The best free Linux tools for checking hard drive and SSD health are smartmontools (smartctl and smartd), nvme-cli, GSmartControl, Scrutiny, and badblocks. Together they read S.M.A.R.T. data and NVMe health logs, run drive self-tests, track health over time, and scan for unreadable blocks. This guide explains what each tool does, gives the exact commands, and…
An SSD can develop errors or wear out without obvious warning signs. Windows 11 includes built-in tools that can help you inspect available drive-health information, retrieve reliability counters, and check for file-system errors without installing additional software. Quick answer: Open PowerShell as an administrator and run Get-PhysicalDisk | Format-Table FriendlyName, MediaType, HealthStatus, OperationalStatus -AutoSize. For…
Hard drives and solid-state drives can develop problems long before they stop working completely. Mechanical hard drives may develop unreadable sectors, while SSDs can experience flash memory wear, controller errors, or other hardware problems. Fortunately, several free Windows utilities can help identify potential storage issues by reading S.M.A.R.T. diagnostic data, monitoring temperatures, examining error logs,…
CHR runs on almost any hypervisor, but Proxmox is where most self-hosted labs and small ISPs actually put it — free, KVM-based, and scriptable through the qm command line. Get two specific settings wrong, though, and you end up with a VM that boots to a black screen or a disk that silently never writes….
Both Tailscale and ZeroTier promise the same thing: a flat, encrypted mesh network connecting your devices without port forwarding, static IPs, or a traditional site-to-site VPN tunnel to babysit. On most platforms, picking between them comes down to preference. On MikroTik specifically, it does not — one of them is a native, first-party RouterOS package,…
Buy the wrong MikroTik RouterOS license level, and you’ll find out – a 201st PPPoE customer who cannot connect, or a wireless mode that isn’t available. This guide breaks down exactly what Level 3, 4, 5, and 6 unlock. What stays identical across all of them. How to pick the right one before you buy…
MTCNA (MikroTik Certified Network Associate) shows up on more network engineer résumés than any other vendor certification below CCNA — and for MikroTik-heavy networks specifically, it often carries more practical weight. This guide covers what MTCNA actually tests, the one detail about how you get certified that most online “MTCNA courses” quietly leave out, a…
RouterOS runs on three completely different kinds of hardware, and the installation process is different for each one. A RouterBOARD device ships with RouterOS already installed and licensed. An x86 PC needs you to install it yourself and buy a license. A CHR instance needs neither a physical device nor a traditional license key, just…
WinBox is the tool most engineers reach for first when they sit down in front of a MikroTik device. It is faster to navigate than the terminal for most day-to-day tasks. It also exposes nearly every RouterOS setting through a clean graphical interface. This guide covers three things: downloading and installing WinBox correctly on Windows,…
Upload speed gets treated as download’s afterthought — the number ISPs bury under a bigger, bolder download figure. That framing breaks down fast for anyone doing real work over a connection: video calls, cloud backups, VPN tunnels, remote access, or running services from home. This guide covers what actually determines a good upload speed, why…
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