First, a hardware question. I’m looking for a computer to use as a… router? Louis calls it a router but it’s a computer that is upstream of my whole network and has two ethernet ports. And suggestions on this? Ideal amount or RAM? Ideal processor/speed? I have fiber internet, 10 gbps up and 10 gbps down, so I’m willing to spend a little more on higher bandwidth components. I’m assuming I won’t need a GPU.

Anyways, has anyone had a chance to look at his guide? It’s accompanied by two youtube videos that are about 7 hours each.

I don’t expect to do everything in his guide. I’d like to be able to VPN into my home network and SSH into some of my projects, use Immich, check out Plex or similar, and set up a NAS. Maybe other stuff after that but those are my main interests.

Any advice/links for a beginner are more than welcome.

Edit: thanks for all the info, lots of good stuff here. OpenWRT seems to be the most frequently recommended thing here so I’m looking into that now. Unfortunately my current router/AP (Asus AX6600) is not supported. I was hoping to not have to replace it, it was kinda pricey, I got it when I upgraded to fiber since it can do 6.6gbps. I’m currently looking into devices I can put upstream of my current hardware but I might have to bite the bullet and replace it.

Edit 2: This is looking pretty good right now.

  • ellyxir@kbin.melroy.org
    1·
    18 hours ago

    im thinking to start with just a raspberry pi and using nix to manage whats installed. i’ll read up on the router issue, but i wonder if it’s that important to me. i have installed openwrt before and it wasnt too bad.

  • just_another_person@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    2 months ago

    Just kinda flipped through his guide. It’s a bit dated on knowledge and techniques, even for beginners.

    You don’t need a computer for a router. Get a router that ships with OpenWRT and start there. GL.iNet makes good and affordable stuff. Use that for your ad blocking, VPN, and so on to get started.

    I’d just skip OpenVPN altogether and get started with Wireguard or Headscale/Tailscale.

    If you want to run other heavier services, start out with a low-power minipc until you’re settled on what your needs or limitations are. You can get a very capable AMD minipc for $250-300, or an n100 low-power for a bit cheaper. Check out Minisforum units for this. Reliable, good price, and solid warranty.

    If you deal in heavy storage, maybe consider adding a NAS to the mix, but maybe that’s a further steps. OpenWRT is a good starting point just to get your basic network services and remote access up, then just move on from there.

    A good and fun starting point for some people is setting up Home Assistant on a minipc or Raspberry Pi (honestly, the costs of Pi boards now is insane. Might be good just to get the minipc).

    • Slotos@feddit.nlEnglish
      0·
      2 months ago

      Gl.iNet is a great value router, but if you want to do anything really interesting, it won’t do.

      I have Slate AX chugging along, and have been eyeing teklager boxes to do actual routing, with slate as an access point.

  • specialseaweed@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    0·
    2 months ago

    Proxmox

    Unraid

    UniFi

    Raspberry Pi

    Docker

    I don’t have time to respond, but exploring the capabilities of any of those things would be a great place to start.

    • TunaLobster@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      2 months ago

      Proxmox can be a bit of a bear to setup. The documentation is not very approachable for new users. It uses a lot of terms without definition which is a deadly sin of technical writing IMO. Guides for getting an Ubuntu Server VM setup vary wildly and often recommend outdated settings.

      I’m totally on board with using it though. It eliminates the need to start from scratch when migrating to newer hardware.

      Set up your favorite Linux server distro and then go ham on setting up docker (dockge is a great tool to introduce compose).

      • MangoPenguin@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
        01·
        2 months ago

        You don’t need any guides for it except for really niche cases.

        For example Ubuntu VM; click create VM, choose Linux for the type, click next a bunch and choose your ISO image, CPU cores, and RAM. And you’re done, there’s no specific settings to use.

  • Possibly linux@lemmy.zipEnglish
    0·
    2 months ago

    I wouldn’t trust his guides personally. He has some hot takes and more importantly he isn’t someone who really knows the Homelab/self hosting landscape.

    If you are looking for guides I would find channels that have done series on whatever you are interested in there is plenty of quality material.

    To start off here is what I would do.

    First, get a wireless router that is capable of running OpenWRT and then get a switch to accompany it.

    Next go to eBay and buy 3 used workstations. They don’t need to be fancy and you can always upgrade them later. You need 3 for later.

    Next find some storage. You can find decent Sata SSDs for pretty cheap. If you are looking to store something bigger like a movie collection also pickup some larger drives. With the extra drives make sure you buy a sata or SAS pcie card. This is because you need a dedicated controller to passthough to a VM.

    Once you have all that you can start installing Proxmox. You probably want a raid 1 configuration so that you can replace a disk without downtime. The reason I say three devices is because you need 3 machines to get consensus in the cluster. When consensus is lost affected devices go into what is called fencing which is where it freezes all VMs and operations to prevent split brain from happening.

    Technically this is probably a bit overkill but I like having a solid base for experimentation and flexibility. Doing it right from the get go will mean that you have more power down the road.

    For actually hosting stuff I would use docker compose inside a VM.

    • filister@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      2 months ago

      The whole idea of self-hosted is to build something yourself and learn your way around some new technology or software. Plus building something yourself allows you to change and upgrade it down the path, while Synology doesn’t provide any of the sort.

      • metaStatic@kbin.earth
        1·
        2 months ago

        I don’t disagree but not everyone is studying for their CCNA.

        A pre-built NAS is easy to set up and just works. and if it has docker support it can be just as hands on as building from the ground up.

      • TVA@thebrainbin.org
        1·
        2 months ago

        To me, that’s the purpose of a “homelab” not the purpose of self hosting. There’s a lot of overlap, but they’re not quite the same. Homelab has a goal of learning, but just self hosting doesn’t need to.

  • sic_semper_tyrannis@lemmy.todayEnglish
    0·
    2 months ago

    Trying to create a router yourself is complicated. I knew nothing about it and installed OpenWRT onto a Netgear router and was unprepared. I ended up effectively taking a YouTube crash course trying to understand so many new networking terms and more. I got it working but any small tweaks could cause issues as I didn’t fully understand what I was doing. I bought a GL.iNet Flint 2 and have been super happy with it. Save yourself a headache, get a good router like that and start having fun running things on a RPi.

  • ShortN0te@lemmy.mlEnglish
    0·
    2 months ago

    TLDR, the developers of pfSense are not the nicest people sometimes. If this bothers you, consider checking out OPNsense.

    So first the author is arguing around on the router section that you should not buy a cheap router but then goes for pfsense instead of opnsense, i understand that when you are used to pfsense that you may not want to switch but recommending it for new ppl is just stupid. They have shown their hostality against their OS community in the past see https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13615896

    • tutus@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      1·
      2 months ago

      I use pfSense and tried to migrate away in the past. The changes I would have had to make to setup opnsense were so significant that I gave up for to lack of time. I don’t have time luxury of downtime so I need to migrate quickly.

      But if I were starting again I’d absolutely avoid the pfSense project and their childish shitty behaviour.

      I do plan to buy more hardware to replace my current pfSense box and take my time to implement opnsense gradually.