diff --git a/hosts/_common/configuration.nix b/hosts/_common/configuration.nix
index 080f8dc..4cdd5c8 100644
--- a/hosts/_common/configuration.nix
+++ b/hosts/_common/configuration.nix
@@ -1,4 +1,9 @@
-{ pkgs, settings, ... }:
+{
+  lib,
+  pkgs,
+  settings,
+  ...
+}:
 let
   defaultLocal = "en_US.UTF-8";
 in
@@ -18,6 +23,23 @@ in
     "flakes"
   ];
 
+  # allow mounting ntfs filesystems
+  boot.supportedFilesystems = [ "ntfs" ];
+
+  # Fallback quickly if substituters are not available.
+  nix.settings.connect-timeout = 5;
+  nix.settings.download-attempts = 3;
+  # The default at 10 is rarely enough.
+  nix.settings.log-lines = 50;
+  # Avoid disk full issues
+  nix.settings.max-free = (3000 * 1024 * 1024);
+  nix.settings.min-free = (1000 * 1024 * 1024);
+  # Avoid copying unnecessary stuff over SSH
+  nix.settings.builders-use-substitutes = true;
+  # Slower but mroe robust during crash TODO enable once we upgrade nix
+  # nix.settings.fsync-store-paths = true;
+  # nix.settings.fsync-metadata = true;
+
   # ==========
   #   Common
   # ==========
@@ -77,6 +99,8 @@ in
     ripgrep
     lsof
     killall
+    hdparm
+    speedtest-cli
 
     # TODO keep in common or move to specific machines, I want this for my pocket 3 video KDM module but I use ffmpeg on most machines anyways?
     ffmpeg-full
diff --git a/hosts/_common/shellInit.sh b/hosts/_common/shellInit.sh
index 7ff64c7..3a7277e 100644
--- a/hosts/_common/shellInit.sh
+++ b/hosts/_common/shellInit.sh
@@ -35,6 +35,22 @@ mail_clear() {
   : > /var/mail/$USER
 }
 
+speedtest_fs () {
+  dir=$(pwd)
+  drive=$(df -h ${dir} | awk 'NR==2 {print $1}')
+  echo Testing read speeds on drive ${drive}
+  sudo hdparm -Tt ${drive}
+  test_file=$(date +%u%m%d)
+  test_file="${dir}/speedtest_fs_${test_file}"
+  echo
+  echo Testing write speeds into test file: ${test_file}
+  dd if=/dev/zero of=${test_file} bs=8k count=10k; rm -f ${test_file}
+}
+
+speedtest_internet () {
+  speedtest-cli
+}
+
 # git
 getdefault () {
   git remote show origin | grep "HEAD branch" | sed 's/.*: //'
diff --git a/publics/nix2git.pub b/publics/nix2git.pub
deleted file mode 100644
index e665e98..0000000
--- a/publics/nix2git.pub
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,2 +0,0 @@
-ssh-ed25519 AAAAC3NzaC1lZDI1NTE5AAAAIAKFIuMe7qoUDI/LxhrrYmIDbH0xUwj1wm5vVulApLPV nix2github
-