Out of Band Updates

Recently I installed a few TP-Link smart light switches in my house to make turning certain lights on and off easier.  I've been using them for about a month and they integrate perfectly with my Google Home Mini too.  There was one thing missing though - being able to turn the outside lights on and off at sunset and sunrise. At first I went looking for a scheduling functionality in the Kasa app but found out that in order to get scheduling functionality you need to purchase a smart home router to enable the functionality. Next I tried setting up the popular IFTT app on my phone and it worked - sort of.  I was constantly having trouble running the routine on a regular basis.  Some days the lights would never turn on, and other days they'd never turn off. So I set out to find a better solution. I've recently been working with REST API's at work and I got to wondering if there was an API out there to work with Kasa devices. After some googling I came across a coup

I recently purchased a new domain to provide access to services running off my home network through Google Domains and needed a way to perform dynamic DNS updates so that I could access my home network reliably from wherever my travels take me. Luckily Google provides some basic DNS features for domains housed with them including dynamic updates. I started reading through the Google Domains documentation to find out what it would take and found a great guide to setting up dynamic DNS for your domain. ( https://support.google.com/domains/answer/6147083?hl=en&ref_topic=9018335 ) This was the first step towards getting things set up.  Next I needed to find a client to perform the dynamic updates. I looked around at various clients out there and most didn't work with Google Domains and those that did were too expensive for my taste (I'm a cheap skate). So I started thinking about how I could create a roll-your-own solution to the problem. At the bottom of the guide li

Hello there! Let's start out with an introduction... My name is Jake Weaver and I've been working in the Information Technology industry since 2005.  I've made the decision to start this site as a way to give back to the community and hopefully provide some help for someone else like I've found countless times in the past. I don't want to make any promises about how I'll update often and provide top-tier quality posts every time, but hopefully what I do put here will be of use to someone else and if not that, at least provide some entertainment. Thanks for stopping by. Jake