2.5 Admins

Hosted by The Late Night Linux Family

Technology

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Episodes

312

Latest episode

Aug 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

August 20, 202627 min

2.5 Admins 313: Cooking with NVMe

Microsoft claims that Windows 11 will work well with 8GB of RAM, some of the innovations coming to high end SSDs, the arguments for TP-Link Omada over Ubiquiti UniFi. Plugs Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with some early episodes FreeBSD Support: Greatest Hits Discussion Microsoft says 8 GB of RAM should be enough for anyone running Windows 11 Windows quality: an update on the commitment we made in March Free consulting We were asked about the arguments for TP-Link Omada over Ubiquiti UniFi. See our contact page for ways to get in touch.

August 13, 202626 min

2.5 Admins 312: Bus Factor

In a world where photos can no longer be trusted, Jim argues that we should move to a default distrust model where images are signed at every stage of the process of creation. We get into some of the potential issues. Plus how to ensure continuity for your clients in the event of your demise, and setting up a system to demonstrate ZFS replication capabilities. Plugs Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with some early episodes Piss up at The Shipwrights Arms (just next to London Bridge station) on Saturday 5th September from 5pm until late Discussion Google Earth risked ruin with retracted AI tool for making fake satellite pics Apple is working on a way to authenticate that a photo came from an iPhone camera Free consulting We were asked about how to ensure continuity for your clients in the event of your demise, and setting up a system to demonstrate ZFS replication capabilities. See our contact page for ways to get in touch.

August 6, 202628 min

2.5 Admins 311: Couch Cushions

Microsoft restored an account including files that it initially claimed wasn’t possible, Apple might lock down phones if people don’t keep up their lease payments, ZFS scrubs shouldn’t be painful, and accessing another network from a locked-down work machine. Plugs Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with some early episodes ZFS vs Ceph: Do You Actually Need Ceph? News/discussion Microsoft restores player’s 25-year-old account following widespread backlash iOS 27 code suggests Apple could restrict leased devices after missed payments If Scrubs Hurt, Your ZFS Design Is Broken Free consulting We were asked about accessing another network from a locked-down work machine. Teleport Community Apache Guacamole® Linux After Dark – Episode 120 See our contact page for ways to get in touch.

July 30, 202629 min

2.5 Admins 310: GPLFreeBSD

Google wants you to use a selfie video for account recovery, LG will stop apps turning their smart TVs into residential proxy nodes, we disagree about how serious OpenAI’s agent hacking Hugging Face is, FreeBSD removes the last bits of GPL software and suffers an embarrassing git flub , and backing up to an encrypted NAS without ZFS. Plug Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with some early episodes News/discussion Introducing selfie for sign-in: a new, easy way to access your Google Account LG to Ban Residential Proxies from Smart TV Apps OpenAI says its AI agent broke out of testing sandbox to hack Hugging Face FreeBSD 16 Retires The Last Of Its GPL Code From Its Base System Ports Repository Freeze Free consulting We were asked about backing up to an encrypted NAS without ZFS. See our contact page for ways to get in touch.

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.