I am assembling a new home lab after purchasing a house. It is a headache choosing net equip. I have spent countless hours researching. There is so much out there. What would you buy? Used enterprise equip? I am interested to see what everyone recommends. Any advice is appreciated. The configuration below is not set in stone.
UniFi is pretty damn solid for switching and WiFi if you want to have a centralized management system. I’ll also say that they have probably one of the best priced 10G SFP+ Aggregation switches you can buy. Some people here like EnGenius and they seem to be a good product to me. Depending on the features you want you might look into TP-Link.
If you are more technically inclined Mikrotik has great hardware for the money but you need to know what you are doing. No central management console so you will need to either bootstrap your own system or just do configs manually.
I would stay away from used enterprise stuff unless you really really know what you are doing because often ports and features that are advertised on the spec sheet are locked behind licenses that might cost more than the switch itself. Also they can be quite loud and no power efficient.
Maybe with the exception of Mikrotik I would recommend you run a PfSense or OpnSense firewall/router. They are easy enough to get up and running and have a lot of room to grow into them with lots of good documentation and support if you buy directly from netgate.
If you want an off the shelf solution for cameras I would recommend Synology as the NVR and then Amcrest cameras. There are a few open source options if you want to go that route but Frigate seems to be the one people really like.
TruNAS Scale makes an excellent server platform with some tweaks if you want to virtualize everything onto one box. Otherwise run it on your NAS and the have a separate proxmox box of your choice.
I have used an EdgeRouter Lite, EdgeRouter X SFP, UniFi AP LR, EnGenius EAP1250 and Netgear ProSafe switches. Some of which I still have. Ubiquiti’s older UniFi lineup left a bad taste in my mouth when they pushed buggy firmware. Their EdgeRouters have been more reliable. It would seem they are phasing them out. I looked at MikroTik quite a bit. I am still reading about pfSense and other alternatives for my router.
They are great for learning. Documentation is solid and when you get yourself into trouble in the CLI, you can probably still see what you did in the WebUI.
Setting up WLAN on MikroTik is a bit of a steep learning experience, but when you get it right, it works (installation at my parents place has been rock solid).
I got an RB5009 (since recently, in the PoE-variant), CSS610 and CRS305 in my home lab/semi-permanent live installation
the trick with Unifi is to disable auto update and check the forums for what version of stable is actually stable. i have built networks from enterprise to home user with 1 wifi client and i like Unifi for small business and advanced home user situations.
if you have the time to put into an open router platform and mikrotik, than 30 minutes of research before installing Unifi updates should not be a big deal.
there is nothing wrong with building a full custom set of network kit based on OpenWRT, PFsense, or one of the other dozen platforms, but the time it takes makes the occasional buggy Unifi update seem microscopic in comparison.
At the end of the day it is your network so do what you want but like @Zedicus said I too have deployed UniFi equipment in small/medium sized business environments with very few issues. The only problems I have had was a DOA switch and AP which UniFi was really good to work with for the RMA and a software update that just had to roll back. Both of those problems other manufacturers have as well so I don’t really hold it against them.
Network switces: HP(E) or Zyxel, whatever models fit you best
Wifi: Something that runs OpenWrt and is based on Mediatek Filogic SoC, that will give a lot to play with. If you can get hardware with 3 radios that’s ideal but 2 will be fine.
Server/NAS/Firewall: FreeBSD, very good learning platform both networking and other stuff such as ZFS. You can also virtualize Home Assistant etc if you want. pfsense/opnsense works too if you find that your cup of tea, I’d would consider using OpenWrt for firewalling though.
NVS: No idea, I’d use some Open Source variant but there is also decent software that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg.
the trick with Unifi is to disable auto update and check the forums for what version of stable is actually stable. i have built networks from enterprise to home user with 1 wifi client and i like Unifi for small business and advanced home user situations.
if you have the time to put into an open router platform and mikrotik, than 30 minutes of research before installing Unifi updates should not be a big deal.
ucav117
At the end of the day it is your network so do what you want but like @Zedicus said I too have deployed UniFi equipment in small/medium sized business environments with very few issues. The only problems I have had was a DOA switch and AP which UniFi was really good to work with for the RMA and a software update that just had to roll back. Both of those problems other manufacturers have as well so I don’t really hold it against them.
I am certainly not against using UI products. Disabling auto updates is a good idea. Maybe their QA has improved.
Zedicus
there is nothing wrong with building a full custom set of network kit based on OpenWRT, PFsense, or one of the other dozen platforms, but the time it takes makes the occasional buggy Unifi update seem microscopic in comparison.
OPNsense is what I have in mind now.
MadMatt
Curious, why so many switches?
My layout is overly complicated.
New Layout:
OPNsense Router
____ ISP Modem
____ Switch
_________ Cameras
_________ IoT
_________ NVS
____ Switch
_________ ~4 APs
_________ Home and Office Devices
_________ Doc NAS
_________ Plex NAS
_________ Server
diizzy
Not sure what you’re trying to achieve but…
Network switces: HP(E) or Zyxel, whatever models fit you best
Wifi: Something that runs OpenWrt and is based on Mediatek Filogic SoC, that will give a lot to play with. If you can get hardware with 3 radios that’s ideal but 2 will be fine.
Server/NAS/Firewall: FreeBSD, very good learning platform both networking and other stuff such as ZFS. You can also virtualize Home Assistant etc if you want. pfsense/opnsense works too if you find that your cup of tea, I’d would consider using OpenWrt for firewalling though.
NVS: No idea, I’d use some Open Source variant but there is also decent software that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg.
The idea is to create a network that is broken apart, reliable and segregated.
An Enterprise 48 PoE would probably fit the bill in a single package
Unfortunately Mikrotik doesn’t have a 2.5Gbit ‘budget’ switch, so you would need to get creative with
2.5Gbit: An unmanaged tp-link with 2,5Gbit ports, Mikrotik has yet to relese one, the only alternative for multiple 2.5Gbit ports is the CSS610-8P-2S+IN but it is 10Gbit and it costs an arm and a leg …
Replying to myself … more options come to mind, it really depends on whether you want all the switches in the same location or whether you need to space them out:
