure it's rigidity.

Compared to DS920+, DS1522+ is exactly 1 bay bigger. The disk tray is same so it can be re-use with other model.

Height and depth is also the same. This makes DS1522+ almost as compact as DS920+. Less likely will have placement issue if the place you put the NAS is tight.

I will populate the bays with 2 x 4TB Synology HDD, 1 x 8TB Synology HDD, 1 x 8TB Toshiba HDD and 1 x 500GB Crucial SSD. I plan to make all 4 HDD into a storage pool, using SHR as it allow to mix HDD size without limiting the space on bigger HDD.

This is why I ask to keep properly the screws for 2.5" drive. From left, Synology screw, usual 2.5" drive screw, usual 3.5" drive screw. As you can see Synology screw is longer, this is to accommodate the thick disk tray. Usual 2.5" drive screw can still work but not much depth to make it fully secure. 3.5" drive screw totally can't use as it have different thread.

I'll only install the SSD drive first as it will help to give faster write performance when the OS is being installed.

15.6" Touch Screen Monitor

xxboxx — Sun, 13 Mar 2022 14:17:28 +0800

I was looking for a portable monitor for extended screen since sometimes working with just the laptop screen doesn't give me enough screen estate. I wanted something slim and light while also easy to bring around with the laptop. I came across this peculiar portable monitor, the brand is called Egobass. It have 15.6" screen size, slim chassis and slim bezel. It comes with screen cover that also function as stand. It support HDMI and USB-C for video input. It have WiFi 2.4G and Bluetooth. It also have touch screen and Android TV as it's OS. It also have Micro-USB for OTG. The price I purchase is about RM900.

Design

The monitor come attached together with screen cover by adhesive at the lower part of the cover on the back. It can be peel off and stick back when needed but I think if always take off and put back, it will become less sticky.

With the cover attached, the total weight is 1.03 kg while just the monitor alone is 695gm. The cover also act as a stand with 2 incline steps. There's 2 small rubber feet at below the monitor to help it grip the surface it is being put on. With the cover attached, the back sit flush with the bottom part of the monitor, good design for compactness and aesthetic.

The whole monitor frame is made of brushed aluminum. It give a nice texture and good rigidity, a very important aspect since it will always be moved around and sometimes put in not so ideal place.

On the right side of the monitor, there's mini HDMI and USB type-C connector for display and another type-C solely for powering the monitor. It doesn't have internal battery so it always need power when in use. If use type-C for display it can draw enough power from it to power up the monitor but it will operate in low power mode, just enough power for display. But if want to use it's internal speaker or touch screen it might cause the monitor to keep restarting due to not enough power. I also was able to power it by just using powerbank, it need a device that can supply 5v 2A power.

Moving on to the left side, from the top, it have micro USB for OTG (the package come with micro-USB to type-A dongle), power button, volume up and down button, menu button for switching between HDMI, type-C or Android TV dashboard. Below it there's 3.5mm headphone jack and the bottom is LED indicator light to show the monitor status, red is off and green is when powered.

The screen is 15.6" size with 16:9 aspect ratio. It is 1080p resolution with max 60Hz refresh rate. The screen is glossy type so the display look very sharp, just don't have any direct light facing the front of the screen as it is very reflective. The monitor backlight also very bright at it's maximum.

The monitor came with a remote. It have power button, selection for the display input, menu, navigation, volume adjust, back and home button. It also have voice input, you can use it with app that support it, for searching as an example. The monitor also have on-screen display (OSD) remote, but less button that hardware remote.

USAGE AS MONITOR

As mentioned, there's mini HDMI and USB type-C connector for display input. Trying with HDMI as input, I also need to connect type-C to USB port on my laptop to get the touch screen function. On Windows 10 and Windows 11, it automatically detect when USB is connected and install the driver to make touch screen work. The monitor is identified as MStar Demo when connected to Windows. When use type-C out from my laptop to type-C input on the monitor, touch screen function also will work. Text on screen appear as sharp as any good monitor. I can set the refresh rate to either 60/50/30/24Hz. This is useful for matching refresh rate with video so that can get the smooth looking playback. It doesn't have support for G-sync or Freesync though.

One thing to note when using as extended monitor, the color is different than my laptop monitor. My laptop have slightly warm tone with green and red color looks very rich. The monitor is very white with green and red doesn't look as rich but blue is very rich. The image option can change brightness, contrast, color, backlight but the option for sharpness and tint is greyed out. Changing the settings on my laptop, still not able to make both displays color to be exact. It's not a big difference but noticeable for bright green or red. If use as single monitor will not feel any issue with the color.

There's stereo speaker in this monitor, the sound can get very loud but the quality is not great. There's almost no bass but I guess it's expected for a small internal speaker.

I tried connect my phone to the monitor using type-C, it can mirror the phone and also can use touch function. This will depends on the phone though, some phone doesn't support display output, especially those older phone. Turning on desktop mode on the developer setting on my phone, it will display as desktop but the experience is not that great. Some app can resize the window but some app have fixed vertical window. I assume if using Samsung phone that support for Dex mode, you can get better desktop experience with it seeing how good Samsung have designed their Dex mode. This is something I hope Google can start implement on OS level, good desktop mode when connected to external display and resizable window for every app. Imagine having your phone that also can turn into computer when connected to external monitor, keyboard and mouse. One device to rule them all!

USAGE AS ANDROID DEVICE

The monitor is running on Android TV version 9 as it's OS. As an Android TV, this means it support many apps that usually available for this OS. It come preinstalled with YouTube, Spotify, TED, Facebook, Netflix, to name a few. In the app store there a lot more apps that can be downloaded. I found Disney, Disney Hotstar, YouTube Kids, VLC, MX Player, Kodi, Plex, Emby, and many others. Checking on it's Widevine, it is reported as L1 so that means no problem to stream 1080p video to this monitor. With the preinstalled Youtube app, I able to sign-in with the app. But since this app is designed for Android TV, it look different than how YouTube usually looks on phone or tablet. Swiping gesture also doesn't work on the app, you need to use the hardware or OSD remote to navigate. Tapping to select does work though. I assume other apps will have same experience if it is for Android TV instead of app for phone or tablet.

Now since this is Android and it have touch screen, how about sideloading apk and use it as large tablet? The device have 4GB internal storage and about 1.5GB used. I first try Mixplorer and it installed without any issue. I can now browse the content of the internal storage. I also able to configure it to access my network storage and stream video from it.

The monitor come preinstalled with Google Chrome. I can use it to browse internet. I can use touch gesture on the app. Can't sign in to Google account though, the security key never come. Chrome prompt me for an update and when I click it, it give choice whether to open App Store or Google Play Store. I was surprised there's Google Play Store as the app can't be found on the home screen or in App Store. But when open Google Play Store, it says my device is not supported anymore for Chrome, so I was unable to update it.

I tried sideload Brave apk and it can be installed. With it no issue to browse the internet. I can use the touch screen just like using tablet. Maybe due to it's limited RAM, sometimes Brave will notify it stop loading the page. This happen more on heavy website and video site, and I need to reload the page to get it back to normal. I also was not able to sign in to Google site such as YouTube, it say the browser or app is not secure, possibly since this is mobile phone apk running on Android TV, Google block from signing-in to their service. I was able to install Vanced though and sign in to my Google account.

One thing that irk me when using it as equivalent to tablet is it's display can't be set to portrait. It is always stuck in landscape. For viewing video that is good but when browsing the web, having it stuck in landscape feels weird and sometimes waste of space. Try browsing Lowyat forum full screen on widescreen monitor, when reading paragraph the eye need to go from most left to most right. If connected to computer then no problem to rotate it as portrait using Windows display setting. I hope Android TV can expand it's management of display. As how people use Windows, not all display always use horizontally. Android phone/tablet also doesn't have the ability to set vertical for external display is a limitation for the OS since these days it's easy to connect to external monitor/TV and use it as secondary/expanded display.

CLOSING

Overall I found this monitor usage is more than just as extended display for my laptop. I also use it as portable video player when I'm doing something that is not in front the computer or TV. I can also use my laptop instead of this monitor, but 1.) The laptop screen is not this big and 2.) It would be cheaper to replace this monitor than laptop screen if damage due to prolong use. I also use it for displaying guides when playing games, the big screen makes it easy to glance and read compare to using phone. It having a touch screen means I can just click or swipe on the screen to play video or read additional text.

Another thing I think that it can be useful if have remote desktop which can be accessed through browser. I don't have my computer running as remote desktop but those that have it surely will find it useful. I do use it to access my Synology NAS and other self hosted service that I run on my NAS, it's useful as separate device for constant monitoring and can be easily moved anywhere.

If you're looking for an external monitor or large screen device, my suggestion is to consider external monitor such as this if it fits your usage.

Lenovo Yoga 6 Review

xxboxx — Tue, 12 Oct 2021 02:23:42 +0800

This is a review of Lenovo Yoga 6, model 13ACL6 with AMD 5700U CPU. It’s a 2-in1 laptop with touch screen and pen/stylus support. I was looking for 2-in-1 tablet or laptop that is light and portable. Initially I was looking at Lenovo Ideapad Flex 5 with AMD 5700U but the waiting time is 10 weeks, it’s screen is 1” bigger but less color accuracy and only 512GB SSD. Another choice is Microsoft Surface Pro 7 but the screen is smaller by 1” and for same price can only get i5 model with 8GB RAM. I think 8GB RAM device will be hard for multitasking in future as more app become bigger in size. Even Windows 11 minimum requirement have grown to 4GB RAM whereas previously Windows 10 requirement is only 2GB RAM. So, for future proofing I feel it is better to get at least 16GB RAM or device that can upgrade it’s RAM. Because of RAM I also decided against getting Asus Zenbook Flip 13 even though it’s OLED screen makes it very tempting.

Some of the specification:
CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 5700U
OS: Windows 10 Home Single Language
Display: 13.3" FHD (1920 x 1080) IPS, 300 nits, 72% NTSC, 10-point multi-touch
Storage: 1TB SSD PCIe
Memory: 16GB DDR4 3200Mhz dual-channel RAM
Graphics: AMD Radeon integrated graphics
Color: Abyss Blue
Up to WiFi 6 (2x2 802.11ax), Bluetooth 5
Fingerprint Reader
2 x USB-A 3.2 Gen 1
1 x USB-C 3.2 Gen 1 (DisplayPort & power delivery)
1x USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 (DisplayPort)
Headphone / mic combo
60 Wh Lithium-ion battery
Lenovo Active Pen

This laptop has denim like fabric on the top. It is blue color but can easily mistaken as grey. I don’t particularly like it since I feel it can get dirty and pilling / loose strands after some time. I have to be extra careful when have to touch the fabric part. In other part of the world there’s model without the fabric but unfortunately, we only getting this. The other body part of laptop is dark blue color but can also easily mistaken as black / dark grey on some lighting condition.

There’s a USB-A and USB-C port on each side but only left side USB-C is for charging, there’s no dedicated charging port. The charger is rated 45W so that is a bit on low side. When charging, there’s small orange LED indicator beside the USB-C port. There’s no volume button so it can get inconvenient when need to change volume in tablet mode. No DP or HDMI too, you need USB-C adapter to have wired output into external monitor. The power button is on the right side. There’s small white LED to indicate when the device is powered up. The power button feels squishy, there’s no satisfying click when press it. Sometimes I feel I have press it hard enough but the laptop doesn’t boot, then I have to press it again with more force. But this laptop has a neat trick, it can auto boot when the screen is turned up. I don’t need to press the power button when I open the screen, it will automatically boot. You can disable it if don’t like this behavior. The boot time is very fast, less than 10 seconds on Windows that I haven’t install anything.

The screen can be rotated to 360° as with most touch screen laptop to function as tablet. At 1.3kg it is not light for prolog use. The display is 16:9 aspect ratio, some might prefer 16:10 or 3:2 but for me is still ok. The screen is only 1080p but I feel it's sharp enough on this small screen. Refresh rate is only 60hz, good enough I guess. It’s IPS screen got 99% sRGB and 72% NTSC, color look vivid. Brightness is rated 300 nits but I feel the screen is not bright enough. I have to put 70-80% brightness when in normal lit room. Can’t imagine how to see the screen if outside with sunlight. In almost dark room I need to set about 40-50% brightness. There’s a 1-megapixel camera that can do 720p, really the most basic camera. It has privacy shutter though, so it’s a good function if worry the camera is secretly recording. It come with Lenovo active pen but there’s no battery given, so better prepare the battery first if you want to use it once you get the laptop. It uses AAAA battery, this battery is not widely available in most mini market. I think it uses Wacom AES pen, it have 4096 level of pressure sensitivity. Good enough for casual usage. It got 2 buttons on side but no eraser function on top of the pen. Anyone that uses Lenovo pen before knows it has good accuracy and responsiveness. One grip with the pen is there’s no dedicated place to store it on the laptop. There’s not even any place with magnet to rest the pen. It will be easy to misplace it.

The keyboard is standard Lenovo keyboard, nothing fancy that I notice. I don’t like the half size for UP and DOWN arrow button, it’s too small and hard to accurately press it. It doesn’t have the function of pressing Fn+Esc to toggle between Fn and F buttons, instead you have to press the toggle button either in Lenovo Vantage app or it’s widget. This is really counterproductive. There’s 2 level of brightness for backlight, but it’s just slightly brighter. There’s not much key travel, don’t expect it to get any awards for best typing experience. There’s a fingerprint reader below the arrow key, it works with Windows Hello to provide fast login into Windows. There’s opening at the bottom of laptop for air to be sucked in and exit at the back. When the laptop is working hard, I can also feel a lot of heat at the top-middle of keyboard area. It does feel like some of the heat is being channel to exit from here.

The stereo speaker here gives good treble. The stereo separation is also good, can hear sounds coming from different direction. But that’s all is good about it though. What it lacking is bass. When in quiet place and volume level is about 50, can still hear some bass. But when blast to 100, bass is non-existence. The total volume of this speaker is not loud, I feel it’s below acceptable level. Blasting at max, it’s still hard to hear when near my tv speaker that is playing some sound that is not loud. The 3.5mm audio on the other hand is impressive. It has a lot of power to even drive some demanding headphone. I tried with Sennheiser HD650 which is a 300 Ω headphone. Listening to Kent Nishimura's Careless Whisper in YouTube, volume at level 40 is loud enough to listen even with background noise. My ear feels hurt when I increase the volume until level 80.

Booting into Windows 10 is a Home Single Language edition. It also come pre-installed with Office 2019 Home & Student edition, so can save some money if need to use Office. It has some recommended apps, such as Photoshop and TikTok. Lenovo itself have some recommended (ads) apps inside their own app, such as Amazon and Facebook Messenger. It also come preinstalled with McAfee 30 days trial and Spotify.

The CPU is Ryzen 7 5700U, an 8 cores 16 threads that operate at 15W and boost at 25W. It’s not the proper third generations Ryzen CPU but still pack some power. The 16GB RAM is running in dual-channel to give extra advantage to the CPU. It’s fixed at 3200MHz, can’t change any timings or speed on the BIOS. The storage is a generous 1TB nvme SSD. The SSD is from WD, model SN730. Wi-Fi module is Realtek RTL8852AE that support until Wi-Fi 6 / AX. Unfortunately, I don’t have Wi-Fi 6 router to test how is the performance. There’s no dedicated GPU here, only the integrated with CPU. But good thing about having 16GB RAM is I can allocate up to 2GB RAM for GPU while still have enough RAM for other thing. The setting is done in BIOS.

Additionally, it will be better to enable Lenovo Vantage Toolbar as there’s some settings that can be quickly toggled from it, such as Fn key, Power setting, Battery Conservation mode (to prolog battery life if always connected to charger), disable camera and microphone.

This Yoga 6 also come with SmartNote app. It’s a quick note taking with pen app. Whenever the screen is locked, holding the pen near to screen will activate SmartNote for some scribble. It can be disable if don’t want to use this app. To browse back all the previous notes, need to unlock the screen and open the app.

And just few days ago, Windows 11 stable was released. Since this laptop tick all the requirements, I decided to upgrade it to Windows 11. The Windows Update in Settings doesn’t show option to upgrade it. I download Windows 11 Installation Assistant from MS website and the app automate everything. I just need to wait it finish download and install. The install process is about 30 minutes or less. After upgrade, almost everything still work as it is in Windows 10. SmartNote still launch when in lock screen, Lenovo Vantage Toolbar toggle still work. Touch screen, pen, all work as usual. The only thing that’s missing is Lenovo Vantage only show as icon now instead of battery percentage. Strangely, Lenovo Pen app can still show as battery percentage.

I never timed how long the battery can last, and frankly, it is hard to get accurate answer since everyone usage is different. With light usage I can get by 2 or 3 hours with it and still have more than half the battery. The battery estimation is also all over the place, when I use some intensive app, it estimates I still have 1 or 2 hours battery life but when I stop the workload and just browsing internet, it estimate I have 8 or 9 hours of battery life. Lenovo rated it as 18 hours lol, but I guess 8 to 10 hours is more realistic for light usage.

I’ll wrap up this review with some benchmark. All the test was done when it still on Windows 10 except for Geekbench, it was done after I upgrade it to Windows 11.

First up is CrystalDiskMark. It surprisingly got 3k MB/s for sequential read and write. I saw other benchmark of 512GB drive and it only got 1k plus sequential write.

Next, Cinebench R20. The score is almost similar to 1700X, a desktop CPU. It really shows how much improvement have been made in these 4 years. With Cinebench R23, after I got 8414 and 1249 score, I notice the laptop was running in balance mode. So after change to performance mode, I ran the test again and got better score for multi core but slightly worse score for single core. The CPU temperature highest I saw is 94°C when running these tests.

Wi-Fi speed test, no problem to max my internet 100Mbps DL, 50Mbps UL speed, and the ping also very low. I didn’t encounter any random disconnect or any issue with Wi-Fi for the whole time I’m using this laptop. I’m connected to 5GHz band for the whole time. Online, most people say this Realtek adapter is crap for Wi-Fi 6 / AX and should only use Intel adapter. I don’t have Wi-Fi 6 / AX router so can’t try how the performance. This adapter is 2x2 so theoretically it should give good speed if using Wi-Fi 6.

For Geekbench score, it is as the picture. I done the test after upgraded to Windows 11. Compared to other online result from same model but running Windows 10, mine get about the same result. So I guess running Windows 10 or 11 on this machine won’t give additional performance. There’s report that Windows 11 caused latency issue to L3 cache on AMD CPU, apps that sensitive to memory subsystem access will feel the impact. Using Office, browser and media payer, I didn’t notice any difference performance in both Windows. Another issue reported is preferred core performance might be impacted but it say to affect 65W and above CPU.

Using MPC to play HEVC 4k 24fps HDR video, GPU usage is 15-18%, CPU is 4-7%. Running on Balance mode. With HEVC 4k 60fps HDR video, GPU usage is 30-35%, CPU is 7-10% and occasionally spike to 13%. Both playback is streaming the file from local network using Wi-Fi. It does get a bit hot, you won’t want to put it on lap when playing such video. The GPU temperature goes up till 71°C. When idle, the GPU sits around 45°C.

I didn’t try any games on it since I’m not getting it to play games. But can find some review on YouTube or online that show the iGPU still can give acceptable frame rates on low settings.

That’s wrap up my review of the laptop. Overall, I’m satisfied with the performance and functionality that I’m getting. With this specs, I think it can still perform adequately for few years.

Synology C2 Password Review

xxboxx — Sun, 05 Sep 2021 00:32:28 +0800

Synology launched their own password manager last month. It was called C2 Password. It is part of their new cloud based solution for storage, password management, file sharing, and backup. I'm guessing C2 means command & control as how it is usually known in IT world. Under C2 there's also Backup, Storage, Identity and Transfer.

Right now C2 Password is only available for single use which is free, with family plan coming in the future. With it you get to save 10,000 items in vault, password generator with strength detector, 2FA/TOTP authenticator, and also limited file transfer functions. It have browser extension for Edge and Chrome. It still doesn't have iPhone and Android app though, iPhone app coming in end of this year while Android app coming next year.

To use it, go to this link and click get started
https://c2.synology.com/en-global/password/overview

You need to have a Synology account to use C2 Password. If you don't have one, you can create for free, it doesn't need you to have Synology NAS to create an account.

After create account and sign up, you'll be greeted with this page. You can proceed to enter vault or install browser extension.

The presentation is very simple and nice. White background and black text with green highlight. Button is in green color for confirmation while grey for cancel or some menu button. If alert or caution such as confirming to delete, the button will be in red instead of green.

The first thing you need to do before using C2 Password is to create C2 Encryption Key. This is the key to access your saved items, whether you accessing it from vault or from browser extension. To recap, Synology account & password is for your account while this key is for C2 Password. You need to enter this key every time you use C2 Password, so better for it to be long with many combinations for security but still easily remembered.

After that you need to create Recovery Code. This code is for recovering your key in case you forgot it.

IMPORTANT! If you lose your key and this code, you'll lose access to all your passwords. Even Synology can't recover it since they don't know your key and code. You cry mother father also no use. So keep this code safely.

You need to key in C2 Encryption Key each time when accessing the vault.

This is the main page of C2 Password. You can import CSV file that contain all your data from other password manager. Most password manager support this format for exporting. It doesn't support json file though.

If you add new item, there's selection what type of item it would be. For Identity, it is similar to contact info, such as name, date of birth, address, phone, email, and so on. Bank Account as it's name, for banking info such as bank name, full name, account number, SWIFT code, address, and so on. Payment card is for credit or debit card, it have entry for card type, number, expire date, PIN code, CVC.

Login is what most people probably going to use this for. As the picture above show, it can add name for the login, URL which it will suggest if you open the extension on that website, tags for easy search, 2FA/TOTP if you want to add it into C2 Password, and also add additional field. It also will give indication if password is weak or strong.

After added Login, it will show as such. If click on the account, it will come out the details on the right panel. A bit of concern, the dots that's displayed in password is actually the same amount as your password. In browser extension it is also the same.

There's no function to create folder as way to organize all the entries. One way to organize is by using tags, if you used to use tags then it should be no issue.

It also have password generator where you can specify the length and which type of character to be included. It can't generate passphrase though, maybe this is something that can be added in future.

Google Drive for desktop rant

xxboxx — Sat, 14 Aug 2021 23:15:58 +0800

Google is replacing it's Backup and Sync program (and Drive File Stream for enterprise user) with Drive. Some may remember prior 2018, that is the program name before it is being replaced by Backup and Sync (and Drive File Stream for enterprise user). So Google have done full circle with Drive now.

Anyways, what I'm most interested is that now it support (as Google called it) stream files. Now files can be cleared from device to free up space but downloaded whenever I need it. Something that Microsoft OneDrive already have for very long time. Even Synology Drive have the same function. This is a very useful function on my laptop with limited bandwidth when I'm on the move, as I don't need all files that newly edited on my PC to be downloaded into my laptop since the files will not be accessed in laptop.

After installing the new Drive, I realized Google implement it very differently than how Microsoft and Synology implement theirs. You either choose to stream files + make some available offline, or mirror files. I guess it makes sense if you consider it as Google taking 2 programs and joint it as 1 program.

Mirror files option work like how Backup and Sync work. Everything is mirrored. You can't free up space, you can't even browse previous version. Right click on files give you little option, this is on .docx file

Stream files is where the new stuff is. All files will not be available offline unless you select which files you choose to have it available offline. Opening a file, it won't keep an offline copy like how MS OneDrive and Synology Drive does it. There's no free up space. Ok, it treat it differently, not an issue. If I want it to keep a copy, I can select to make it available offline.

The other thing I like about cloud storage is Versioning. You can revert back to earlier version of your files in case when needed. MS OneDrive the only one that implement it the best way, you're given a list of earlier version (with date and size) and can choose to restore or download. Synology Drive same can see list of earlier version (but only with date) and only have option to download any version that you want. Google Drive on the other hand open file explorer to show the version list, with added numbering before the filename. I guess still have to stick with Drive on web browser to restore file version.

One useful thing it added is now you can see if someone else is editing Microsoft Office files, so you'll know when it is safe to edit.

One annoying thing for me with this new Drive is, it will add as drive letter in This PC. Something that I don't find it as necessary, maybe Google want to remind how many (cloud) space used and remaining free space. Another annoying thing Drive will do is after restart or boot, it will add the drive shortcut to Quick Access. There's no option in Drive to stop it from doing this every time. I end up denying current user's write permission to Quick Access.

The taskbar icon also no more black and white icon, which previously look great BTW with my dark taskbar. Now it's the ugly square icon with triangle inside. There's no option to change the icon. When files being updated, it give a very light, hard to notice, white hue circling inside the square. Look how ugly is that icon.

198.144.159.110 scanning port

xxboxx — Tue, 03 Aug 2021 21:56:56 +0800

This 198.144.159.110 IP been scanning ports on my router for few days.
Skynet log show this IP been blocked for few thousands time, compare to second highest is just few hundreds time.
The IP already in FireHOL banned list as firehol_level3
Reverse lookup goes to Netminders Server Hosting (AS7040) in Canada
It using port 58863, 58808, 58845, 58871, and 58854 to probe.
Virustotal show all security vendors list it as clean except for CINS Army.

I disconnect all LAN cable to router, disable wifi and cold boot router. DDNS not enabled. Waited 5 minutes after have internet before connect back device to check the log. Sure enough in that 5 minutes time there's multiple entries for this IP.
So I guess it just do massive scanning on all IP? I can't think of other way how it can target me.
Unless my router that keep sending beacon to it, which I highly doubt. I'm using latest Asus wrt firmware and Skynet.
Now almost 5 hours and it have scanned for almost 1000 times. Only 26 times it scan for same port number twice.

Self-hosting Bitwarden password manager

xxboxx — Sun, 11 Jul 2021 18:32:41 +0800

I have been migrating from online service to self hosting service on whichever stuff that was possible and recently another thing that I was looking to migrate is password manager. Been using Chrome password manager for so long, while I only use it for auto-filling non crucial sites, I still feel uneasy that all my credentials are somewhere in the cloud that was just waiting to be leaked. But on the other hand, having auto-fill by Google no matter on desktop or phone makes my life so easy.

So I was looking for something that can do the same thing but hosted locally, and I found out about self hosting Bitwarden by using Vaultwarden. It ticks almost all the boxes for my requirement. Bitwarden actual service is by using its cloud storage and the basic account is totally free. Premium account is USD$10 per-year. I would recommend using their service if you are not doing self-hosting. The credentials stored in their cloud are encrypted, even Bitwarden themselves can’t decrypt because they don’t know your master password. This also means if you forgot your password, there’s no way to retrieve the data anymore, so make sure to find ways so that you will never lose the master password.

While I was setting it up and scouring the web for info on how to do it properly, I found that everyone saying it needs HTTPS to work. If you’re doing local network hosting that is not reachable by internet, you know how shitty HTTPS is when it’s about certificates. With self hosted Bitwarden, you need to use a DNS server that can divert domain to local IP address, such as pihole. You also need to set a reverse proxy on the self-hosted machine. Then only the Bitwarden HTTPS page is accessible. If you want to remove the “Your connection is not private” page and “Not secure” on the address bar, you also need a valid CA signed certificate.

The HTTPS page is called Web Vault by Bitwarden, in there you can do management stuff such as changing email or master password and sharing credentials with other users through Collection. To import data from another password manager also needs to be done from Web Vault. Enabling 2FA and using TOTP also can only be done there.

When I tried using Bitwarden I found that it still can be used even without accessing the HTTPS page. You will not be able to do what I mentioned in the previous paragraph but the main function of password manager is workable.

I’m doing self-hosting using Docker on my Synology NAS. Docker is great for running services that are isolated from the main system. Almost all systems have Docker. First thing is installing Docker from the Package Center or something equivalent in your system.

Once Docker is installed, run the program and you’ll be greeted with this window. If you not familiar with Docker it’s advisable to read the Help page first.

We are going to use Vaultwarden for self-hosting. Previously it was known as Bitwarden_RS.

First thing, we need to get Vaultwarden image.
1. Click on Registry
2. Type vaultwarden on the search box
3. Find and click to highlight “vaultwarden/server”
4. Click on download
5. Make sure it is chosen on latest and click Select

While waiting for the image to complete download, next thing we need to do is make a folder where all the configs file and database will be stored. When you install Docker, it will create a shared folder for it. In it create a folder named “bitwarden”, make sure not to use capital letters.

Going back to Docker after finish downloading
1. Click on Image to open the download page. You know it’s finished downloading if the icon is not animated anymore and fully blue.
2. Click to highlight the image
3. Click on Launch to create container for Vaultwarden

It will open General Settings to configure the container.
1. Click to enable resource limitation and put CPU priority to low
2. Set the memory limit to 50MB. These 2 steps is useful so that it won’t use much resource on your machine.
3. Click on Advanced Settings to configure some more things

In here we need to configure some things on 3 tabs
1. Enable auto-restart so that if your system restart it will run back the container
2. Click on Volume to go next tab
3. Click on “Add Folder” to select folder
4. Find and highlight the bitwarden folder we created earlier and click on Select
5. Click on the Mount path box and type “/data”. This way the configs and database will be saved locally, otherwise all data will gone when the container restart
6. Click on “Port Settings” tab, here we can specify the HTTPS and HTTP port at “Local Port” if needed. Local Port with Container Port 3012 is for HTTPS while the other one is for HTTP. You can just leave it as default and the system will auto configure. Don’t change the “Container Port” number.
Click Apply to close Advanced Setting, click Next to complete General Settings, and before clicking Done to close Summary, make sure “Run this container after the wizard is finished” is marked.

Now we go back to Docker main page
1. Click on Container to open it’s page
2. Highlight vaultwarden container. Make sure it is running, if not you can run it here
3. Click on details to open the details for vaultwarden container
4. If you didn’t specify the “Local Port” number, you can check here for the HTTPS and HTTP port. We will need these number for later settings

We finish setting up the container.

Open new tab in your browser and put http/https and followed by the host machine IP and it's “PORT_IP”
Example is https://10.0.0.1:49153 for HTTPS.
We see that here the page won’t load if use HTTPS. If use HTTP it can load but, when trying to create account it will ask to use HTTPS. We’re stuck here with no way to use both method.

[Guide] Auto Backup Phone's Data to Offsite

xxboxx — Sun, 14 Mar 2021 22:10:50 +0800

This is a mini guide on how to make an automated backup for Android phones to offsite storage. Nowadays our phone is the most important device for almost everyone, and it’s importance also due to the data that it holds. Imagine if your phone is missing or something went wrong and it can’t boot or access all the data in it. All your data is now gone, no matter how important it is.

Google has done a good job to backup/sync the account of the phone, it will backup the contacts, settings, call logs, sms, list of apps, and all data for Google’s app, which I would say is about 50% of the phone data. But all the user installed apps data and settings, plus data in the storage will not be backed up. Some says Google also backup third party app data, but I have never managed to get any third party app data restored when I use Google restore function, it only reinstalled back the app. Some apps save all the data in their own server, such as Lazada or Shopee app. For such apps you can easily access all your data just by simply logging back into the account. Some apps such as WhatsApp can backup everything to local storage and also to Google Drive so you can fully restore everything once you are able to log back into a phone. But that means it will count on your Drive storage limit, if you have plenty of multimedia files the backup size can be huge. Some apps such as Wechat can only backup the chat history and you need to connect it to a computer to do the backup. Some apps such as Musicolet make auto backup to internal storage, so backing up this data to offsite is enough to make sure you can fully restore the app settings. Some apps such as MiXplorer have to manually run the export settings, so it’s not very efficient. Some other apps totally have no way to do backup.

Having lost my data for few times I know why having a good backup solution is important, especially when I rely a lot on my phone. And having the backup to be automated is equally as important because I believe a good backup solution is the one that doesn’t need manual intervention. Doing it manually means after some time I will start to feel lazy to do it and finally just stop doing the backup. In this guide I will use 2 steps for completing the offsite backup, first step is to make auto backup of the user’s apps and it’s data and second step is to auto sync all that important data to offsite storage.

My backup to offsite will be over WiFi on the local network to my Synology DS920+ NAS. There are also apps that can sync data over the internet but since every schedule might transfer a few GBs, that will eat up the data quota very fast. Additionally, all the apps that I will use are free on the Play Store.

Another thing need mentioning is to backup the user app’s data, the phone need to be rooted. Without root, you can only backup the storage to offsite, which is still better than without any backup. With apps such as WhatsApp it also means you can make a full backup using its own backup function to internal storage, then backup it to offsite, very useful if you don’t want to do a full online backup which might be too big for your Google Drive.

First thing I need to do is set up the backup location. If you backup to PC by WiFi connection then you only need to set the folder where to save it, and set folder sharing to the network. If by USB then you just set the folder where to save and don’t need to follow the auto sync guide.

Side note: I feel copying files over USB is slower than by WiFi, especially when some files that have long filenames. Maybe the Android ways to connect it’s storage to PC caused it, or maybe only my phone got this problem. Some files also might not copy to PC due to Windows filename cannot contain certain characters.

For my backup I will save it in my Synology NAS. As a security measure for all the data on my NAS, I create a new user/account just for the app. I also create a new shared folder just for this backup. This way if the app is compromised it will only affect this account and this shared folder, all other data in my NAS will not be affected.

Setting a shared folder in NAS, since only for backup I don’t need this folder to appear in My Network Places. I also hide this shared folder from other users' accounts, and enable Recycle Bin just in case I need to recover the deleted data. Next, I create a new user account and set it to only be able to read and write on the backup shared folder. This is the advantage of using NAS, you can create plenty of user accounts and each account can be limited to only certain functions and folders.

I will use 3 apps for doing my backup. Titanium Backup for backing up my apps and data, SMS Backup & Restore for backup of calls and sms, SMBSync2 for syncing the data to NAS.

I have been using Titanium Backup for many years so I am familiar with the interface and for it’s free user functions, it is enough for making scheduled backups. But this app hasn't been updated for 2 years and newer types of apps that are using split apks will cause Titanium Backup to not be able to backup properly. Another alternative backup would be Swift Backup, but the caveat is the phone must have a Google account signed in and the data will only be saved to cloud service such as Google Drive or Dropbox or ownCLoud or Nextcloud or any server using custom WebDAV. Though I heard recently it starts allowing saving to phone’s storage, I need to explore more on this. Another backup app that I tried is OAndBackupX, it is a fork of the abandoned oandbackup app. This app is totally free and constantly updated, it also has a nice GUI. But on my testing it doesn’t correctly restore some apps and every time when it run scheduled backup, it will make a full backup of everything again while Titanium Backup can specify to only redo backup for data that has been changed, which makes the backup process much faster. Also these backup apps are unable to access storage/Android/ DATA & OBB folder if using Android 11, which is another issue that makes it unable to make a proper backup. I’ll explain more later.

Using Titanium Backup, I create backups for apps that don't save on their own server. Apps from Google doesn’t need backup as all are saved on their cloud. Apps like Shopee and Lazada that store data on it’s server as well as apps that have online sync don’t need backup. As I would schedule backup to DS920+ everyday it’s better to just do the essential apps so that I can reduce the amount of data and time taken for the whole process.

After backup I set schedules to redo backups for modified data. This is also an advantage of Titanium Backup compared to some other backup apps, when just redoing backup for modified data it saves a lot of time. As I’m using the free version it can only choose 2 days for automated backups in a week. You also probably should not purchase the app now as it looks like it has been abandoned and now some people complain that even after purchasing the app it still doesn’t unlock full features.

Next I set the schedule on WhatsApp to backup daily. Even without backing up videos it already took 2.1 GB space on my Drive.

I use SMS Backup & Restore to make backup of call logs and sms. The app also can set schedules and upload to cloud service if one needs it. I would probably not need to use this app anymore as: 1.) Google is also doing backup of call logs and sms now, though I don’t know if it can correctly restore everything, and 2.) Other apps for doing backup mostly also have integrated backup for call logs and sms, which is what I should use when replacing Titanium Backup

I use SMBSync2 app for transferring data to other devices by using SMB protocol. This protocol is supported by almost all OS. But be careful not to use SMB v1 protocol though as it has some nasty vulnerabilities. When opened you’ll be greeted with this GUI. Not the most modern look and some of its functions not so straightforward for setting it up, but what I like about this app is it is lightweight and has plenty of options to customize, plus it is still being updated.

Pressing the + button on the bottom and you can create a new task. It has 4 types of sync mode: 1. Mirror, 2. Copy, 3. Move. 4. Archive. For this backup I’m using Mirror mode, it makes the exact copy of data on the NAS based on the folders that I choose on my phone’s storage. For subsequent sync it will only copy over files that are modified, which is based on size and/or date/time, any files that’s deleted on my phone will also be deleted on NAS when being synced. If you also want to move data from phone to offsite, you can create a new task and choose Move mode, then specify which folder for the data to be moved from your phone. It supports multiple tasks. “Master folder” will be the storage on the phone while “Target folder” will be on NAS. Tick the “Select subdirectories” and press “Directory filter has not been specified”, inside it then press “Directory list” to list out the phone internal storage then choose which folder to sync.

Tips: you can also set Master folder as folder in NAS and Target folder as folder in phone storage. This way you can sync files in the specified folder on your NAS to your phone.

Additional info: Earlier I mentioned the issue of unable to access storage/Android/ DATA & OBB folders on Android 11. This is due to Android 11 making Scoped Storage as mandatory, which among other things is restricting app access only to their own folders that’s within these 2 folders. From security POV this is good as now app can’t snoop other apps data but for file manager or backup app this means you can’t copy/backup files in these folders. This also means your backup of the app will not be a full backup. As of now some file managers such as X-plore and MiXplorer have managed to find a workaround (by using API target for Android 10) and are able to access all data on those folders. Google promised to fix it but later on blame Covid-19 for the delay, hopefully Google will come out with the fix this year. This mean SMBSync2 also unfortunately unable to access these folders if the phone is running Android 11, so this is something to take into consideration if you’re using the latest Android version.

Continue on, to set the Target folder on the NAS, press the “Target folder” and press “Storage type”, it will open 5 selections, choose “SMB Server”, the page will change for setting up SMB. Press “Search SMB server” and wait till it finds the NAS then select it. For security, choose the highest SMB protocol. Also tick “Use SMB2 negotiation” and “SMB IPC Signing Enforced”. Add the username and password to get access into NAS. Press the “List Shares'' button to select the shared folder and “List Directories” to select the folder where you want to mirror/copy the data. Press save after all is done.

One of the great things about SMBSync2 is that it has a lot of custom settings. For example, if you set static IP for your phone on the router, you can specify for SMBSync2 to run the sync only when it detects the correct IP. If you are in some other place with a different IP, it won’t try to run the task. It also can set if you want to include hidden folders/files, if don’t want the attribute of last modified time on NAS to match the files in the phone, also few more options on how to determine if a file in phone is different from the file in NAS.

Now to create scheduled tasks so that it will auto sync at designated time/days. Go to the Schedule tab and press the + button at the bottom. Here, the sync options are very robust. You can even set it to sync every hour if you so wish so. Other options are for sync everyday or specify which days of the week. Also can set to sync by interval and also sync by monthly with option to set it sync on the last day of every month. Also can set if you want the schedule to only run when charging. It also supports multiple different schedules.

And that’s it! Now my apps will be auto backup into internal storage and then auto backup to my Synology NAS. It would auto run the backup without me needing to do any manual interruption. I say it again for last time, a good backup is one that is fully automated.

89.248.162.161 keep scanning for open port

xxboxx — Thu, 04 Mar 2021 22:17:09 +0800

I notice when going through my router logs, this IP: 89.248.162.161 keep scanning for open port.
Even after reconnecting with new IP or restart my router, in few seconds it will show in log entry for this IP.
At first I thought maybe one of my device connected to internet that reestablish connection to this IP when I change my IP, but even after disable all devices from connecting the router and change my IP, this 89.248.162.161 still able to come back in the logs.
So either my router that reestablish connection with that IP or that IP just scan all Malaysia IP?

I done traceroute and it goes to scanner.openportstats.com, so most likely it just scan all IP?
Should I be concern with it?
In 3 hours it have done almost 700 port scan on my router.

Synology HAT5300 8TB

xxboxx — Fri, 12 Feb 2021 21:06:04 +0800

This is a review of a HDD (Hard Disk Drive). Nope, not SSD. You didn’t read it wrongly, and I didn’t write it wrongly too. In this age of Gen 4 PCIE speed with thousands of MB/s speeds for read and write, and with over half millions of IOPS (Input/Output Operations Per Second), looking at HDD speed is as exciting as watching paint dry. Well, maybe in this review you can rediscover some knowledge about HDD that is same as me when I was doing the testing. It’s like the lost art of disk drives.

I was fortunate enough to get a hold of this Synology hard disk. I think it’s not even available yet in Malaysia for purchase. Yes, Synology coming out with their own brand of HDD. They seem to be branching out doing storage now, before this they also have come out with their own brand of SATA and NVME SSD. These HDD are marketed for enterprise usage and they also launched some enterprise NAS rack that are locked to only can use these HAT5300 HDD for size over 4TB. I think their reasoning is for enterprise usage that only relies on vendors support to troubleshoot problems, having the option of everything managed by 1 vendor does make everything easier and faster. There will be no situation where NAS vendor point a finger to HDD vendors and vice-versa. Synology also doesn’t need to do extensive tests of different drives just to make sure all are compatible with their NAS, especially now there’s so many brands and models of SSD drives, it’s not even funny. Looking at some of the HDD notes after their testing I understand why they moved to offer complete package system, trying to explain to enterprise customers that the particular model of HDD from a leading brand doesn’t perform well when configured with 7 or more drives in RAID-5 or RAID-6 or it have problem with hibernation sounds like going to get a lot of scepticism from the customer.

To be frank HDD is still very much relevant in data centres and NAS as it offers the best GB per price ratio. Consumer desktops still need it as mass storage to store the bit perfect.. *ehem* Linux OS’es. Also, these days it’s easy to take photos and videos using a smartphone, and if you got hundreds of gigabytes of data, backing it up to a computer or NAS is more cost effective than paying for cloud service. You should also have offline backup of your precious data as a safety precaution. You do have it, backup data, don’t you? Saw too many times people come asking how to retrieve their important data that is inside a dead HDD/SSD/thumb drive, and that is the only copy of that important data. Back to HDD, it’s evolutions have been stagnant for some time now that every HDD seems to be the same, it doesn’t have any difference in performance. Or is it?

HARDWARE

The 8TB hard disk comes in an anti-static bag and protective cover. To be clear, Synology doesn’t manufacture the HDD themselves, instead it was Toshiba enterprise grade HDD that was rebranded as Synology. In the packaging it also can be clearly seen it was Toshiba’s MG06ACA800E model. It is a 7200 RPM speed with 256MB cache. This is their enterprise grade model that came with 550TB rated annual workload and 5 years warranty. Synology mirrors this by offering the same workload and warranty. As this is the 8TB model, it is an air-filled drive. Judging by the power consumption of the 12TB and 16Tb model, those should be helium-filled drives. The hard drive is also equipped with Rotational Vibrations (RV) sensor, something that is normal with NAS or enterprise grade HDD. Though there are NAS grade HDD that don't have an RV sensor, they reserve it for their Pro model. Synology didn’t mention anything about Persistent Write Cache which is one of the features with Toshiba MG series, it basically means in an event of power failure it will write the incomplete written sector to it’s flash memory first, and resume writing back to the sector in HDD when powered back. HAT5300 firmware can also be directly updated through DSM so that gives an advantage compared to other brand HDD.

As it so happens I have Toshiba's NAS N300 8TB drive, I can then make a comparison between the two HDDs that are from the same manufacturer. It’s a NAS grade HDD and not enterprise grade HDD which Synology is using, though looking at the appearance, except for the sticker there’s no way to tell them apart. Even the case is hard stamped as MG06. N300 are also 7200 RPM speed and 256MB cache as well as air-filled drive. But the N300 NAS grade HDD is only 180TB rated annual workload and 3 years warranty, so that’s that.

When installing the HDD to NAS’s caddy I noticed that my another NAS's caddy cover the “Do Not Cover” hole, granted there’s still a small gap between the caddy and HDD so it probably no issue but my OCD kicks in trying to find ways to rectify it. Luckily Synology NAS caddy doesn’t cover the hole, it would be bad press if first party HDD doesn’t pair well with its own NAS lol.

Alternative to Google's Drive & Photos

xxboxx — Sun, 13 Dec 2020 02:01:26 +0800

One month ago, Google dropped the bomb. No more unlimited photos policy come 1st June 2021. What used to be safe heaven for unlimited backup of “high quality” photos and HD video in exchange of sacrificing the original quality photos and video are now going to be ended. I mean, I thought we surrendered our ~~souls~~ private data for Google to monetize and in exchange we get protection for those data? Turns out it’s another hook, line and sinker. So I was excited to see that there's a free alternative to Google’s free offering that is not constrained to mere gigabytes of data and yet still have plenty of other functions.

When I say free, I mean using the service. Don’t bash me. You still have to buy a Synology NAS and HDDs that will be used for it. You also will need a good internet connection for upload. I recon 10mbps upload is enough for a few megabytes of data transfer such as downloading pictures from your NAS to your device, over the internet. I’m using 50mbps upload speed and it feels fast even when scrolling through plenty of pictures. So there’s the entry barrier, but once you pass that, limited space is a thing of the past. You can also have your family members / friends / colleagues joining in, as sharing is caring.

When I try out these programs, I approach it as how a typical Google account user would, sign up a user account and just start using the features. No reading up tutorial or study how to get things work. TL:DR, my finding it is indeed the same, simple to use. Download the program, sign in and use away. Only the NAS admin needs to have some knowledge on how to set everything up so that the user can have trouble free experience.

Okay, so on with the guide. I start with the condition that one already has a Synology NAS set up and is using it. If you need some guide on setting up the NAS, can refer my Synology DS920+ Review here.

Synology’s Drive Server and Moments + Creating New User

Now this part is for the NAS admin job, not really technical. Basically just following this guide is enough to setup Drive and create a new user.

First thing to do would be head to Package Center and install Synology Drive Server and Moments.

After that on to Synology Drive Admin Console to change some settings to suit your needs, such as only allow HTTPS for sharing links.

Next, create a new user credential / sign in account. That would be at User Panel > User, then click Create. Here I need to fill in all the necessary information to create a new user. Make sure to remember the name and password as you would need it when access from PC and Android phone. I would advise to create a new user even for your own usage of Drive, leave the admin account for managing NAS only, that would be as an extra security if your Drive account is compromised, your admin account is still secure.

Set the joined group as users

As this account will only be used for accessing Drive and Moments, there’s no need to allow it to access any folders. All the files management will be handled through the Drive app.

For application permission, as this account is purely for Drive and Moments, only allow for these 2 applications and deny all others.

Finish creation. Synology has an overview of all selected settings to confirm before creating the user. If confirming everything is as intended then can click Apply.

If you have other people that will use these suites then you can create each one person their own user account. Each account will then have their own sub-folder in the Homes folder. The Homes folder is where each user’s files will be stored, each with their own sub-folders.

Synology DS920+ Review (4-bays NAS)

xxboxx — Tue, 24 Nov 2020 02:36:23 +0800

NAS

Network. Attached. Storage.

Something that the general consumer has no clear idea what it is about, let alone how to use it. Ironically most of them have already been using Google Drive or Apple iCloud or Microsoft OneDrive for many years and appreciate having it for cloud storage, backup, data sync, sharing, and plenty other more functions. NAS can feel quite overwhelming when first time using it, especially since the very nature of NAS is to have extensive functions that cater to almost every type of needs. The good news is that these days most NAS operating systems have been designed to be more user friendly, 1 click function. You can just use it for basic needs such as storing data, doing backup, and then expand on your usage in future when you discover additional things you can do with NAS. I have been using NAS for years and yet till now I am still just realizing additional functions that can be performed by NAS.

Enough of my rambling, let’s start with the review.

Hardware

An unbleached box with a paper stick in front of it for the model number and some specs greet you when you receive it. Simplistic or eco-friendly is best described for it or cheap is worse description for it. Depends how you view the world.

On the side there’s some info for the NAS size, weight, ports, warranty and also the contents in the box

Finally, the main course. The protagonist. The Mr. Gorgeous. The DS920+ in full black stealth mode. It is actually more compact than what I thought it is from internet picture. It is also very light thanks to it’s compact design and plastic shell. Power button, 1 USB 3.0 port and 5 LED light at the front.

On the back, most of it is occupied by 2 massive fans doing it’s job to suck out all the heat those HDD produce, I would say it’s quite efficient and silent. There’s 2 network ports with 1 Gb/s speed each in here. You can set it as link aggregation to achieve 2 Gb/s speed but I would prefer if 1 or both of the ports is 2.5Gb/s, newer routers these days have started to come with 2.5 Gb/s ports so having port with such speed will make it more future-proof. There’s eSATA port and one more USB port. There's a small hole for poking with a pin to reset the NAS, a small inconvenience to pay for avoiding any accidental reset. It also got Kensington lock, don’t want people to run off with your precious data right. Power port that looks like a PS/2 port, not a fan of it, really hard to guess whether you align it properly when trying to connect the cable without having the DS920+ back facing you.

At the bottom we find 2 slots for M.2 NVME, add one stick of SSD for read cache or add 2 sticks for read and write cache, useful to improve the responsiveness of your frequently read and/or write files, HDD after all has very low IOPS if compared to SSD. Might also help to improve the HDD longevity too. But sadly it can’t be configured to be a storage pool, maybe in future Synology will add it seeing how their other competitors already added the function.

Inside of the NAS, I like how 3 sides of the wall is fully utilised for airflow. 1 side with it’s motherboard so obviously can’t be used for airflow. Even the SATA board have cut-out to improve airflow. Synology have done a really good job here at making sure the HDD can be cooled off properly.

The inside right side is where the empty DDR4 slot houses. You can add RAM to expand the memory from it’s default 4GB, but you can’t remove the existing 4GB RAM as it is soldered on the NAS.

The HDD tray using clip on instead of screw to secure the HDD, it makes mount and unmount HDD more simplified. It also has rubber as a damper between the clip, that should help to minimize vibration.

The installation guide. Compared it to an installation guide from 10 years ago. Lucky we have the internet these days, no more flipping through text book thick guides.

I like how the logo is also used as an air vent to cool down internal components. You can install LED strips on it if want some bling-bling LOL

Kobo E-Book Reader (6.0 inch & 7.8 inch) E-Ink

xxboxx — Sat, 08 Jun 2019 01:51:43 +0800

I noticed there doesn't seem to be any review of e-ink reader in here, apart from the 2 e-reader review that was done in 2011. In LYN Book Club subforum got one thread for Kindle which last post is in 2016. I'm here to give review and thought on these 2 e-readers that I have, the Kobo Aura One 7.8 inch which I purchase more than 2 years ago around RM1100 and Kobo Clara HD 6.0 inch which I purchase few months ago around RM600.

Now, when mentioning e-ink reader most people would only know Kindle, and the better model Paperwhite. I thought about buying it last time too but after reading how hassle it was to sideload ebook and also it support less format I decided to go with Kobo. Last time I also wanted bigger screen than 6 inch for reading manga, that time the choice were Aura One and Kindle Oasis, decided against Oasis because the higher price, only 7 inch screen, and earlier mention hassle. After using for a year I found while 7.8" is great for manga and if you properly seating for reading, it's not great at all for portability and holding with one hand. So I decided to get the 6 inch for purely reading e-book.

The boxes

Aura One and Clara HD side-by-side

Design and build quality
Both devices are made of plastic but you don't feel like it's a cheap device. The build quality is superb, no creaking or flexing on both devices. Both devices only have micro-USB port and power button, there's no physical button for page turning. Aura One have a big blue power button at the back which you can easily find without looking, Clara HD have a small button at bottom which sit flush and that makes it harder to press it, the good point is it's harder to accidentally press it. Still I feel Aura One button placement is much better. Aura One dimension is 195.1 x 138.5 x 6.9 mm while Clara HD is 159.6 x 110 x 8.35 mm. Aura One is certified IPX8-rated water-resistance, up to 60 mins in 2 meters of water, so you can bring it to tub, pool, or even in rain without worrying about damaging the reader. Clara HD unfortunately have no water resistance so you need to be extra careful when near water.

Both have a textured back, it helps to give your finger a better grip on device. With the adequate bezel on the side of the screen both devices can be held with one hand, just Aura One will make the hand tired much earlier. Aura One have flush bezel with screen while Clara HD bezel is not flush with screen. I prefer flush screen as you'll feel the text is directly in front like when you looking at the text in book. With Clara HD bezel there's shadow which make you feel the text is at behind a thick bezel, sort of like old monitor with thick bezel, it kills the immersion. The plus side is the raised up bezel help to avoid the screen from being scratched.

Both is using Freescale SoloLite 1Ghz and storage is 8GB, usable 6.5GB with no support for SD card. There's also Aura One model with 32GB storage. It doesn't have speaker or even bluetooth, so no audio book.

Screen
Aura One screen resolution is 1872x1404 while Clara HD is 1448x1072. Both have same 300ppi which makes the text or image looks very smooth, no jagged edge up close. Both screen have backlight with ComfortLight PRO which help to reduce eyes strain when using on night time, something like night light. Aura One is lit by nine white LEDs and eight RGB LEDs around the frame. The additional RGB LEDs allow the device to have a night reading mode that limits the blue light that comes from white LEDs. Clara HD have eight white LEDs and seven orange LEDs. Reading on e-ink is similar to reading on paper, there's no glare unlike LCD screen which make your eye strain. Even with backlight it does not blast light to your eyes, it just shine light to the screen.

Pardon my photography skill, somehow the photo only sharp at middle while blur for the sides. In actual both screen text looks very nice with it's high ppi. Those with eagle eye will notice there's plastic matte screen protector on Clara HD, this is another issue with e-ink which I'll explain later. In not so bright lighting the screen looks a bit greenish. If at outside with sunlight the screen will look whitish.

With backlight, Aura One give a bit warmer colour while Clara HD more whitish colour. 7.8" is just much better for manga, you can see more details of the drawing.

Backlight at 100% in dark room

Both night light at 100%. Aura One is saturated orange colour (photo come out look like red) while Clara HD more like half saturated yellow colour.
Personally I prefer Aura One night light as I feel less eye strain from it.

Now let's talk about e-ink and screen protector. Obviously like handphone or tablet, the first thing I look for when I got my Aura One is a screen protector. Got myself a clear screen protector as wanted to preserve the screen clarity, especially important for manga. And I remove the screen protector almost immediately after I apply it because it become too much reflective I feel like looking at tablet screen instead. Plus the plastic makes the finger feels swiping on smooth surface (Additional note: both devices actual screen does not feel smooth like glass, it were purposely to be rough like that to mimic the feeling like when swiping on paper). Imagine how much reflective it would be if I have gotten a glass screen protector. With Clara HD since I gonna use it solely for text reading I thought it will have less problem if to put screen protector, I gotten matte protector this time to avoid the screen become reflective. Fortunately the matte screen protector also have the rough texture so it able to preserve the feeling like swiping on paper. Yet it still have issues.

I'm not sure this photo able to show how it looks like when there's light that reflective on the screen. On Aura One without screen protector the reflective light feels like it's on the text and disperse more so it's not too disturbing. On Clara HD the reflective light more concentrated on the screen protector which make the text harder to read and it also create the annoying feel of a layer of screen above the text. The matte properties of the screen protector also make the text look less sharper, it feels like the screen is 720p with the screen protector and 1080p without it. It totally defeat the purpose of having e-ink display and 300ppi sharpness. Maybe I'm just too much OCD on this. In the end I remove the screen protector. Screen protector is like Kryptonite to e-ink display.

Continue next post

[GUIDE] Easy Way to Stream Video on Local Network

xxboxx — Sat, 09 Mar 2019 00:27:25 +0800

These days most people have few devices for media entertainment such handphone, tablet, laptop, computer, and even the TV itself. Except for streaming from the internet, another way would be to setup your own media server so that all devices can stream from it. Some would go with dedicated NAS or DIY NAS using PC parts while some just use their PC or laptops as the server and other device stream from it. What if there is another way where you can use your existing hardware and it is relatively easy to set up? And it uses less electricity too.

The answer is your router. Any router that have USB port and can be setup to be media server can do this. It uses less electricity than NAS or PC and usually your router is running all the time, so this mean your media server too.

On this guide I’ll be using my Asus router, but other router should have similar setting for you to enable it. First you need to have external HDD or thumb drive connected to the router, depending on router you might need to setup or initialize before can use the storage. Best if using USB 3.0 port as it can give faster read speed.

External HDD can give you few hundreds gigabytes or even few terabytes of data, should be enough for hundreds of videos. If you need more storage space you can get 4 or 5 bays drive enclosure such as this:

USB 3.0 5 bay 3.5-inch SATA Hard Drive Enclosure

Some enclosure also has RAID function, it is useful if you want to protect the data from HDD failure. I highly recommend to get enclosure with RAID function as HDD failure is a very common occurrence. Like really really common. So always backup your important data and at least have a copy of your not so important data. There’s also 2 bays 2.5” drive enclosure with RAID-1 function for about RM60 if you have very tight budget for your setup, like this:

2 Bay 2.5 inch SATA HDD USB Raid Enclosure Storage

Now onto the router. On the router setting page, choose USB Application > Media Services and Servers (Setup the UPnP, iTunes, FTP and Network Place (Samba)) (for Asus router, if yours is other brand you might need to do some digging where the setting is)

Enable the UPnP Media Server (your router UPnP should also be enabled). Choose to add specific folders if you only want some folders content to be visible in the media server. My Asus router also can do iTunes server, useful for those that using Apple devices. You should also enable Network Place (Samba) Share so that you can access the HDD from computer or devices that support Samba protocol, essentially turning your storage into NAS on the network so you can copy or delete files from it. Asus router also have Download Master which you can use it for downloading file using http or ftp or even torrent/magnet protocol. So now your router can be the download manager, then act as NAS, and also media server. No wonder PC are dying.

That’s it! Your media server should have started and you can now stream from any device that support it. Usually those media player box support playback from DLNA / Media Server device. Windows also support DLNA/Windows Media Connect, but if you're using Windows might as well use SAMBA as you also can manage the file inside it. Android phone I believe there is player app that support DLNA. For myself I’m streaming from my TVs that's connected to Wi-Fi and use the TV built in player. For video codec support it will depend on the player/device, my 4 years old TV only support up to H.264 codec while my 1 year old TV even support H.265 codec.

Another thing I should mention is if you need subtitle with your video, it is kind of mixed bags. Especially those separate subtitle file. First of all, your player/device must support it. Subtitle support also depends on the device's media server support. My 1 year old TV support .srt, .ass, .ssa but on my router it can only stream the external subtitle together with the video if it’s .srt file, no other format. With my old NAS --which the manufacturer stops giving new firmware like 8 years ago-- even external .srt can’t be streamed together. So, if your router doesn’t have new firmware for quiet some years then it might lack support for even .srt file. If the subtitle is embedded in the video container then my TV can display the subtitle, except for PGS and VOBSUB which my TV doesn’t support it. Another issue that I noticed is my TV will have problem playback video that have too many embedded subtitles, I have one video which got like 20 subtitles embedded in the .mkv video, the video will keep stuttering and artifacts. After using MKVToolNix to remove unneeded subtitles the video can be playback smoothly.

So there you go, cheap and cheerful way to have your mini NAS and media server. No more the need to copy files into thumb drive or external drive then plug into your player, or limiting your video playback on your PC, or wasting electricity by setting your PC to be media server, or using Plex where your PC or NAS need to re-encode the video before streaming it to the player. Now it's simple and just works.

Adata XPG SX8200 Pro 512GB NVME SSD

xxboxx — Tue, 25 Dec 2018 18:34:51 +0800

EDIT: Adata Switches to Slower Controller, NAND on SX8200 Pro
This review does not represent current SX8200 Pro performance anymore after they revised it. I'm sure the current model is still fast, but there will be difference from my review. Original review below:

When it comes to NVME SSD, people always think about Samsung 970 Pro as the best NVME drive. But being the best also means the most expensive. Most seller is selling 512GB drive for almost RM1500. The cheapest I saw is from one seller for RM920. Is there any other drive that can give almost similar performance without paying that much? After reading around I think I found such drive. Enter Adata XPG SX8200 Pro. I bought it for RM440, that’s even less than half price compared to the cheapest seller of 970 Pro. But is it any good?

NVME, 512GB size, M.2 2280 length, PCIe Gen 3x4 SSD

It promises read speed up to 3500MB/s and write speed up to 2300MB/s. Lets find out how it performs.
I’ll compare it to Samsung 850 Evo 250GB SATA SSD and Western Digital 3TB HDD. Both is connected on SATA 3 (6Gb/s speed)

First test is Crystal DiskMark. For 970 Pro benchmark result I taken from guru3D review (https://www.guru3d.com/articles-pages/samsung-970-pro-m-2-512gb-nvme-ssd-review.html)
Although my system used is different then theirs, the result I believe should be not much different.

Samsung 970 Pro 512GB

Adata XPG SX8200 Pro 512GB

Samsung 850 Evo 250GB

Western Digital 3TB

From these results can see that 970 Pro faster by 200MB/s on sequential read than SX8200 Pro, that’s translate to about 6%. Sequential write speed almost similar on both. 4KBQ8T8 read is similar while write sees 970 Pro faster 334MB/s, which about 24%. 4KBQ32T1 show 970 Pro faster on read and write by about 74% and 66%. 4KBQ1T1 is almost similar on both drive.

SX8200 Pro is faster on everything compared to 850 Evo. Limitation of SATA speed is apparent when it’s about sequential read and write. SX8200 Pro tops read speed by 6 times! Write speed is a bit more modest 4.3 times faster. 4KBQ32T1 test show SX8200 Pro faster by 21% on read and 19% on write. SX8200 Pro able to double the speed on both read and write for 4KBQ1T1.

As for HDD, well it’s really not a competitor at all to any of the drive. The sole reason for continue using HDD will be it’s the cheapest for GB per Ringgit ratio.

Next benchmark would be on AS SSD program.

Samsung 970 Pro 512GB

Adata XPG SX8200 Pro 512GB

Samsung 850 Evo 250GB

Western Digital 3TB

In this benchmark SX8200 Pro shows that it can also give back punches to 970 Pro. Sequential read for 970 Pro only faster by 3% while for write SX8200 Pro is faster by about 6%. For 4K read SX8200 Pro marginally faster by 5% but write sees 970 Pro pull ahead by 24%. 4K-64Thrd write 970 Pro again pull ahead by 13%. Overall score gives 970 Pro a lead by only 3%.

Compared to 850 Evo, SX8200 Pro shows again it’s faster on everything. 4K test shows the smallest difference but even that SX8200 Pro tops by 57% read and 65% write.