A place to share alternatives to popular online services that can be self-hosted without giving up privacy or locking you into a service you don't control.
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None. One year, Lenovo has the best Linux support. Another it might not. One year, Logi makes a solid mouse. Another year they do not. One year, a company makes a great product. Another year there is a privacy scandal.
Look at what devs of the projects you use recommend, and read reviews withing 3 months of your purchase. Don't pick a brand, pick a product.
Open source project device support pages are always my first stop. If you have access to a git repo for the project, use gource to visualize who is doing what and where within the project recently. This will make it obvious what hardware the main devs are invested in the most, and therefore what will have the best support and user experience.
Wow that is amazing, thanks for sharing.
Anker for docks and dongs.
Docks and dongs! Two things you ought love lol
Networking I really like TP-Link with their Omada range. It's like Ubiquity.
Spinning Disk drives I always go Hitachi now.
USB thumb drives SanDisk have been pretty good for me.
Cables I like Ugreen, chargers I like Anker.
I’ve also found TP-Link to be the best bang for the buck when it comes to home labbing. I have several of their managed switches at home, a couple almost 10 years old, and they keep on trucking.
For most computer stuff, whatever has the best Linux support, because Linux is the operating system I use btw
Same, I am also a Linux user. What are your favorite brands?
Same here, I mostly let work buy Dell but at home I mostly bought Lenovo.
I was a die-hard Logitech fan for many years, but over the past five or so their quality has really gone downhill, with their prices remaining the same if not increasing. I have a full set of Logitech peripherals but when the time comes to replace them Logitech will not be in the running.
Routers - Netgate / pfSense. Best router GUI I've found. If you understand what you want to make happen, chances are you can figure out how to make it happen without touching a CLI. And generally free of Cisco for license bullshit.
Routing and WiFi- Ubiquiti. Not as flexible as pfSense but even easier to use and if you do both routing and WiFi with them you get a bunch of cool analytics. Their surveillance package is great too as long as you use their cameras, pretty much the best mobile surveillance app I've found. Door access system also gets a mention.
Synology for almost everything they do, but particularly storage, backup, surveillance (they support almost every camera, albeit with a license requirement) and hosting of self hosted apps using a nice docker GUI. Not as much bang for buck vs. an old PC in terms of CPU power, but very easy to use.
For home automation- Home Assistant or HomeSeer. Both are open platforms that support almost everything. Home Assistant pulls lightly ahead for me because it's free and has more 3rd party integrations, even if it has a steeper hearing curve in some areas and some rough edges that require tweaking for basic usability (specifically, Z-Wave requires the 'z-wave js ui' plugin to take real control over a Z-Wave mesh, and Z-Wave door locks need the Keymaster plugin to get any sort of user code management, neither are straightforward to install). That said- pair Home Assistant with a Z-Wave dongle and some Inovelli light switches and you have a really beautiful setup with insane flexibility.
Thank you! Pfsense is one thing I'm confused about... Its a software, right? Does it matter the type of router you use it on? Or do you buy routers that specifically have it installed?
It's sort of both.
Netgate is the company that develops pfSense. They make pfSense available as a download that you can run on your own hardware or your own VM. They also sell pfSense routers that have official support and a free upgrade to their slightly nicer 'pfSense Plus' version. I generally recommend the official hardware (support the project and all that, and it's good quality if a bit more expensive). However if you want to save a few bucks you can get a cheap NUC-type PC with a few Intel Ethernet ports from Protectli or similar brands on Amazon.
So would a router running pfsense then also become my primary WiFi routers too? Or is it best to keep pfsense strictly as a firewall and have a separate router strictly for WiFi?
So would a router running pfsense then also become my primary WiFi routers too? Or is it best to keep pfsense strictly as a firewall and have a separate router strictly for WiFi?
pfSense doesn't really do WiFi. So you'd use it as a router/firewall, then have something else do your WiFi. I generally recommend Ubiquiti.
It's worth noting that a 'WiFi router' is usually 3 separate things in one box- a router/firewall, a WiFi access point, and a small switch of usually 4-6 ports. In a home you usually want these things in the same place so they're in one box. In an enterprise, the router/firewall is usually in the basement where there's no WiFi, network switches may be in many places and a tiny one in the router won't help you, and WiFi is up by where the workers are. So it's that sort of setup that pfSense is designed for.
The way I have my place set up- a pfSense machine is the router/firewall. I then use Netgear managed switches (there's a few, mainly GS110TP's), and Ubiquiti WiFi. The Ubiquiti controller runs inside Docker on a small Synology box. Highly recommend this setup.
But I'd just as highly recommend going Ubiquiti all the way. Dream Machine Pro SE is a great base router/firewall, and it has a built in PoE switch so you can hang a few U6 Pro access points off it. You get a bit more flexibility with pfSense but in most home environments it's not needed.
Wow thanks for the info, sounds like some hefty stuff to learn lol. So I'm kinda broke and can't afford new hardware ATM. I only have a tp Link archer ax1800 WiFi 6 router and a belkin rt3200 because I read its great for openwrt. Wellll openwrt completely overwhelmed me so I never got a chance to properly implement it. One of these days I'll need to sit down with more patience and try to understand the firmware better
Try dd-wrt firmware. Lets you dip your toe into the water so to speak, with a lot less of the complication of openwrt. At least it used to when I last used it several years ago.
If you have a spare old PC, pfSense is a great way to screw around. Even if it only has one NIC there is (or at least used to be) basic hostap support so you could use the builtin wifi card as a base station. Otherwise spend $20 on a supported USB-Ethernet adapter and you've got yourself a router to play with.
Remember power!
First and foremost, well-grounded power is essential. I haven't done the whole house thing yet, but I am thinking about it and curious to know of other's stories.
For surge protectors, I like GE wall taps for form factor and Furman racks when there is space & need.
For an uninterruptible power supply, I like APC. While they aren't made in the USA like they used to (RIP), they have been reliable for me.
Network (ISP Modem, WIFI, Switch) and tower CPU are all driven by UPS power. APC UPS, at least, is always drawing off the battery, so the upstream electronics are protected...a massive surge is far more likely to take out the battery. For laptops, surge protection is enough.
I have not yet surge-protected the ISP lower power input... this is a real risk! I found a cheap one off Amazon, but I am worried it will degrade the network --> whole house may be better.
Note - I have had a lightning strike get sent down the cable line, enter the home, blow out the cable modem, traverse into the network switch, blow out the switch, and nuke every active ethernet port (NAS, Apple TV, etc.), as well as jump the wire into low power security, physically blowing a hard-wired security panel off the wall and damaging a few hard-wired security points. Pretty crazy!
Servers: Supermicro. Dell in a pinch
Switches: HPE Aruba for 10gig, or Mellanox for 100gig
Routers: I'm not that picky, but I use Fortigate as I scavenged some leftovers at work
UPS: Eaton
Network cards: Intel for 10gig, IBM for 8 or 16gig, Mellanox for 100gig
Harddrives: Exos
RAID stuff: LSI MegaRaid.
GPU: Don't really care, but I have a bunch of NVidia Quadro.
Most of the above preferences are due to scavenging leftover hardware at work.
Wow wow wow, you guys are light years ahead of me in the equipment department. I plan to learn and utilize a lot of that stuff but I was more interested in the smaller everyday things like chargers, cables, flash drives, adapters, etc lol still great info though. I was super intruided by supermicros server selection when I went down that rabbit hole. Truth is, I'm not nearly ready for a server yet.
Depends on which aspect of you needs to be ready. Use case and functionality? Meh, now is as good time as any. Might as well get used to the differences from a desktop to servers early on. Especially if you still don't really have the knowledge. Learn by doing!
Budget? True, they can be pricey, even on the after market. But if you or a friend works anywhere that had servers, chances are that the IT department might have something that'd otherwise end up in the trash. A good example here is this VM server with rather old CPUs and 256G of RAM. It wasn't fit for its pyrpose anymore, and its hardware configuration made it a bad match for our storage clusters. Today it's a minecraft server for my kids and their friends.
EDIT: Actually, the older PowerEdge servers feom Dell aren't that pricey on my local marketplace.
There was a time I'd avoid Western Digital cause everything they made fails, and I mostly leaned toward SanDisk cause they were very reliable, and well, my avoidance list got larger.
Hmm I always though western digital was pretty decent for hard drives?
For networks, much of it depends on budget and requirement. Do you want home security cameras on your network? Are you someone who works with large files all the time? Do you have gig plus Internet speeds? Do you own or rent? Lots of factors can affect choices. Start from there and build the infrastructure that works for your need. Don't go looking to build a monster you'll never really get moving, that's a waste. Brand will become a factor once you look at the capabilities you need, you'll see names come up over and over. At the consumer level, there are a few but price is also a factor. Not much help, I know.
I use a VPS for the vast majority of my stuff to be clear, but from my experiences with PC building in particular, there's not a PSU manufacturer I'd ever want to use anymore other than EVGA. The PSU in my PC randomly started dying some months back, randomly completely cutting power when it'd go over a certain voltage draw it was rated for and could previously handle without breaking a sweat, to the point that it severely disrupted both work AND play for me, when it came to heavier work tasks or heavy games. They replaced it for me while only requiring minimal information (I think the serial numbers, information about how it was behaving, and what tasks I do with my computer so they'd know I didn't kill it by doing insane Bitcoin mining 24/7 or other cryptocurrency stuff, which they do not cover under warranty), and not only that, but since they did not have any more of my old model available (a 750 G3), they instead gave me a newer and better one (a 750 G5).
Man thats shitty to hear. At least they fixed it! I'm having similar issues with my two usb c ports on my laptop and its been solo annoying. Just a ton of random disconnects and reconnects. I had one port completely replaced but I still have the issue from time to time.
For network cables, FS.com. Their specialty is fiber optics and they have good transceivers and cables for really cheap prices and they also sell a tool to flash vendor info onto transceivers so if you have some picky proprietary box you can still use generic transceivers with it. Their copper products, DACs, regular cat6 patch cables, etc are good too. I haven't tried their NICs or switches though.
I've been liking Mikrotik stuff for networking lately. Not as user friendly GUI as Ubiquiti but definitely not as expensive.
Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I've seen in this thread:
| Fewer Letters | More Letters |
|---|---|
| Git | Popular version control system, primarily for code |
| NAS | Network-Attached Storage |
| NUC | Next Unit of Computing brand of Intel small computers |
| NVR | Network Video Recorder (generally for CCTV) |
| PSU | Power Supply Unit |
| Plex | Brand of media server package |
| PoE | Power over Ethernet |
| RAID | Redundant Array of Independent Disks for mass storage |
| SSD | Solid State Drive mass storage |
| Unifi | Ubiquiti WiFi hardware brand |
| VPS | Virtual Private Server (opposed to shared hosting) |
11 acronyms in this thread; the most compressed thread commented on today has 7 acronyms.
[Thread #107 for this sub, first seen 5th Sep 2023, 03:35] [FAQ] [Full list] [Contact] [Source code]
Asus. Seems to always be quality.
They just laid off a shit ton of employees and the RMA has gone downhill recently. Shame evga are not around in the gpu space.
Bought 3 laptop from them, all had QA issues. Never again.
My only Asus hardware that works with no issue is my current access point.
That's always a recommended brand. Never had much luck with their laptops, but had a real old Asus router that I liked.
Server rack and shelves: NavePoint. Amazing customer support; great products.
I believe Kingston has the fastest and smallest USB drive out there. I've never had an anker product that lasts long but Belkin seems to be good to me. I pick my WiFi routers based on what is supported by OpenWRT. Nitecore makes great batteries and chargers. My Caldigit dock is fantastic
Whatever's cheapest lol
I have been trying to replace all my devices that use external power bricks with usb C cables and GAN power adapters. You can get barrel adapters for most things and it lets me clear up a lot of space. Anker and Ugreen have been my picks in the past but they seem to have been increasing their prices considerably and I have had pretty good luck with a company called Baseus.