Firewalls & Security
OPNsense, VPNs, stateful inspection, encryption
21 episodes
#3883: Inside OPNsense Tunables: Kernel Variables Explained
What OPNsense tunables actually do, how they work under the hood, and when to touch them.
#3804: Stateful Firewalls vs. Modern Threats
Is a basic firewall still enough in 2026? We break down what each security layer actually catches—and misses.
#2840: How Long Must a Password Actually Be?
The surprising math behind how long your password needs to be to survive a brute-force attack.
#2835: Why Can't I Trust My Own Computer?
Why services keep asking you to sign in—and what it would take to fix it.
#2834: The Deep Ocean Trench of Authentication
PIN + smart card + biometric + behavioral checks. The real security stack behind federal authentication.
#2831: What VPNs Still Protect After HTTPS
HTTPS encrypts your content but leaves your metadata exposed. Here's what a VPN still protects.
#2827: Why People Still Pay for SSL Certificates
Free DV certificates are everywhere, yet paid SSL still thrives. Here’s what commercial CAs actually provide that free ones don’t.
#2817: How to Add Marketing Email Without Breaking Gmail
Keep your Gmail working while adding SendGrid or Resend. The subdomain trick saves your inbox.
#2815: Free Cloudflare WAF: Is It Enough for Self-Hosting?
Skip Cloudflare Access and lock down Home Assistant with just the free WAF rules. Here's how.
#2679: Can a VPN Protect You from SS7 Phone Spying?
SS7 is the hidden backbone of global phone networks—and it's wide open to spies. Here's what a VPN does and doesn't fix.
#2508: Why CORS Doesn't Protect Your Server
Why browsers block cross-origin requests, how CORS actually works, and the common pitfalls that trip up developers.
#2481: How to Ask Cloud Vendors About Security (Without Sounding Clueless)
What to ask cloud vendors about security practices — and the technical red flags that actually matter.
#2319: The Rise of the Dodgy Box: Streaming Piracy’s New Era
How the dodgy box became the go-to device for streaming piracy, and why authorities are cracking down now.
#2292: Inside the Walled Garden: China's Parallel Internet
Explore China’s parallel internet ecosystem—how the Great Firewall works, the apps that dominate it, and the surprising innovations it fosters.
#2226: When Quantum Breaks Everything
Quantum computers will shatter RSA and elliptic-curve encryption—but the real danger is data being stolen and stored right now, waiting to be decry...
#2104: The Envelope Problem: Why Your VPN Isn't Enough
A VPN isn't magic. Learn how DNS and SNI leaks expose your browsing, and what encrypted DNS and ECH actually do to fix it.
#2103: AI Firewalls: Spotting Bombs on an Encrypted Conveyor Belt
With 95% of web traffic encrypted, firewalls can't read packets. Here's how AI analyzes metadata to detect threats without decryption.
#2097: The Invisible Cloak: Frequency Hopping and Burst Transmission
Forget just encrypting data—learn why hopping frequencies and bursting signals are the real secrets to staying invisible and alive.
#1908: The Web's New Bouncer: When to Block AI Bots
AI bots are crawling the web like a bank heist. Are Cloudflare's new controls protecting your content, or just helping Google?
#1872: The Pinky Promise That Broke Email
SMTP is broken. DMARC is the fix. Learn why your emails might vanish after April 2026 and how to stop domain spoofing.
#1697: Automated Security for Solo Developers
Stop shipping secrets and PII to GitHub. Here's how pre-commit hooks automate security for solo developers.