u/Necessary-Win-6491

Hello everyone,

I landed a AWS L4 job.
Any information for job preparation would be appreciated!

I’m thinking of getting a notebook to fit in my pocket to take notes do you recommend any specific brand I can get online?

Any recommendations for refining leadership skills?

I plan to get additional certs like AWS cloud solutions and Devops.

For 3/4 months I’ll be focusing on the role and how to become more efficient and effective.

Thank you for your input!

Hey everyone,

I’m running into a DNS roadblock on a fresh OPNsense deployment and need a fresh pair of eyes.

The Setup:
Hardware: Lenovo small form factor PC running OPNsense (Factory Reset / Defaults). Nvme +16gbs of ddr4 ram

Modem: Xfinity Gateway locked into Bridge Mode.

LAN Client: Windows 11 Gaming PC connected directly to OPNsense LAN port.

The Current State:
My OPNsense WAN interface successfully pulls a legitimate public IPv4 address straight from Xfinity. My Windows gaming PC pulls a perfect DHCP lease from OPNsense:

Gateway: is up

DNS Suffix: internal

The Diagnostic Paradox:
Layer 3 Routing Works: From the Windows PC command prompt, I can successfully ping 1.1.1.1. Packets are traveling out through the firewall and returning perfectly.

Public DNS Works Explicitly: If I force an nslookup directly to a public resolver (nslookup google.com 1.1.1.1), it resolves instantly and returns Google's public IPs.

Local DNS Fails Completely: If I run a stock nslookup google.com, Windows queries the default gateway (192.168.1.1) and hits a hard DNS request timed out (2 seconds). No websites will load via domain names.

Everything We Have Tried So Far:
Factory Reset OPNsense: Blew away configuration to ensure zero rogue rules or floating NAT definitions. Firewall rules are completely stock (Default allow LAN to any).

Isolated OS-Level Interferences: Completely disabled and uninstalled Tailscale on the Windows client(verified this by watching task manger), and disabled virtual network switches (vEthernet).

Stripped IPv6: Completely disabled IPv6 on the Windows adapter properties to force an exclusive IPv4 path to 192.168.1.1.

Configured Upstream System DNS: Added 1.1.1.1 and 8.8.8.8 under System -> Settings -> General in OPNsense, and unchecked ISP DNS overrides.

Tweaked Unbound Settings: Turned on Query Forwarding using system nameservers and tried explicitly setting the binding interfaces under Services -> Unbound DNS -> General to just Network: LAN/Localhost and Outgoing: WAN.

Cleared Tables: Reset the firewall state table and manually restarted the Unbound service multiple times.

Despite all of this, the Unbound resolver on port 53 is completely ghosting the LAN client, even though raw port traffic passes right past it.
Any ideas on what native default mechanism or out-of-sync binding hook inside OPNsense would cause Unbound to drop local queries right after a WAN shift to a public IP? Appreciate any advice!

I’ve been using ChatGPT and Gemini to try and trouble shoot this but after a certain point they just start hallucinating.

Lobby dashboard shows WAN DHCP6 active
And WAN DHCP active with 174.164.x.x IP

Hello,
What is typically the deciding factor of L3/L4? (If you can speak on if)
I know l4 is competitive so I might be among for L3 even though I know I don’t really get to decide that it just seems sort of realistic for my skill set.

I wanted to know if L3 technicians could negotiate the pay scale or would you most likely be dropped entirely if I asked for an extra dollar or two (or even asking for 3/4 dollars more as to not to be on the low range).

I’ll soon complete the trifecta and just wanted to know before applying.

If I were to set up my homelab before interviewing, what would you recommend?
Here is my current hardware and a rough draft:
ThinkCentre—- OPNsense firewall/router has 4 port NIC
Cisco 2960-CX —— Main managed switch

Windows Server, storage, virtualization

Raspberry Pi 4 - Pi-hole, Docker
Raspberry Pi 3 - Linux services and experiments

TP-Link Switch- Additional non-VLAN ports

Gaming PC
Future client/dual-boot testing

Net + taught me concepts about the tools pinch down tool, TDR, OTDR, fusion splicers, toner and probe, etc.
Thank you in advance, I appreciate all insight.