Brandon's Tech Blog

Systems engineer, homelab enthusiast, and self-hosting advocate. I write about virtualization, networking, and the hardware choices that actually matter when you're building infrastructure that needs to just work.

January 28, 2026

Reviving a 'Non-Updatable' Intel X550-T2 NIC (Silicom / Lenovo Variant)

How to update firmware on OEM Intel X550 NICs (Silicom/Lenovo) that show 'No config file entry' using Lenovo's older updater and config editing.

January 28, 2026

Why Proxmox Rocks

Proxmox VE has grown into an incredibly capable platform. From Docker container support to PCI passthrough, it abstracts commodity hardware beautifully.

January 27, 2026

Running OPNsense as a Home Firewall

My experience moving from Smoothwall and consumer routers to OPNsense, with notes on hardware and features.

January 26, 2026

MediaTek vs Qualcomm WiFi: Why Your IoT Devices Keep Disconnecting

Not all WiFi chips are created equal. After years of frustration, I finally figured out why my IoT devices prefer Qualcomm over MediaTek.