My setup
Mearki MX64 Security appliance
Supermicro SSE-G24-TG4 Layer 3 switch
Mearki MR32 Wireless AP
Mearki MS220-8P switch
What are you using for your mail server?
As for the network itself, not it's Client's, its just boring infrastructure,
If you just have 1 - 5 Client's NO file sever, and your Client's just need DSL internet access, this is the case for 99%, and a 10/100 wi-fi router is all you need.
On the other hand, if you have 5 - 20 Client's a file sever, and you think you'll have more Client's in the future, good Gigabit switches start to make sense.
In Dexter_Kane's case putting a file on his file sever, is literally thousands of times faster than uploading it to the cloud, and in my case it's the difference between 20 minutes and a hour and a half, and that's best case scenario on a 250 up 250 down fiber connection.
In my case zero or close to zero maintainance is the point, you seem Dexter_Kane's notes and network diagram, you set it and forget it LoL, or at least that's my plan.
And yer the major down side is up front cost, and the power bill, but if you buy quality equipment, it should last for years and years.
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I came
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rofl, and im proud i added another router in my bedroom with a powerline network adapter.
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Well I have a Linksys ea6400 (bought the ea6300, but found out it has the ea6400 HW) and a Raspberry Pi 2 server with a 2TB Toshiba external drive. At least I have a 1Gbps college connection ...
Postfix and courier
I mostly followed this guide but added some extra stuff like dkim and whatnot, plus there was a fair bit of trouble shooting involved in getting that guide to work properly. But since I've set it up its been running fine without much maintenance.
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Nothing fancy here, Cable modem > Netgear 3700> tplink switch ( DL380 G5, synology NAS, XBONE, PC)
Yeah, these things cost money. If it were a one or the other choice I'd go with the gaming PC. But now that I have my server and network set up it'll last for years before anything serious needs replacing. I ran out of storage last year and had to build a new storage server, that was expensive but it'll be 4 or 5 years before that fills and I'll need to think about something else.
None of it is necessary, but It's my hobby and I enjoy my set up. When I talk to friends and they have little annoying problems and I say 'why don't you just do such and such' then realise they don't have a proper network set up or anything so they can't do a lot of stuff I could set up quickly, it makes me appreciate how nice it is to have a decent network and storage server at home.
@NicKF I like that mikrotik switch, I'm really tempted to get one but I'm waiting for a (hopefully) 4x SFP+ slot version.
It's awesome that you're able to get an hour out of your UPS, I have the same one but because I'm on 240V I only get maybe 20 minutes out of it. I have a lot of small power interruptions where I live so it's been really handy to have, but for big outages it would be nice to get a little more time out of it.
I am moving soon so my network is currently mostly torn down, but here's the goal after moving into the new place. I already have most of this hardware, but I will be upgrading the NAS so that it can act as centralized storage for the homelab.
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I need to up my my home network game...
Glad I'm not the only one with powerline networking. I took that from my main router that's across the house and down a floor, added a laptop running IPFire in my room as a wireless router that also wires into a 5 port gigabit switch on my desk. Works pretty well for what I need and segments me from the rest of the house so when I break something, it doesn't break everything.
ya, better than running cable along the floor.. noobs
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We have 4 computers, 1 HDTV, 1 media box (roku) and 3 cellphone connected to the asus gigabit router. My PC and my stoarage PC has a 10Gb network cable (15 feet) for private transfers without bogging others.
I jsut don't understand why people have a 48 port switch or anything like that in a home with less than 12 computers, just boggles the mind. That and having 2-3 network switches for like 4 computers, WTF?
After some changes here is what my network is looking like at the moment.
The link between the two switches is 4x1GiB, storage (aka NAS) is hooked up by 2xGiB at the moment.
I use VLans to seprate WWAN, LAN, WLAN-PRIV, WLAN-GUEST and a DMZ (which atm isn't existing)
The WLAN will have another AP added, and the CCTV will have two more cams and a NVR as soon as the proxmox host is back up again.
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220down 20up Fibre To The Premises (That might not seem note-worthy to a lot of people but in the UK it's pretty rare, especially residential FTTP).
Just finished cabling the house with Cat5e LS0H which all comes back to a 48 port patch panel in a 32u cabinet. All terminated out onto back boxes with modules.
Rack contains;
Draytek 2860N Router
Netgear 24 Port Gigabit Switch
Some old as hell 24 port HP Procurve
CCTV DVR Box (all the cameras are cabled back to here)
VMware server
POE injector for my work IP Phone.
Rack-mounted duel-fan unit. (mounted on the back rails at the top of the rack)
(Literally everything above cost me nothing and was all just lying around dead stock at the company I work for, that includes the cabling just in case anyone thought about asking why I didn't use Cat7)
Soon to be added;
Change out one of the switches to something newer with POE ports.
4U Rackmount FreeNas/Plex/Owncloud build.
PFsense box to replace the draytek.
An old monitor, keyboard and mouse with a KVM switch on top of the rack.
Rackmountable UPS.
A POE Access Point in the loft space to get better wifi coverage upstairs.
This is all massively overkill but like I say it's all stuff that was redundant/going spare from my work and I am probably a little too nerdy when it comes to networking hardware.
I've also got a 3 switch, 2 router Cisco lab rack in my office which I will be using for CCNA training and a Watchguard Firebox which I tried and failed to install pfsense on a while back and intend to try again some day.
Network configuration is pretty simply really;
VLAN 1 - All my wired devices, the Vmware server and my main SSID.
VLAN 2 - One port on router reserved and not used, guest and Girlfriend WLAN
VLAN 3 - Reserved for if I want to play with stuff that I don't want to effect my actual devices.
VLAN 6 - Dedicated to Port 6 on Router. LAN to LAN VPN connection back to the office, purely for my IP phone.
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whats the antenna?
i havent found the motivaton to put together a server rack. while i need to figure out how to create a webserver using linux.