It depends on your purpose, that's why the options are both supported. And wrt 'special markup': you obviously need to use Xtensa assembly, but that's it from what I know.

Suggest you start a new thread with those questions, if you still have them; we're now kinda hijacking someone elses thread here.

It switches between doing the AES encryption in hardware and doing it in software. Both solutions work, but there may be some performance differences between the two, depending on how you use the ESP32.

Erm, it's an WPA Enterprise example, so... yes, I guess?

You're possibly referring to WPA enterprise? If so, we have an example for that.

If you find that that is needed, the more proper approach is to actually use a FreeRTOS mutex instead of trying to reinvent that wheel.

You are aware that you can use I2S and its associated DMA infrastructure to do ADC sampling? No timer needed then. There's an example under examples/peripherals/i2s_adc_dac if you need it.

Well, you'll have to at least provide a bit more info than what you're doing right now. Is your project source code online somewhere so people can have a look at it, for instance?

mDNS is more or less made to solve this problem.

I'd say the AMS1117 is your culprit. The datasheet talks about an internal diode between the output and the input; that would backfeed the 5V line with 3.3V if you only power it via 3.3V.