2.5 Admins 271: Dead Internet

2.5 Admins 271: Dead Internet

Author: The Late Night Linux Family October 30, 2025 Duration: 27:54

Why you should keep your Baseboard Management Controller off the network, ZFS is hard to defeat with a zip bomb, how bad the Internet bot problem probably is, and building a small home server cluster.

 

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Discussion

Supermicro server motherboards can be infected with unremovable malware

When a decompression ZIP bomb meets ZFS: 19 PB written on a 15 TB disk

 

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We were asked about building a small home server cluster.

 

 

 

 

 

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Ever wondered what happens when two seasoned system administrators and a producer who knows just enough to be dangerous get together for a weekly chat? That’s the premise behind 2.5 Admins, a refreshingly honest tech podcast from The Late Night Linux Family. Hosts Allan Jude and Jim Salter bring their deep, real-world expertise to the table, while Joe Ressington-the “0.5” who can configure a Samba share on a good day-keeps the conversation grounded and relatable. Each episode feels like eavesdropping on a lively breakroom discussion, where the latest headlines in technology are dissected not with sterile analysis, but with the practical, sometimes weary perspective of people who keep the digital lights on. You’ll hear them tackle listener-submitted admin questions, offering solutions that are tried and tested rather than purely theoretical. This isn’t about hype or buzzwords; it’s about the tools, headaches, and occasional triumphs that define life in IT. The chemistry between the hosts makes complex topics accessible, and the blend of professional insight with Joe’s every-user viewpoint creates a uniquely balanced listen. If you’re looking for a tech podcast that feels like talking shop with knowledgeable friends, this is it.
Author: Language: en-us Episodes: 100

2.5 Admins
Podcast Episodes
2.5 Admins 276: Very Prudish Network [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 26:16
What a government crackdown on VPNs would look like, malware groups play the long game with browser extensions, a new major version of FreeBSD is released, and using a single database vs one DB per application or VM. Plu…
2.5 Admins 275: G-word [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 25:51
Google kept collecting sensor data even after bricking Nest thermostats, FreeBSD’s container support gets serious, and where to find cheap (or even dirt cheap) used hardware. Plugs Support us on patreon and get an ad-fre…
2.5 Admins 274: Go Go Gadget Windows [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 27:15
Windows is becoming an “agentic OS”, some WD SMR drives are dying prematurely, backing up VMware with ZFS, and separating trusted and non-trusted devices on your network. Plugs Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RS…
2.5 Admins 273: Reliability Tracking [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 25:58
Allan tells us about the recent OpenZFS Summit including inconsistent JBODs, more details about mixed disk sizes in ZFS with AnyRaid, an upcoming standard that allows you to keep using partially dead hard drives, Seagate…
2.5 Admins 272: NVMe Surprise [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 24:34
Why you should seriously consider buying refurbished hard drives, why drives might be lasting longer than they once did, Jim’s M.2 NVMe drive died at an inopportune moment, using multiple partitions on disks with ZFS. Pl…
2.5 Admins 270: Storage Shortage [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 27:46
It looks like the storage companies aren’t betting on the AI bubble lasting much longer, the arguments against self-hosting, and setting up a server for virtualization and containers. Plugs Support us on patreon and get…
2.5 Admins 269: End of 10? [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 25:27
Windows 10 is officially end of life but Microsoft extends free updates for Windows 10 in Europe, it gets even harder to use a local account in Windows 11, and whether repurposing old server hardware is worth it. Plugs S…
2.5 Admins 268: The Salter Philosophy [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 23:27
A Red Hat breach leads to a leak of lots of sensitive customer data, Synology backs down on allowing third-party drives but they are removing features, and managing ZFS properties during replication. Plugs Support us on…
2.5 Admins 267: Hoarding Cache [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 26:11
The weird errors you see when your root partition is full, TikTok uses a lot of bandwidth by preloading videos, and dealing with a ZFS pool that won’t import. Plugs Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with…
2.5 Admins 266: Jiggawatts of Hallucinations [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 31:17
Intel and Nvidia are teaming up for multiple reasons, Open AI are planning to build data centers and use a ludicrous amount of power, LLM hallucinations aren’t going away, and how long we keep servers and hard drives in…