HACKER Q&A
📣 beart

How is your home network configured?


I have a couple raspberry pis, a synology, and an assortment of user devices (Windows, Mac, Linux).

I have tried and sometimes succeeded but often failed to set up a consistent and easy to use home network for all of these devices. Commonly I run into file permission issues when trying to, for instance, create an app in docker on a pi that stores data on a network location (NAS).

What methods do you use in your home network to accomplish file sharing and communication across your devices? What protocols do you prefer and what have you found to provide the best/easiest/most powerful cross-platform network communication and file sharing set up?


  👤 p0d Accepted Answer ✓
I have a complex home network. Cable router, secondary gigabit switch, ethernet to garden office, secondary wifi router in garden office.

So now I have credibility I say pay the 15 bucks for 100Gb of Google storage and save the hassle regarding shared files. Backup the Google stuff locally with rclone which can checkout Google files as open document format.

I have a 10yr old dual-core box running Plex. The same box runs containers for my dev work. Sharing dev stuff was my main pain. Here's the trick. Install Sublime in your centralised containers. Then you can run Sublime over ssh from any machine in the house. Love it :-)


👤 codingdave
This might be too simplistic of an answer, but despite having the capability of setting up a fancy home network, I prefer to keep the network simple, and transfer files between devices with USB drives.

👤 ghastmaster
Samba + Zerotier. I do not use docker or create apps, but I won't even consider using synology for my home network after the ease of samba. Combined with zerotier, I access files from windows, linux, mac, and android from anywhere in the world with a suitable internet connection. Multiple user accounts do the same. You can install zerotier on synology as well and it works.

👤 rasengan
SAMBA [1] works well and having static LAN IPs has helped me (in ranges that the DHCPd is not using).

[1] https://www.samba.org/


👤 duxup
Cable modem to a 4 year old Netgear router.... surprising enough that seems fine as far as handling a lot of devices / gadgets.

I have a Synology NAS for local backups.