The Tyler Woodward Project

The Tools & Services

These are the tools that show up in my day-to-day more than anything else. They are the things I reach for when I need to keep systems online, make sense of noisy data, or just get boring infrastructure work out of the way so I can focus on the interesting problems.Some of them run my monitoring and logging, some help me design and debug networks, and some are just small utilities that save me from retyping the same commands a hundred times. If you work in broadcasting, IT, or you are the unofficial “fix it” person in your world, there is probably something here that will make your life easier too.

Zabbix
Monitoring that does not pretend everything is fine. Good for watching transmitters, servers, and networks without getting locked into some SaaS portal.Grafana
Dashboards that make sense of noisy data. Great with Zabbix and other time-series sources when you want graphs that are actually readable.Graylog
Central log collection and search. Helps turn “something broke” into “this specific thing broke at this exact time.”Linux Mint
The distro I recommend to people who are new to Linux. Familiar desktop, sane defaults, and fewer sharp edges than most.UniFi gear
Prosumer network hardware that hits a nice middle ground. Easy to manage, good visibility, and flexible enough for home labs and small sites.Uptime Kuma
Simple uptime and status monitoring with a nice web UI. Perfect for tracking whether the stuff you care about is actually reachable.Node-RED
Low-code automation for gluing APIs and devices together. Great for “if this, do that” logic without writing a full app.Syncthing
Peer-to-peer file sync that keeps your data on your own machines. Good replacement for cloud drives when you want control.Linode
Straightforward VPS hosting for when you need a Linux box on the internet without a bunch of extra cloud noise.MXToolbox
Handy web tools for checking DNS, MX, SPF, and blacklist issues. Perfect when email or DNS is being weird.Google Dig
A browser-based version of dig for quick DNS checks when you are not on your usual machine.Net Analyzer (iOS)
Solid network utility app for scanning, pinging, and basic troubleshooting from an iPhone.WiFiman
Wireless and network scanner that plays nicely with UniFi gear. Good for seeing what is on the air and how crowded things are.IT Tools
A whole collection of browser-based tools (encoders, decoders, DNS, SSL checks, and more) in one clean interface.Wireshark
Packet capture for when you really need to know what is happening on the wire. Indispensable for deep-dive troubleshooting.Crontab Generator
Helps build crontab expressions without having to keep the syntax in your head.ASNLookup
Quick ASN and IP whois lookups. Great when tracking down where traffic is really coming from or going.Ninite
Safe, no-nonsense way to install or update common Windows apps without junk or dark patterns.NinjaOne
RMM platform that makes it easier to manage and monitor fleets of endpoints without babysitting each one.DeepWiki
Search site that digs into wikis, forums, and documentation instead of surfacing the same SEO spam.PeeringDB
Database of networks, IXPs, and facilities. Useful when you care about how the internet is physically and logically stitched together.Patchapalooza
A helper for tracking and managing patching so updates are a bit less chaotic and a bit more predictable.Surfshark VPN
VPN service that is easy to use across devices and handy when you want to lock down traffic, avoid sketchy Wi‑Fi, or test how things look from another region.Tailscale
Mesh VPN built on WireGuard that lets your devices securely talk to each other from anywhere without wrestling with port forwarding or traditional VPN configs.GL.iNet Slate travel router
Small travel router that makes hotel and guest Wi‑Fi less painful, gives you your own little network on the road, and plays nicely with VPNs.Buzzsprout
Podcast hosting that makes it easy to publish episodes, generate a basic site, and push the show out to all the usual platforms without a lot of ceremony.Visible Wireless
Simple, all-digital cell service that rides on Verizon’s network and works well as a main line or a backup data pipe when you are out and about.Uppbeat
Music and sound effects library that powers the intro, transitions, and little sound bites you hear on the show without messing around with sketchy licensing.