I’ve gotten into selfhosting and have 3 mini PC’s
ODROID H4+ for TrueNAS
One for Home Assistant
and another for Immich and Nextcloud
They’re all just plugged into the router my ISP provided with network cables.
I’d like to get a managed switch or a router of my own that can function as a switch and router
I’ll be putting everything in a 10" rack at some point so it has to fit.
Any suggestions or tips would be appreciated, I’ve done some research and looked at options but unsure what is right/wrong
I’m especially stuck on what Hardware to get.
Is 2.5ghz managed switch overkill? Should I get PoE for future use?
What brands are good, what should be avoided?
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Whats your goal? Your current network works presumably, what are you trying to achieve by upgrading? Faster network? Reliability? Expansion options?
Mainly I like tinkering and building my own server and systems.
I’d like to have different VLAN’s so that I can keep Home Assistant, sus wifi devices, my services, my personal network, and a guest network separate
I’ll probably add more mini-PC’s or hardware as time goes by, so it being future proof-ish would be great
If that’s all you want to do, one of the cheaper Ubiquiti managed gateways would probably work and not break the bank.
If you want to tinker even harder, an open source router running https://openwrt.org/ (or even their own device) may be a good option.
If you don’t have a specific goal, here are some ideas.
Build a NAS.
Use a bunch of small PCs or pis, build a CA, a DNS server. Make an db server and an app server.
Get shit running on your network.
Suit them all up with ELK stack.
Misbehave on your own network. Go find evidence for your misbehaving.
DoS yourself.
Without goals it’s tough to give ideas beyond general like this.
Mikrotik makes a few that are rack ready. Not sure about rack size. They are extremely customizable and pretty cheap in the grand scheme. I absolutely love mine. some things I am using it for:
- natively supports Wireguard, allowing me to keep everything private and just wireguard into my home network
- I have set up firewall rules that force all DNS through my pihole, including those pesky LG/google devices that try to bring their own hardcoded DNS servers.
- I have backed up my config to a script and literally trashed a switch a few weeks ago, bought a replacement and was up and running with the same config in <30 minutes of setup.
My one qualm with them, is their warranty service is pretty jank. The devices themselves are generally very good, but having had one die on me after 3 years, I was a little dejected I couldn’t really get it replaced (they do still offer support though). If you need a specific recommendation the RB5009 is really solid for homelab stuff. The one saving grace is the routers are pretty cheap if you know what you need…replacing them (compared to a unifi or something else) is easier? if you’re ok with that
If you’re into reading, this is how I got started a decade ago https://intronetworks.cs.luc.edu/
Just reading free resources on the interweb.I use Unifi stuff. It’s really nice, but quite expensive. I run my own controller for it with Docker.
I’ve been comparing managed switches that are 2.5Gbps all day and honestly Unifi isn’t that expensive, it’s often the cheapest option. The price jumps like crazy once you want a switch that’s managed and 2.5Gbps
You need something other than your ISP provided router, otherwise you’ll be constantly limited by a few basic settings they allow you to change. Check with your ISP if you can use your own router directly, if their routers have a bridge mode or if you can buy an alternative modem that does bridging.
If you want a simple and cohesive ecosystem, Unifi is the one to beat. They offer routers and switches and you can manage them all from a single dashboard.
For an open source router, the best option is OPNsense. Get one of the multi port x86 boxes from Aliexpress (e.g. Qotom) and install it on that.
Personally, I don’t like OpenWRT, but that would be an option to flash a cheap consumer router.
TP-Link offers some great switches, look at their JetStream series. They’re usually a bit cheaper than equivalent Unifi switches as well.
As an anti-recommendation I’ll mention Mikrotik. Their hardware is great and they provide great value, but the UI is extremely confusing for newcomers. It’s all well documented (in the form of terminal commands, but the UI is basically built like that), but you need to know networking before you can find what and how you need to change settings.
Spent the whole day looking at routers and switches, and I think I’m going with Unifi their prices are on par with the open source alternatives and they seem to just work no fuss, and I can run them fully locally and not depend on the cloud if I wanted.
I don’t want to buy any hardware that can be taken away from me with a firmware push where I now need to pay a subscription to use my product. Wile that risk with Unifi doesn’t seem to be zero, it seems close to zero.
UI is confusing, but its a good platform to learn. there are a lot of resources for doing typical stuff (dhcp,dns, wireguard, firewall rules, etc.)
OpenWRT is amazingly flexible and would be a great place to start.
I switched from DD-WRT last year and have been amazed how good OpenWRT is. There are thousands of software packages that allow you to do pretty much anything you can think of on inexpensive hardware. Used Netgear R7800s are available for less than $50 on ebay or there are plenty of newer hardware options if you want to spend more. Thousands of downloadable software packages can be added to the base, including Wireguard and Adguard Home, plus there are OpenWRT integrations for Home Assistant. The forum is full of people who are happy to help newcomers.
I started by running OpenWRT in a virtual machine to get familiar with the UI and moved on to a live installation. Highly recommended, especially if you enjoy learning.
I freakin love OpenWRT. I used it for a solid 5-6 years on some consumer grade routers and learned a lot about managing networks.
Ive since moved to more powerful enterprise network gear because OpenWRT opened that door for me and taught me what is possible. I might not ever go back to it, but I will always recommend OpenWRT to people who want to rice out their routers and get the most out of it.
As a home user, what additional features have you found useful on enterprise networking equipment? Just because what I’m doing is already ridiculously complex doesn’t mean it can’t be more so.
Its more about the hardware than software.
- Able to have enough processing power to utilize the max speed that my ISP provides, while having IDS/IPS and other services enabled.
- Port segregation so that each port can be on its own network with a full speed backplane.
- PoE capabilities
- SPF ports to utilize both fiber and copper connections
- Multiple networks across many wireless access points
Thanks for that list. No need here for more advanced hardware so I’ll have to put off networking upgrades until I can come up with a reason to justify it.
PorkBunter
