hearth

intro

Update: Due to a series of natural disasters, this project has been temporarily mothballed. I will circle back and update it some night soon.

To be blunt, I don't trust that services providers have the best interests of my data at heart. So, let's go self-hosted! As this project is ever-evolving, I don't think it will ever be "finished" in any appreciable manner, but I'm recording it here so anyone with an interest in self-hosting can benefit from my experiences.

basic components

This setup was specific to my home network, but aspects of it can be implemented for your own needs. The important part is how everything works together.

• Gateway: If at all possible, do yourself a favor and ditch the "modem" provided by your ISP. It's likely subpar garbage, and you've probably been paying a "rental fee" for the pleasure of it joining your networking family. Buying a simple dedicated cable or DSL modem is a good first step.
• Router: I use an Ubiquiti Edge Router, which works for my network. Anything that works for you is perfectly fine, from a SoHo router with OpenWRT or dd-wrt to a homebrew device. Just make sure it's secured!
• WiFi: Since I have a a wide area to cover with relatively many RF-resistant walls, I prefer to use multiple access points that broadcast the same SSIDs. Currently, I use three Zyxel APs to broadcast a secured WPA2 network and an isolated and throttled open guest network. For legacy devices, I have a Linksys WRT-54G with dd-wrt. It runs on 802.11b only with no encryption and the broadcast power turned down.
• Microwave bridge: To provide services to a remote site, I got a pair of Ubiquiti PowerBeams to allow LAN access.
• Physical infrastructure: For wired devices, I've been pretty strict about keeping the network up to snuff. All switches are gigabit (there's only three, so that wasn't too tough), with all cable being Category 6A to ensure compliance. Exceptions are made for legacy devices or temporary grafts, but since I've gradually junked all the old networking cable, this hasn't been an issue.
• Servers: a multitude of devices providing critical services, including DHCP, DNS, file storage, SMTP relay, and VPN. A test server also allows me to trial different experimental ideas, such as over-the-air TV via network.
• End user devices: The most important group. PCs, tablets, phones, smart TVs, media devices, and other miscellaneous crap. If these don't work as anticipated, then nothing really works.

configurations

A rundown of some configurations I use

• Network setup: To hedge against IPv4 IoT devices, I decided to double my network size by using a /23 CIDR network. While this shouldn't be an issue, some older devices still expect an old-school Class A/B/C setup.
• Pending... more will be added as the project continues.

end

Projects home

Main page

$Id: hearth.html,v 1.3 2023/02/15 05:10:14 cridiron Exp $