Summary:

Russell will talk about OpenWrt on Realtek-based switches, like the EnGenius EWS2910P and Zyxel GS1900 line of managed switches. Some devices provide Power over Ethernet with port-level control. The talk will include some fun demonstrations of installation and reverse engineering.

Bio:

Russell has been a Linux user since December 1992. Since 2005, he's been involved with the Personal Telco Project, and has been the President of that organization since 2009, building public-access wifi networks and advocating for better telecommunications policy. He's also been active in an effort to energize political support for a public fiber-optic last-mile network in Portland in order to break the monopoly power of the deregulated incumbent carriers. In recent years, he's become more active in recruiting speakers for PLUG, kind of accidentally falling into the coordinator role as Michael Dexter stepped back. This talk represents a failure to find a better speaker, not only Russell's failure, but the failure of the entire PLUG community. Shame on one and all! ;-)

Summary:

What happens to legacy internet infrastructure when the sole technical owner passes away? When Jon Backstrom (AKA Prairie Nyx) died in 2023, they left behind critical pieces of community infrastructure under risk of going offline completely —including the nameserver prairie.net and vital segments of the geography-centric .US locality domain space (RFC 1480).

This talk covers the messy, real-world saga of digital succession and infrastructure rescue. We'll walk through the technical and human challenges of breaking into systems without passwords, tracking down next of kin and the remaining passionate user base to keep them informed.

On the technical side, we will look at how to quickly audit, patch, and migrate legacy services under pressure. We'll discuss practical strategies for cloud juggling, lowering operational costs, and eliminating both technical and human single points of failure by balancing the best of modern cloud automation with DIY resilience.

Finally, we will dive into the history, near-death, and possible resurrection of the Internet for actual human communities. Ultimately, this is a talk about digital stewardship, service preservation, and remembering why we build and maintain systems for the pure joy of the craft.

Bio:

Ryan Sayre is a cloud and storage technologist who enjoys the restoration, maintenance, and tinkering of vintage computing hardware. In his spare time, he manages legacy internet infrastructure (skylab.org and prairie.net), coordinates a Portland school bike bus initiative, and tries to keep good stuff alive for the good of the commons.