Joe Rice-Jones

Baltimore

Features Writer at SlashGear

Tech Product Evaluator at XDA Developers

Managing Editor at KnowTechie

Words at @xdadevelopers | jricejones at gmail dot com | reddit gold hoarder

Featured in: Favicon

slashgear.com Favicon

xda-developers.com Favicon

msn.com

flipboard.com Favicon

newsbreak.com Favicon

knowtechie.com Favicon

thebaltimorepost.com Favicon

gadgetreview.com

Articles

I got my Steam account phished - here’s what I did to get it back

1 week ago | xda-developers.com | Joe Rice-Jones

I like to think that I have pretty decent cybersecurity practices. I use MFA or 2FA on everything I can, passkeys on every service that supports them, have authenticators set up for Blizzard, Microsoft, Steam, and other accounts, but I still got hacked on Steam. Or more precisely, I got phished on Steam, sent to a fake Counter-Strike 2 event page, and tricked into putting in what I thought were Steam OpenID login details. Except, of course, they weren't. Or maybe they were.
Should you use Tailscale, Pangolin, ZeroTier, or NetBird to remotely access your home lab?

1 week ago | xda-developers.com | Joe Rice-Jones

Whether your home lab is still in the virtual planning stages or has grown into a cluster of mini PCs, soon enough, you'll want a way to connect to it remotely. After all, there's not much point in self-hosting services to improve your life if you can't access them when outside. While you could go for a traditional VPN, and connect to your home network that way, those come with headaches, added complexity, and the worry that they won't connect when you most need them.
SteamOS isn't the only way to game on Linux - here's 3 other distros to check out

1 week ago | xda-developers.com | Joe Rice-Jones

While SteamOS is nearly ready for a public beta, so that we can all enjoy Valve's gaming-focused Linux distribution without needing a Steam Deck, it's not the only way to play on a gaming-focused Linux distro. The Proton project works on any Linux distro, so conceivably you can run any of your favorites, but there are other gaming-tweaked OSes that are well worth checking out.
Signs you should drop everything and change your password

1 week ago | xda-developers.com | Joe Rice-Jones

World Password Day is here, and that means we're going to be talking security. A lot of security, with best practices, things to watch out for, and tips for the best password managers and other ways to secure your online accounts. We've all got dozens of online accounts by this point, and keeping track of them is a chore, even with a password manager, but how do you know that your passwords are safe? If you spot any of the behaviors on this list, change your password as soon as you can.
6 OPNsense plugins that make my home network a joy to use

1 week ago | xda-developers.com | Joe Rice-Jones

When you finally get tired of your ISP router, one of the most-recommended replacements is making your own with a custom OPNsense firewall. This puts the power back in your hands, limits what your ISP can do to your connection, and gives you plenty of protection and features you've been missing all this time. But one of the awesome things about OPNsense isn't just that it's a powerful router, but that you can make it even better by installing other services as plugins.
10 fairytales about password security that are pretty grim

2 weeks ago | xda-developers.com | Joe Rice-Jones

Passwords for security purposes trace their way back to the Romans, who used watchwords to discern friend from foe. However, the digital password has been around longer than you might think, as it was created in 1961 by an MIT computer science professor, Fernando Corbato. It wasn't a security feature at the time, more a time-sharing one, but that was the seed that grew into the privacy-creating digital passwords for everything we use today.
5 alternatives to Synology that let you use whatever drives you want

2 weeks ago | xda-developers.com | Joe Rice-Jones

If you've got a NAS at home already, the chances are that it's made by Synology, the class leader for consumer and enthusiast storage devices. That's no light praise, as there are plenty of other companies in the space that would love to save some of that market share for their own. And you know what, they might get the chance, because Synology has been making some strange moves lately that are turning heads (in the wrong direction).
I upgraded my home network to prosumer gear - here’s what I learned

2 weeks ago | xda-developers.com | Joe Rice-Jones

One of the drawbacks of renting apartments was that I couldn't go crazy with my network setup. Between landlord restrictions on pulling cables through the walls and not wanting to see visible Ethernet cables stapled to the baseboards, I had to limit myself to putting in a good mesh router kit. But now I've got my own house, and even better, the builders pulled cable runs to several rooms through conduit so that I can fish fiber through at some point.
My home lab starts out virtual in GNS3 so I can destroy it with impunity

2 weeks ago | xda-developers.com | Joe Rice-Jones

One of the issues with any home lab situation is that you often run out of funds before you run out of ideas, and that's a problem. Maybe you want to put in some extra managed switches to test out routing between VLANs, or play with a router you know will be one you run into at work. Whatever your reasoning, the want doesn't always mesh with the means, but that's okay.
7 devices that use terrible passwords by default

2 weeks ago | xda-developers.com | Joe Rice-Jones

It's never been more critical to use sound security practices when online. Many of you are undoubtedly using a password manager to keep track of your unique, per-account passwords, which is awesome and a massive part of digital security. That can be backed up by 2FA or even a physical TOTP key for another layer of the security onion, but what about those devices that you can't easily change the password on?