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Hello

I'm a network technician in training and I need your help.
I am currently learning how to create and manage the different types of VPNs and I have a question about LAN-to-LAN VPNs.
The last exercise I practiced was to create a LAN-to-LAN VPN between two Pfsense firewalls, by using IPSEC protocols.
I succeeded, with both firewalls in the same network. But I'm wondering if it's possible to do the same thing, with 2 Pfsense firewalls in two different networks.
Can anyone tell me if it's possible and, if so, give me some advice on how to set up this VPN?
Thanks in advance ^^

P.S : i'm french, so my english can be a little bit clumsy.

Network level? My answer would be a VPN.

HTTPS and DNS? Why not use the Brave browser then?

Too much to type about that here so read how to set up at https://www.reddit.com/r/brave_browser/comments/ucx1jp/most_secure_dns/

Then again, why aren't you using a VPN and calling it a day?

Why either? https://www.reddit.com/r/eero/comments/tv39ig/eero_secure_vs_nextdns/ kicks it around and I can't see why to use either.

I been using Eero+ but recently switched to NextDNS. I selected several blocklists. Which is better to use, Eero+ or NextDNS? I know there’s a price difference. I don’t need parental controls.

Right click on taskbar and select taskbar settings. If you want the icon to show then turn copilot preview on. Or you can use the hotkey WINDOWS+C. Copilot should appear docked to the right of the screen..

Hi friends, I recently updated Windows to get the Microsoft Copilot. But the Copilot does not show up. First I thought after updating Windows, the copilot feature would show up. But cant. Could anyone please help to get the Copilot feature on my PC? Any help would be highly appreciated.
Thanks

We are working on upgrading our Alteryx application as well as the MongoDB version.

We have created a non-production environment to test the upgrade. Since the non-production environment is new, and Alteryx and MongoDB have just been installed to it, it has no existing data yet.

We tried to migrate our prod MongoDB data into the non-prod MongoDB so we could perform testing.

The scheduled workflows are being triggered, however, we don’t see the workflows on the Alteryx Gallery. We’re expecting that the non-prod would be a replica of the prod with the data being imported to it.

clipgrab

Hello everyone, can you recommend a resource for downloading videos from YouTube? I will be very grateful

Network hiccup, paper jam, or driver glitch - troubleshooting the shared printer quandary demands patience, tech-savvy finesse, and perhaps a dash of printer exorcism.

Sounds like you got it all squared away. One reason I don't want to ever do a Windows reinstall is the compilers, libraries, and other software configurations. I've done 1 since 2015 for myself, with Windows 10. I also expect since, NAND flash SSDs wear out, it'll happen sooner or later. Only 37% life of drive remaining. Best of luck!

I called Best Buy Friday morning to ask about the status of my laptop. I was told the average wait time was one minute. Fifteen minutes later I was told there were eight calls ahead of me and would I like to leave my number for a callback. I did so and after two more hours of waiting I called the local Best Buy direct. I was told my laptop would be ready within the hour. I was told that as per my instructions (reset to factory must work) they were doing a final test.

At two o'clock I went down. I was shown a laptop with Windows running. I told the guy that I had to see him reset to factory in front of me. He did so by going through Windows Settings. I had already explained to him (I dealt with the same guy through the whole process) that I have to be able to do a basic reset in the event that Windows won't boot. I had to go to another machine to look up the instructions and show him. He had wanted to do F2-power up which gets you into the UEFI/BIOS.

So finally he did F12-power up which presented the reset-to-factory option. Once it cycled through and got to the Windows config I gave him the thumbs up. Before I left he said "I didn't realize what you meant by factory reset".

Sigh.

So back home to finish the Windows setup and do the (seemingly) …

I always disable it as well. That's yet another thing I have to remember to undo when I get it back.

I'm assuming the drive wasn't bitlockered?

Nope, I don't use that feature. In my opinion, it's equivalent to using ransomware on your own stuff.

I too, have used Linux live bootable CD's to get files off a broken Windows.

I'm assuming the drive wasn't bitlockered?

rproffitt commented: BTW, recovery drive failed me so many times that I carry no less than 2 bootable Linux sticks in my PC rescue bag.

I've seen in the past failures due to having more than 1 drive installed. Disconnect all other drives and devices. I too, have used Linux live bootable CD's to get files off a broken Windows. It was way quicker instead of trying to repair.

Ever had to install Windows from 39 floppy disks? It was not fun, especially when disk 39 frequently had a read error.

Not that many, I still have them. Highest was 6 for booting, so I could read a CD. I wrote on them, "BAD" if ever had that problem.

I actually tried this as well, running diskpart.exe. It couldn't see the SSD either.

While, in theory, all those tools should help you, seeing it in the BIOS is the first place it should be visible.

This I cannot do as I do not have the tools, the knowledge, or the desire to create a pre-install boot environment.

Atleast, take a USB drive and create a recovery USB with the Windows Create a recovery drive. You can still get corrupted user profiles. All your toubleshooting needs otherwise, can be found here.

rproffitt commented: I don't expect consumers to be able to do all that.

I once told the CEO of a company, it was better to buy a new computer than go through the steps and trouble of replacing the hdd, & reinstalling Windows on a dated machine. 600mhz. I later took it home as a gift, and did it myself. The manager enjoyed his fast, responsive, trouble-free computer. I still have that old PC. It really taught people patience back then.

I consider them all bloatware

Something I may try on this laptop (old ASUS K53E) once I get my other one back is a fresh install from USB but selecting "World" as my region. I read somewhere a while back that if you select any specific region, bloatware for that region gets installed, but if you pick World then no bloatware. You just have to remember to set the correct region after setup.

Create a new recovery partition for the current Windows

This I cannot do as I do not have the tools, the knowledge, or the desire to create a pre-install boot environment. We had IT people at the office who specialized in that but it's not something I care to waste my time learning to do since I would likely never use that knowledge again. And at this point I'm probably losing skills faster than I acquire new ones ;-)

Allocating enough space for the partitions can help prevent running into problems.

I've seen advice like this before but typically there is no advice on how to determine how much space is enough. Fortunately, I have determined over the years how big my C partition should be to allow for extra apps. And there is always EaseUS if partitions need to be resized.

Booting from a USB or external DVD, will let you use the Command prompt.

I actually tried this as well, running diskpart.exe. It couldn't see the SSD …

I wouldn't worry about not having any ASUS utilities. You can always download them later, here. I consider them all bloatware.

Having the partition as an MBR and then installing a Windows image as GPT, is like going to replace your spare tire and finding out it has a different lug nut bolt pattern on the rim. No recovery partition is going to work from a previous Windows installation. Delete all and start over. Create a new recovery partition for the current Windows. Install all your updates, and create a system restore point, then an image. Allocating enough space for the partitions can help prevent running into problems.

When you to go to Troubleshoot this PC, and it gives you more options. They likely just hit Automatic Repair, and it rebooted. Booting from a USB or external DVD, will let you use the Command prompt. Here, you can delete partitions, repair, convert, or even rebuild your MBR. Useful tools are diskpart, reagentc, and bootrec. Accessing Reset to factory is under Settings -> Recovery.

Event Viewer might be able to give you some insight, what might be causing troubles, for future problems. Test your recovery partition or drive, system restore, system image, and factory reset, after they are all setup, to confirm they worked in the first place.

I have many TBs of data, dating back to the 90's. My least favorite backup was burning a DVD on 4x or 8x and …

At some point you are stuck with a clean install

I'm using my father-in-law's old laptop in the interim. When I inherited it I took out the old drive and put in a spare SSD. I didn't bother restoring the diagnostic or recovery partitions. It's quite peppy now. It's also an ASUS, but purchased before they started making crap. At some point, though, I'm going to have to open it up and clean all the cookie crumbs out of the keyboard. Not gonna happen until I get a working machine back from Best Buy. I already have a Dell picked out if it comes back still broken.

Got a call from Best Buy at 6:30 pm the same day. He informed me that the Windows system that the tech installed was not the OEM version for my machine. I asked why this should matter since I requested a reset to factory from the recovery partition. He said they couldn't do that because the recovery partition had been corrupted. So that's two things they didn't test before returning it. It also verifies that they didn't even try reset-to-factory or they would have noticed a problem.

Also, by not using the correct OEM version my laptop was likely missing custom ASUS utilities. I wonder if the diagnostic partition is also fubar.

Sounds like a very bad recovery image

Possibly. But why didn't this show up when they did the reset prior to returning the laptop?

Imagine that you just bought a car (should be pretty easy for you). You and your wife take a drive in the countryside and at some point you drive over a nail and get a flat tire. No problem because you have a spare. But when you take out the spare you find that it is damaged and cannot be driven on. That's the situation I am in, except there is no way to examine the partition to see if it works. The only way is to try it out by wiping the exiting system.

So either they didn't do that in the lab (a test I explicitly requested), or something else failed between the lab and my local Best Buy. So either the lab tech was sloppy or the laptop is shit.

I got a call from Best Buy this morning to tell me my laptop was back. When I got to the counter I told the tech that I would not accept it until they showed me that it could be reset to factory. I'll leave out a few of the details that don't matter to the tale.

He powered up the laptop and showed me Windows 11. The touchpad was working. He went into settings and selected the reset option. After the usual restoring delay it finally reboot and displayed the screen that allowed me to pick a default keyboard, then the screen that gives me two options:

Troubleshoot this PC
Shut down

Neither of which is supposed to be shown on a reset to factory. He selected Troubleshoot, then something else (quickly) on the next screen and eventually Windows came back up with "Jim" as the user. I explained that this was not a factory reset, as a factory reset would not know my name. He said that he had put my name in when he did the reset before I got there.

I explained that this is not a factory reset. A factory reset would boot from the recovery partition and wipe/restore everything. When he tried the actual factory reset (shift/power) it failed to boot into the recovery partition.

It is being sent back to Toronto with the promise that if it fails to reset (in front of me) when it returns then they will refund my money.

I've just acquired a Dell laptop, it seems to hate Linux! Touch pad doesn't work properly, Wireless won't connect and it's sooo slow! Works fine with Windows!

Likewise...

Whenever I reinstall Windows, other than the times I've reset to factory, when it gets to the "where do you want to install to" I always get the installer to delete, then recreate the partition.

"I allocated a C partition and formatted as NTFS then boot back into my Windows 11 install USB."

That can derail the usual Windows install. On today's PCs I start off with a blank, no partition drive, boot the Windows USB stick and once in a while need to add the Intel RST storage driver.

I maintain that Microsoft should update their installer to include this and to present reasons why it can't install to a drive with a single NTFS partition. Look at working systems and you find a lot of partitions other than the C drive.

When I got it back they had replaced both the motherboard and the power supply and I checked in the store to verify there were no power issues. I suspect you are correct about them not reconnecting the touchpad as that was not working in Linux either. As for GPT vs NTFS, I have never formatted to anything but NTFS, and when I originally got the laptop everything was formatted NTFS so if they changed that then bad on them. I will make sure to check that at Best Buy before I take it home when they get it back. I think I will boot from my imaging USB and do a complete drive image before I try anything else.

RE BIOS, it's been years since I had any reason to go into the BIOS. I'm assuming, since it is a very new model, that it uses UEFI. I have five laptops (I never throw anything out that still works) and only the oldest, Dell Latitude, uses legacy as far as I know.

When I first got it in December 2022 I ran through the initial setup. All I had to do to connect to wifi was select my connection and enter my password. I can't see why that would change. Hwever, the replacement was done by Best Buy, not by ASUS so who knows what checklist they use.

If the power connector was replaced with the motherboard, then your charging cord is suspect. If they setup your PC with Windows 11, there's a good chance a GPT partition was used instead of NTFS (outdated). Imaging back to this would fail. Always check in your BIOS to see if your drives shows up there. If you're setup in UEFI mode, instead of Legacy (& vise versa), I can see that causing you troubles. You'll have to setup your WiFi again, even if you have to use an ethernet cable. From the sound of it, I wouldn't doubt they forgot to reconnect the touch pad.

Rahul, do you mean a mobile app for iPhone or Android? Wordpress can build some incredibly powerful web apps.