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My Overkill Home Network

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Re: My Overkill Home Network

#401

Post by bdavbdav »

8fingerlouie wrote: post #274

I used to have an overkill home network, complete with self hosting everything and 10G backbone. These days i'm more pragmatic. I have exactly 2 wired machines, and everything else runs Wifi. The network "rack" is simply a firewall and a 16 port POE switch, everything else network related has been retired to the closet. My NAS is gone. With electricity frequently going above €1/kWh last winter, it seemed like a bad i…

Ugh. Agree with this.

My Synology NAS was failing. Saw that as a great opportunity to set up a proxmox box on a reasonably powerful used HP SFF, run TrueNAS on it. Plenty of time to get proxmox, TrueNAS, Gitea, a docker host, … just right.

It’s sat there with 4/16TB used, no real data transfer apart from TimeMachine from my Mac and my git server, sucking power at European rates.

Wish I hadn’t bothered, and had just gone with another Synology.

Re: My Overkill Home Network

#403

Post by ianburrell »

qwerty456127 wrote: post #259

I wish every apartment would have at least some units of at least half-depth of rack space. Fitting anything (even a basic setup of a PaspberryPi + the PON modem + a minuscule switch + a PoE inhector) into the tiny space behind hatch where the cables from all the wall sockets end in my condo apartment is extremely hard. And I am still looking for a 5-port switch which would be manageable, support vlans, handle gigabi…

I wish 10" half-width racks had taken off. They are available in Europe but not the US. They would be good size for home networking gear, if anything supported it, and gear would fit in normal rack with bracket.

Is there a place nearby for cabinet, table, or shelves? Those are good for hiding network gear.

Re: My Overkill Home Network

#404

Post by sangnoir »

bdavbdav wrote: post #401
8fingerlouie wrote: post #274

I used to have an overkill home network, complete with self hosting everything and 10G backbone. These days i'm more pragmatic. I have exactly 2 wired machines, and everything else runs Wifi. The network "rack" is simply a firewall and a 16 port POE switch, everything else network related has been retired to the closet. My NAS is gone. With electricity frequently going above €1/kWh last winter, it seemed like a bad i…

Ugh. Agree with this. My Synology NAS was failing. Saw that as a great opportunity to set up a proxmox box on a reasonably powerful used HP SFF, run TrueNAS on it. Plenty of time to get proxmox, TrueNAS, Gitea, a docker host, … just right. It’s sat there with 4/16TB used, no real data transfer apart from TimeMachine from my Mac and my git server, sucking power at European rates. Wish I hadn’t bothered, and had just g…

> It’s sat there with 4/16TB used, no real data transfer apart from TimeMachine from my Mac and my git server, sucking power at European rates

I have a similar setup with SFF running backups & ProxMox. However, I have smart plugs for my SFF and have a script to turn it on/off using cron (or on demand) from an always-on Pi. Wake on LAN would have worked too.

I'm considering making my Raspberry Pi the gateway proxy/"Load Balancer" to the SFF; turning it on if needed. It's trivial to proxy HTTP (Pi works as a Caddy-based proxy with long timeouts, powers on SFF in background if off. Things got trickier for proxying NFS & iSCSI)

Re: My Overkill Home Network

#405

Post by groby_b »

bmitc wrote: post #58

Is there a post that covers the "why?" of all this? As someone researching maybe running some Ethernet for more stable WiFi and faster Internet access for general stuff, maybe some fiber for infotainment other purposes since it can lengthen various cables, and hooking up some security and nature cameras, I can't fathom why all of this is needed outside of it just being a hobby or running some sort of business (tradin…

This depends on your area, and your ISP.

If, say, you use AT&T and you need Internet for your job (WFH?), redundant Internet is crucial. It's not exactly "minutes" they are out. (Their outages states are often "meh, we'll get around to it in a day or so", figuratively)

If you live in a rural area, even more so. You're not high priority for fixes in the first place. (And AIUI, the author lives somewhere in rural Texas)

Do you need to run it as high tech as that? Probably not. My alternate Internet is my cell, tethered. (And if that breaks e.g. during travel, yes, I have a second cell with a separate provider, because heaven forbid the US had consistent cell coverage)

And most of us probably don't give a damn about e.g. 1,000 year photo retention. Or many of the other things he's doing. But it sure is fun if it appeals to your personality, and you can afford to keep it running.

Re: My Overkill Home Network

#406

Post by earthling8118 »

nuker wrote: post #370
8fingerlouie wrote: post #274

I used to have an overkill home network, complete with self hosting everything and 10G backbone. These days i'm more pragmatic. I have exactly 2 wired machines, and everything else runs Wifi. The network "rack" is simply a firewall and a 16 port POE switch, everything else network related has been retired to the closet. My NAS is gone. With electricity frequently going above €1/kWh last winter, it seemed like a bad i…

> My NAS … consuming ~35 kWh/month Translates to 50W.

Thank you. I spent a good few moments trying to wrap my head around this measurement.

Re: My Overkill Home Network

#407

Post by bdavbdav »

sangnoir wrote: post #404
bdavbdav wrote: post #401

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ugh. Agree with this. My Synology NAS was failing. Saw that as a great opportunity to set up a proxmox box on a reasonably powerful used HP SFF, run TrueNAS on it. Plenty of time to get proxmox, TrueNAS, Gitea, a docker host, … just right. It’s sat there with 4/16TB used, no real data transfer apart from TimeMachine from my Mac and my git server, sucking power at European rates. Wish I hadn’t bothered, and had just g…

> It’s sat there with 4/16TB used, no real data transfer apart from TimeMachine from my Mac and my git server, sucking power at European rates I have a similar setup with SFF running backups & ProxMox. However, I have smart plugs for my SFF and have a script to turn it on/off using cron (or on demand) from an always-on Pi. Wake on LAN would have worked too. I'm considering making my Raspberry Pi the gateway proxy/"Lo…

This is a genius idea. I may try similar.

The box is on another routed subnet - I wonder if I could firewall rule a “start” trigger.

Re: My Overkill Home Network

#408

Post by tibbydudeza »

Overkill indeed - got just a single router but it is so flexible (TP Link Omada) and runs various VPN tunnels without rebooting or hanging.

No fancy CPU just a dual core MIPS based MediaTek 7621AT - the key difference is the software, stable and well designed and not some hacked together version of OpenWRT and some old version of Linux from some random OEM that never get's updated after release.

Re: My Overkill Home Network

#409

Post by imiric »

pietro72ohboy wrote: post #345
irusensei wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's never about how green is the source of energy. It's about people doing things with their energy in which they don't approve. I mean... just read their xenophobic remarks about a giant country of diverse people. Don't bother appeasing climate hystericals.

There’s nothing hysterical about the OP’s argument that the setup is overkill and power hungry. It’s important to note here that OP is merely criticising the setup. It’s their right to speak freely about it just as you have the right to call them a climate hysterical. Stop shaming people for speaking their minds. And my opinion is that the setup is indeed overkill. The author(s) literally admit so themselves.

If all this is running on renewable energy sources, what's the environmental harm exactly?

The point that this is overkill and power hungry is completely irrelevant. OP's comment is coming from their high horse.

Re: My Overkill Home Network

#410

Post by uoaei »

snoman wrote: post #393
uoaei wrote: post #276

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is the CO2e ROI on producing and installing solar, including all the transportation and installation equipment being used? When is it net-negative compared to pulling energy from the grid?

Can you honestly answer that question for literally anything you’ve ever bought, in your life?

Would any answer to your question mean mine is not one worth asking, or that it's not worth estimating those quantities to include in calculations of CO2e-opportunity cost?
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