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Brewing Bytes and Beans covers cybersecurity, networking, self-hosting, Docker, homelabs, troubleshooting, and the occasional technology-induced existential crisis.
Pick a topic below, grab a coffee, and start exploring.
š Cybersecurity
Security vulnerabilities, breaches, authentication, defensive security, privacy, threat analysis and lessons learned from attackers doing things we'd really prefer they didn't.
I try to go beyond simply repeating security news by looking at why something matters, how it works, and what defenders can actually do about it.
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š Networking
Switches, routers, firewalls, VLANs, VPNs, SD-WAN, DNS, packet captures and the mysterious situations where:
"The network is down."
actually means:
"This one application isn't working."
Networking articles include troubleshooting, configuration, architecture and practical lessons from working with real infrastructure.
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š³ Docker & Containers
Docker is fantastic right up until a container exits with code 1 and provides an error message apparently written as a personal challenge.
Here you'll find Docker Compose examples, container troubleshooting, networking, storage, application deployments and self-hosted projects.
Explore Docker ā
š„ļø Systems & Troubleshooting
Sometimes the most useful technical article isn't about installing something.
It's about fixing it.
This section includes troubleshooting stories, strange errors, broken updates, configuration problems and the solutions that eventually worked.
If I spent three hours figuring something out that should have taken ten minutes, there's a good chance I'll write about it so you don't have to.
Explore Troubleshooting ā
š”ļø Privacy & Security
Privacy, account security, authentication, data collection and the increasingly complicated relationship between modern technology and the information we hand over to it.
Expect practical advice rather than recommendations involving moving into the woods and communicating exclusively by carrier pigeon.
Explore Privacy ā
ā Coffee Break
Technology doesn't always need to be serious.
Coffee Break posts are where cybersecurity, sysadmin life, technology, humour and caffeine collide.
Because sometimes after spending four hours troubleshooting DNS, all you can really do is make another coffee and laugh about it.
Explore Coffee ā
Start Exploring
New articles are added as I experiment with technology, troubleshoot problems, work through cybersecurity topics and discover new ways for computers to behave incorrectly.
You can also check out the Resources page for tools, projects and communities I recommend.
And if you've landed here because you're troubleshooting something specific, there's a decent chance I broke it before you did.
Welcome to Brewing Bytes and Beans.
Brew a Byte and Code a Bean! āš»