Future theoretical network setup

Hardware Hub Networking
1

Well freemind won’t install so lets hope I don’t fuck this up too bad :stuck_out_tongue:

So when I move out of my parents house my goal is to have a set list of things done. One of these is to have network stuff set up for the house, and in general the property at large. What I am hoping I can do is have a couple of switches attached to ubiquiti access points and have a nice mesh setup for the house (4 stories) and the property (6 acres containing a barn, future second barn, 2 future workshops, the garage, and a woodshop).

ITT I’d like to keep track of the entire project, take suggestions, and hopefully have this all nice and tied up by… I dunno, June.

At the moment I am looking at these bits of hardware.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0000BVYT3?ref=emc_b_5_i&th=1 X3 or 4
or
Amazon.com X3 or 4

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0002CWPOK?ref=emc_b_5_i&th=1 X 2

https://www.amazon.com/Ubiquiti-Unifi-Ap-AC-Long-Range/dp/B015PRCBBI/ref=sr_1_2?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1517086106&sr=1-2&keywords=Ubiquiti X6 or 8

The network is fed by a fibre connection with a coax drop line to a surfboard modem at the moment, though I think I’ll get a beefier modem if I need to. In front of the modem there will be a Dell R610 running PFSense as the main switch. Attached to that will be a server for a website that will run a business my mother and father will run, a router to the main floor of the house, and possibly some sort of small NAS.

Been looking at these:

https://www.amazon.com/Synology-bay-DiskStation-DS218-Diskless/dp/B075N1BYWX/ref=sr_1_3?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1517086322&sr=1-3&keywords=synology

https://www.amazon.com/FreeNAS-Mini-Network-Attached-Diskless/dp/B00EQJ1BTU/ref=sr_1_3?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1517086343&sr=1-3&keywords=freenas+mini

Or building my own, though that might be a pain in my ass / too much power useage. Not sure yet, still mulling it over.

Then out to the barn / workshops I’ll (maybe) have the mesh net set up. One in the garage, one in the woodshop, one in the barn, one in the other barn, one in the metal shop behind the barns, one in the storage building, one in the basement. Effectively this will be one giant circle. Then, and I’m still learning about the ubiquity stuff, I want to drop a small switch at each of the mesh routers so that a wired connection can be had at each building and allowing for potential IP Cameras if needed.

Now this is all just theoretical at this stage and I’m still looking at what is what and whats out there. If theres better ways to do what I am trying to do please let me know. With WPA3 in the works I’m tempted to wait to see how that turns out.

With that, basic machines that will be around will be a few laptops, 2 or 3 desktops, something to do cad / model mockups, and the NAS.

Cheers

2

Im currently looking at networking equipment, though on a smaller scale. At the moment i have some netgear dumb switches, they do the job. Are you considering any network segregation?

I have a UniFi AP-AC-Pro and have no complaints. The controller software is setup to control more than just the AP so there’s a bunch of unusable stuff in it, but for WiFi AP management it works very well. I have good coverage with this as it covers the whole house (quite a small house) but doesnt quite make it to the end of my garden, this is part though due to current placement.

Are you using this for anything other than pfsense? If not are you planning to run any heavy services on pfsense? Because this is likely overkill. I run pfsense on a fanless 1ghz celeron cpu and 4gb of ram with no issues. (even this is overkill at the moment).

with pfsense also keep in mind you will need a AES-NI capable CPU for pfsense 2.5 and above.

On the NAS it depends on storage, if you plan to store a reasonable amount of data you probably want more than 2 bays so you have more flexibility over configuration and recovery if a drive dies.

3

As in VLAN’s? Yes quite a bit. 1 network for public use. Anyone can join it with a simple key. 2 for interconnecting machines to get like CAD models off of storage and for security cam’s if wanted. 3 for something else probably. I just woke up I can’t remember at the moment. Probably servers or something for stuff that I’m personally doing.

Eventually it’ll be replaced by a smaller machine, but at the moment when I put it in I’ll have it do VM’s and stuff too. This is all beta plans for now and I’m still learning about hardware. Had to put this on hold for a little bit though.

Probably 2 6TB drives in a synology will be fine. Been looking at that again.

I realize some of this sounds kinda crazy, but for my mom she wants to run a business online and my dad wants to run a machinist school and probably do online stuff with it. Plus the property is a good 6 or 7 acres to cover. Yeah, using full on servers might be crazy, but at the moment its what I have so I’ll plot with them first as way way overkill and then float down to just above what would be perfect.