iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

PhoenixNet-Labs @phoenixnet-labs.com · 10/09/2026

Finally racked this up last weekend! Goodbye UniFi! Hello BGP! (soon™️)

PhoenixNet-Labs @phoenixnet-labs.com · 13/08/2026

Lastly, we can also generate reports and send them to our community Discord, this is the beginning of our push towards transparency. In the coming weeks, we hope to have a public browsable portal or website we can provide to give a detailed report for each month.

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PhoenixNet-Labs @phoenixnet-labs.com · 13/08/2026

Kipper also allows us to generate invoices, and email them to clients, following a standard invoice format, and allows us to attach payment links. (These screenshots are from internal testing, and don't fully represent our final product)

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PhoenixNet-Labs @phoenixnet-labs.com · 13/08/2026

Kipper helps us visualize our incoming, and outgoing finances, including debts and owner contributions. This makes it easier to build a picture of how much we're spending in correlation to how much is being invested and or brought in as income.

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PhoenixNet-Labs @phoenixnet-labs.com · 13/08/2026

Ultimately, we wanted something like OpenCollective, where we can lay out our spending, income, and other upcoming expenses in a clear visual format without frustrating fees, and paywalled features. Our tool is named "Kipper" but in short, we just call it "Kip"

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PhoenixNet-Labs @phoenixnet-labs.com · 13/08/2026

This has been something we've been wanting to do for a long time now, but PhoenixNet-Labs now offers transparency on our financials. After much debate on which platform to use, testing with different vendors we decided to go in-house and build our "dream product" that covers everything we want.

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PhoenixNet-Labs @phoenixnet-labs.com · 05/08/2026

Just a little sneak peak at what I’ve been working on lately… This network is about to get FAST 👀

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PhoenixNet-Labs @phoenixnet-labs.com · 04/08/2026

With this comes alot of concerns that I did my best to address: Malformed packets are mitigated by using checks to verify the user is allowed to claim the email address in question. Aliases and email addresses both are checked against a blacklist. Overall, I'm rather happy with how it turned out!

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PhoenixNet-Labs @phoenixnet-labs.com · 04/08/2026

I've been working really hard on moving our users over to OIDC this past week, and one of the major things we've been struggling with is integrating OIDC with our mail provider! Using MXRoute's API, I put together a panel that allows our users to login using OIDC and link / create an email address!

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PhoenixNet-Labs @phoenixnet-labs.com · 23/07/2026

Working on something exciting! 👀

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PhoenixNet-Labs @phoenixnet-labs.com · 21/07/2026

Looking at some software to communicate battery levels to my servers, and came across this neat one! It takes SNMP data from my UPS units, and determines when to shut off my servers! Very slick! github.com/ffind-dev/pv...

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PhoenixNet-Labs @phoenixnet-labs.com · 15/07/2026

Was heavily debating between staying on the UXG-Pro, or going back to OPNSense for routing + firewall. We're looking at going back, mainly because all of our DC deployments are on OPNsense, might as well be consistent. Picked up a beefy firewall this week, will likely drop photos later today 👀

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PhoenixNet-Labs @phoenixnet-labs.com · 11/07/2026

Coming to you live, from the DC, it’s PhoenixNet-Labs! It’s rack day! Here we go!

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PhoenixNet-Labs @phoenixnet-labs.com · 09/07/2026

I've had a few folks ask "how do I do that too?!" in response to my ongoing BGP/Internet Routing project. I decided to write something up to show folks who are interested! Feel free to give it a read! I put it up on our Confluence, and turned on guest access! confluence.phoenixnet-labs.com/x/aABV

confluence.phoenixnet-labs.com

Implementing BGP, IPv6 Prefixes, and Internet Routing - PhoenixNet-Labs - Confluence

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PhoenixNet-Labs @phoenixnet-labs.com · 09/07/2026

Prepping things for deployment on Friday! New CPU, paste, RAM, NVMe, and drives!

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PhoenixNet-Labs @phoenixnet-labs.com · 08/07/2026

Back in office today; thought I'd take another crack at inbound traffic. Got it working! Very exciting! ipv6.phoenixnet-labs.com (Keep in mind, this site is only accessible via IPv6, so you'll need support for it on your network. We recommend a cellular connection.)

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PhoenixNet-Labs @phoenixnet-labs.com · 02/07/2026

Ok-ok so maybe I just couldn't help myself... But WE JUST ROUTED OUR FIRST PACKET(S) THROUGH OUR ASN!!! 🥳 Complex route, but in short: Internet -> BGP-RTR -> (WG Tunnel to Server) -> OPNSense -> Client!

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PhoenixNet-Labs @phoenixnet-labs.com · 30/06/2026

Update: Signed! We install next week! 😁

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PhoenixNet-Labs @phoenixnet-labs.com · 30/06/2026

Totally didn't see that one coming; looking at signing a colocation contract today possibly! 😅 Had an offer come up that I just couldn't resist!

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PhoenixNet-Labs @phoenixnet-labs.com · 29/06/2026

👀 - just dry running things, out of curiosity!

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PhoenixNet-Labs @phoenixnet-labs.com · 28/06/2026

Following this, we can now give our full-attention to our ongoing BGP/IPv6 project. This will begin AFTER we return from vacation in Pittsburgh. IYKYK 😎 - See you all when we get back! 👋

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PhoenixNet-Labs @phoenixnet-labs.com · 28/06/2026

Our migration from NOCIX to OVH is now complete: All resources have been successfully migrated from NOCIX to OVH as of 2:00 AM CST. Respectfully, we have also concluded our service with NOCIX in response to recent company practices and concerns. We wish them luck on their future endeavors.

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PhoenixNet-Labs @phoenixnet-labs.com · 25/06/2026

There's nothing more hair-rip-out inducing than re-learning IPv6. Trying to remember all the intricacies, how they all work, and how it all goes together feels like I'm getting ready to take my CCNA again... 😵‍💫

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PhoenixNet-Labs @phoenixnet-labs.com · 24/06/2026

The "great migration" has begun 👀 Had a few hiccups last night migrating, but I've gotten it down to a science using qm remote-migrate and adjusting firewall rules, Pangolin policies, and DNS records on the fly. Hoping to have this done before going on vacation, fingers crossed!

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PhoenixNet-Labs @phoenixnet-labs.com · 23/06/2026

It has been decided, our ASN is: AS402663! Next-step, addressing!

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PhoenixNet-Labs @phoenixnet-labs.com · 23/06/2026

Finally bit the bullet on purchasing / finalizing our ASN. This has been one of those "I'm not sure... Maybe... Why do I...?" type things, but honestly, it should be a good step in the right direction for the company. Will reply to this thread when it's assigned with what it is! 😎

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PhoenixNet-Labs @phoenixnet-labs.com · 03/06/2026

First *mirrored* post, hopefully! 🤞

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PhoenixNet-Labs @phoenixnet-labs.com · 02/06/2026

I'm hoping OVH can provide a solid upgrade for us. Their service team has been very helpful thus-far, and I find their UI/UX to be very modern and not require as much intervention from their team to complete simple tasks. With this also comes a huge upgrade in hardware too, with modern offerings.

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PhoenixNet-Labs @phoenixnet-labs.com · 02/06/2026

Folks online were also rather displeased, and spoke openly about it on Reddit. While I am trying to keep this professional, I share their feelings on the matter as this server runs a good portion of my business' traffic. In the past year or so, I've noticed traffic slowdowns, and other issues.

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PhoenixNet-Labs @phoenixnet-labs.com · 02/06/2026

For context: Earlier this week, our current provider suffered a disastrous, and long, weather-related outage and did not notify any clients. I was personally, and rudely awoken by a ton of alerts, and found that the only way I knew this had happened was alerts from my own uptime monitoring setup.

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PhoenixNet-Labs @phoenixnet-labs.com · 02/06/2026

Working on switching hosting providers this week, our current hosting provider has had a rather negative track record lately, and I decided that it would be best to move on. Took a look around at a few options, and landed on switching to OVH, their support is nice, and pricing is fair.

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PhoenixNet-Labs @phoenixnet-labs.com · 19/05/2026

Finally getting around to running backups again on a regular basis. Used to use Veeam NFR prior to forming the business proper, but now that I've gone pro, I'd rather reduce the corner cutting. Using a tool called "Backrest" that uses Restic to automate backups! github.com/garethgeorge...

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PhoenixNet-Labs @phoenixnet-labs.com · 19/05/2026

Going to try to avoid using pronouns like "we" and "our" like I'm some kind of mega-corp when I'm obviously not ha-ha. However, I do plan to keep this account somewhat professional, if you want the "silly content" that'll be on main. Now, with that said, time for my first project post!

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PhoenixNet-Labs @phoenixnet-labs.com · 25/03/2026

*ahem* is this thing on? Hi there! 👋

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