2.5 Admins

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Technology

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Episodes

308

Latest episode

Jul 2026

Language

EN-US

About the show

2.5 Admins is a podcast featuring two sysadmins called Allan Jude and Jim Salter, and a producer/editor who can just about configure a Samba share called Joe Ressington. Every week we get together, talk about recent tech news, and answer some of your admin-related questions.

Listen to episodes

60 recent

July 23, 202624 min

2.5 Admins 309: Orbital Sauron

A new HTTP caching standard looks promising but might struggle to get adopted, a terrible space mirror idea is actually happening, cars will spy on us all, and picking a VPN for use with an IP that doesn’t change very often.   Plug Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with some early episodes   News/discussion HTTP gets a QUERY method so complex searches can stop pretending to be POST FCC grants approval for sun-reflecting space mirror that’s been widely criticized by astronomers Feels like all of us need to pay way more attention to the new rules affecting EU and US folk, requiring all new cars to include a driver monitoring camera aimed at your face   Free consulting We were asked about picking a VPN for use with an IP that doesn’t change very often.                 See our contact page for ways to get in touch.  

July 16, 202627 min

2.5 Admins 308: Sloppy Shims

Microsoft really wants your Windows settings data, secure boot has been useless for a decade, our thoughts on (the idea of) Incus and IncusOS, and configuring ZFS for a Lightning Memory Mapped Database.   Plugs Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with some early episodes Jails, Not Containers: FreeBSD Isolation Done Right   News/discussion Microsoft flips Windows Backup to on by default unless you’re in the EU Microsoft’s Secure Boot has been broken for a decade and no one noticed until now IncusOS Incus   Free consulting We were asked about configuring ZFS for a Lightning Memory Mapped Database.                 See our contact page for ways to get in touch.  

July 9, 202626 min

2.5 Admins 307: One Big Pool

Follow-up on rebooting to update, portable power stations, glass storage, and objective news sources. Plus whether to use one ZFS pool per vdev, or just one large pool.   Plugs Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with some early episodes Native inotify in FreeBSD   Feedback Anker SOLIX EV Charger Adapter (For F3000, J1722 only) EcoFlow EV Charger to Portable Power Station Adaptor (SAE J1772 to 5P8 Port, 50A) WattCycle First-to-Market: WattLINK – EcoFlow Delta 2/3 Series PPS E     Free consulting We were asked about whether to use one ZFS pool per vdev, or just one large pool.                 See our contact page for ways to get in touch.  

July 2, 202628 min

2.5 Admins 306: WiFi Cable

Why setting up commercial email and VPN services is incredibly hard, avoiding TrueNAS’s move from FreeBSD to Linux, why we avoid virtualising storage systems, and bridging WiFi to an external building.   Plugs Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with some early episodes Using Object Storage with OpenZFS and SeaweedFS   Discussion Jeff Moss explains why setting up private email and VPN services are so difficult   Feedback XigmaNAS   Free consulting We were asked about bridging WiFi to an external building. Point-to-point Wi-Fi bridging between buildings—the cheap and easy way                 See our contact page for ways to get in touch.  

June 25, 20267 min

2.5 Admins 305: Short Two

The one tool in our IT tool belt that we value the most. This is a short episode because Joe is having a summer break.                 See our contact page for ways to get in touch.  

June 18, 202630 min

2.5 Admins 304: Wiring a House

Wiring up a house for networking including cables, access points, connectors, and racks. Plus Google is found liable for what its AI overviews say.   Plugs Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with some early episodes Managing Cache and DirectIO for Databases on ZFS Webinar: June 30th @ 11am EDT: FreeBSD After Hours AMA   News/discussion Landmark German ruling declares Google’s AI Overviews are Google’s own words and makes it liable for false answers   Free consulting We were asked about wiring up a house for access points etc. Jim’s guide to Wi-Fi AP placement Monoprice 24-port Cat5e Patch Panel                   See our contact page for ways to get in touch.  

June 11, 202629 min

2.5 Admins 303: Denial of Secrets

People were locked out of their password managers to stop a brute force attack, Coreutils come to Windows, a FreeBSD PR effort backfires, and the best simple consumer WiFi gear.   Plugs Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with some early episodes Why ZFS Is the Ideal Filesystem for Multi-User/Department Media Production Webinar: June 30th @ 11am EDT: FreeBSD After Hours AMA   News/discussion Password manager Dashlane suspends customer accounts amid brute-force attacks Microsoft Announces Coreutils For Windows: Derived From Rust Coreutils Coreutils for Windows FreeBSD Foundation Executive Director Tries Daily Driving FreeBSD On Laptop   Free consulting We were asked about the best simple consumer WiFi gear.                 See our contact page for ways to get in touch.  

June 4, 202632 min

2.5 Admins 302: ClawPilot

Microsoft threatens a security researcher for disclosing vulnerabilities publicly, bricks old versions of Office, and announces their version of OpenClaw. Plus keeping up with the latest technology.   Plugs Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with some early episodes Which ZFS Storage Metrics Matter for Database Performance Webinar: June 25th @ 11am EDT: Understanding AnyRAID with Jon from HexOS   News/discussion Microsoft under fire for threatening security researcher with criminal investigation The researcher is a former MS employee says Krebs Microsoft reaches for olive branch after public dustup with 0-day researcher Microsoft is intentionally bricking all Office for Mac 2019/2021 installations Introducing Microsoft Scout: Your always-on personal agent   Free consulting We were asked about keeping up with the latest technology.                 See our contact page for ways to get in touch.  

May 28, 202629 min

2.5 Admins 301: F(OSS) Consulting

It looks like Bitlocker had a back door in it, how a listener accidentally broke Gitea for users of the snap version, Google accidentally published an unpatched exploit for Chromium-based browsers, why people are starting to ditch Bitwarden, and moving a tech stack away from large corporations.   Plugs Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with some early episodes How Klara and TrueNAS fixed ZFS’s longest standing limitation Webinar: June 25th @ 11am EDT: Understanding AnyRAID with Jon from HexOS   News/discussion YellowKey Bitlocker Bypass Vulnerability Microsoft shares mitigation for YellowKey Windows zero-day How I Broke Gitea for Everyone Google publishes exploit code threatening millions of Chromium users The Quiet Renovation at Bitwarden   Free consulting We were asked about moving a tech stack away from large corporations.                 See our contact page for ways to get in touch.  

May 21, 202628 min

2.5 Admins 300: IPvWot?

Why a proposal for an alternative to IPv6 is unlikely to be viable, Microsoft really doesn’t want you to run Exchange Server on-prem, Google will finally stop being a proper search engine, setting up an email server for internal use, and mitigating DDoS attacks without Cloudflare.   Plugs Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with some early episodes Tuning ZFS for Databases Webinar: May 27th at 11am EDT: Database Performance on ZFS with Tom Lawrence   News/discussion Veteran network architect proposes IPv8 – to improve IPv4, not leapfrog v6 Exchange Server zero-day vulnerability can be triggered by opening a malicious email Google Search as you know it is over   Free consulting We were asked about setting up an email server for internal use, and mitigating DDoS attacks without Cloudflare.                 See our contact page for ways to get in touch.  