Cable modem -> Unifi Dream Machine Pro -> 2x Unifi Access Points (w/injected POE).
I have the ability to create multiple WIFI networks, including a guest network with temporary credentials, and configure QoS, firewalls, etc. if desired.
The multiple access points provides full coverage across my 4-bedroom single-story (rambler) home.
You could achieve similar results with even less effort (and cost) by doing:
Cable model w/built-in wifi -> 2x Eero Access Points (mesh networking)
For things that "need" the performance (), I originally used a pair of Arista 7050TX's that I was kindly allowed to borrow from work. Unfortunately, these things were pulling 350W when idle and increased the temperature inside my rack by 15°F. They're also very significantly louder than a 2U Supermicro server. They're easily heard two rooms away due to the high-pitched fan noise.
Nowadays, for things that need a link faster than 1Gbps, I just use a direct connection so I don't need power hungry switches. I have my storage server connected to the main Aruba switch with 2x 10Gbps SFP+ DACs and then connected it to my desktop with 100Gbps fiber (Mellanox ConnectX-4). The storage server just uses plain old Linux bridges to behave like a switch. Actual performance without any tuning is less than half of the line speed, but that's good enough for me since the SSD's are the bottleneck for file transfer now.
For VLANs/subnets, I keep things relatively simple: 1 network for trusted things (no restrictions), 1 network for untrusted things (internet access only), 1 network for wireguard (access to trusted network only; no internet). Everything is dual-stack because I'm one of the crazy folks who love IPv6.
() "Need" because I hate slow file copies over SMB :)
- 19" Mini rack to hold patch panel and the rest of stuff
- ISP provided cable model/router set in bridge mode
- Mikrotik RB2011 as the main router / fw / wifi
- Synology DS211j as NAS with two 2TB disks in mirror
- Raspberry PI 2 to handle all stuff that's supposed to be running constantly
- PXE boot for multiple OS'es from router / NAS config
Most of the setup was done a long time ago hence some dated equipment but it works for me
My home server and several machines are directly connected to the router via ethernet, and it also offers WiFi in the house. The router offers regular IPv4 NAT in a /24, and passes down GUA and ULA /64s. It also runs a wireguard VPN, DNS and DDNS, and acts as firewall.
My home server runs Ubuntu and runs a lot of stuff, like storage, Nextcloud instance, torrent, internet radio, UPNP media share to the TV, and more. Mostly docker containers and traefik for HTTP, managed with ansible playbooks.
Considering I got both of those devices from the recycle bin, I'm very happy how they work.
- EdgeRouter 4
- Ubiquiti AC-Lites (would like to upgrade to WiFi 6 soon)
- Cisco SG300 28 port core
- x2 Cisco C3560CG-8PC-S for various PoE devices
- x2 2960G-8TC-L for offices
- Cat6 throughout
- Custom build "shuttle" server running Proxmox with various Docker and Windows VMs for Emby, Home Assistant etc.
- HP EliteDesk mini PC for a secondary server
- Netgear ReadyNAS for storage
- Raspberry Pi for bits like ADS-B (I like having a FR24 Business account in return)
I also use much older gear that I can get on the cheap.
- Cat 6 to multiple drops in each room
- Server closet that houses patch panel, switches, battery backup, cable modem
- WAP in closet, it is not doing DHCP, its an apple extreme (latest ver)
- Linux server for NAS and DHCP/DNS and Cameras (motion)
- server has multiple nics (1G/10G) and multiple vlans
- 10G fiber to server and my personal box
- 48pt POE switch in switch closet, patches to patch panel
- running VLANs, one for normal users, one for NAS, one for cameras
I am very tempted to get a 24pt 10G switch and run fiber to each machine. It is not that I need 10G, but after you get a taste for a very low latency network like all 10G fiber, it is very tempting. Now with 40G/100G, the prices of those switches are nothing (I can get them for $200 from server supply) and the nics are hovering around $35-$50 each. At that point, it is almost worth it to go 10G for the low latency and jumbo frames.
Again, I used to do installs, so running cable is not a big deal. Once you start moving a lot of data, it is worth it to have a wired network. Having Linux do dhcp/dns (pihole type setup)/NFS is super handy.
If I could do it over again, I think that I would have opted for something a bit more "pro-sumer", perhaps ubiquiti's mesh system. For what it is, the google system works well enough, but there are a few annoyances that make it less than ideal for the average hacker news reader. An example of this is that you DO NOT get a web interface. Everything must be done with their mobile app.
The best part about the google system is that they intend for the routers to be setup and managed by an average person, which in my experience has lead to a very stable system. I couldn't tell you the last time I had to reboot any of the hubs and the family hasn't had any complaints. A close second is that the hubs each have an ethernet jack on them, allowing my desktop to be "hard wired" into the network and still get fiber-like speeds despite the fiber drop not being near the desktop computer.
Even in my small-to-mid sized home in suburbia seems to benefit from the mesh system and I won't be going back! The benefits are real.
Why a home network would need more (apart from 10 GB Ethernet but it get expensive really quick)?
They work well-enough, but some of the advanced features of their firmware like QoS and NAS are garbage so I run vanilla settings.
I also have a pi4 for NAS and Minecraft world, and a 4 port tp-link switch my entertainment unit so all the hardware there is wired.
Unfortunately, the built-in wifi chipset isn't supported by FreeBSD, so I use a CSL AC1200 USB 3.0 wifi stick for that. It works, but sadly only supports running a single network at a time.
Aside from that: Some DLink/Netgear switches and plain old copper.
As a NAS: A custom built Ryzen micro-ITX (I think?) build running NixOS.
2 IPTV set top boxes, a handful of Macs, too many Raspberry Pi’s and ARM dev boards, a NAS, my two Windows work machines, everything hanging off Gigabit or 802.11n.
Zero Wi-Fi meshing, zero remote management, zero hassles.
In fact, I’m starting to worry what I’ll replace this with, since I can’t really find Wi-Fi gear that doesn’t try to provide “added value” by forcing me to use some kind of cloud service.
Not just recommendations but incredibly detailed explanations. Recommendations can be found in Appendix B:
The cost of the router and two stations was about the same as for router and one station of various hyped products.
It has got lots of smarts, VPN server, DNS server, highly configurable and you can opt in into Synology cloud with DDNS and connection to home network using their stuff. There’s security monitor, something akin to fail2ban, etc.
Additionally I have a Synology NAS that serves as a server using docker and as media station using Emby package. Additionally my old thinkpad laptop serves as a build agent for Drone CI primary that is running in docker on the NAS.
Everything else connects to internet and home network via WiFi, 800 megabits seems plenty for everything I want to do.
I am not affiliated with Synology, just a happy user that finds that everything I need to work, simply works.
I have a TP-Link ER605 load balancing 3 Internet connections, and Wi-Fi with an old Apple AirPort Extreme (2013) + a few others as Access Points. I have CAT6 running around, served by a TP-Link Gigabit Switch.
A friend’s Startup shutdown at the beginning of the Pandemic and I bought his 27U Server rack for dirt cheap.
Here is the recent config - https://www.instagram.com/p/CUWeopdPVOp/
I added the 3rd Internet few days back. ISPs are competing and India is one of the cheapest when it comes to Internet Bandwidth/Speed.
Here is the typical speed https://www.instagram.com/p/CU1sAbcvHeY/
Sneak peek of the Rack Setup
FTTH -> MediaConvertor -> Ubuquiti EdgeRouter 4 (ER-4) -> Mix of TP-Link TL-SG2008P Switches, Netgear GS208E/GS205E Switches, all multi-VLAN -> Older HP Workstation with XEON procs running as VMware server (hoping to replace with something smaller and less power hungry eventually) -> OC200 Controller -> 2x EAP245v3 WAPs (Obviously not exactly in a chain order like that...)
I have a TP-Link TL-ER7206 that I may replace the ER-4 with (ER-4 is stable, and working well) (Would love to know if anyone is successfully running the TL-ER7206 with the Bell Canada provided SFP directly installed.)
(Had to go with the MediaConvertor because the SFP in the ER-4 has a bug and resets every 20 minutes or so)
Previously I had:
Cable Modem -> ALIX running pfSense -> Netgear GS208E/GS205E Switches multi-VLAN -> Older HP Workstation with XEON procs running as VMware server (hoping to replace with something smaller and less power hungry eventually) -> 2x MikroTik HAP AC as WAPs
I liked the setup, but the Cable Internet was slow by today's standards, and the ALIX only had 100M LAN ports, which limited my inter-VLAN communication speeds. (I couldn't justify the expense of new hardware required to run the newer pfSense/OpnSense) I liked the MikroTiks, but noticed that the wireless performance was slow once I moved to the Gigabit Fibre Internet.
The MikroTiks had replaced some TP-Link Archer C7 I was using as WAPs that were running OpenWRT. They were okay, but the devices needed to be reboot every 2 weeks or so (which was scheduled).
I've also run copper wire to various points to spread the equipment about the flat.
- Internet Modem/Router set in Bridge mode & taking care of guest WiFi network
- Own router sitting right behind it and taking care of internal Wifi network and connecting to the Internet using PPPoE
- Second router at my desk, relaying the internal WiFi signal (Asus AC1900 with custom firmware: https://www.asuswrt-merlin.net/)
- Switch connected to the second router at my desk; used for PCs, printers
- NAS connected to the second router at my desk (8-bay Synology DS1812+) hosting all the good stuff, internal DNS zone (lol), OpenVPN, Docker, Plex, etc
- Another switch in the living room, with all fun devices attached (TV, amplifier, PS4, Nintendo Switch, etc)
WRT3200ACM running OpenWRT with 2 aftermarket antennas: https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B08HM3KBRH/ and https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00R1PA9EO/
XFinity-supplied cable modem.
Gigabit semi-managed switch TP-Link TL-SG105E for my office upstairs, connected with a 50 foot cat6 cable.
Pretty simple. OpenWRT sends logs to my raspberry pi 4 general purpose server. Backups are sent to borgbase.com
Don't really have any issues with this setup. DNS is nice and fast, wireless reaches the whole (admittedly small) house. We have a separate 2.4GHz wlan for devices/sensors/doorbell etc etc.
I added the antennas because under some conditions some devices in rooms furthest from the WRT3200ACM would slow down, and they appear to have fixed any connectivity issues.
It was great, except I longed for a single pane of glass to manage it...especially for vlan configuration. Librenms at least provided visibility into the vlans across devices and ports, but not management. And upgrade time, especially on the openwrt front, was stressful, as I have had updates render a router unbootable.
I switched to Unifi products around 1.5 years ago, and now everything just works. I have a Unifi Dream Machine Pro, 2 16 port Unifi Switch Lites, and 3 Unifi access points. It's been pretty flawless, and the interface is extremely nice.
It was pricey, but now I get to focus on solving problems that add value rather than constant tinkering. Don't get me wrong...tinkering is great, but you reach a point where you'd rather not have to.
The home network is fully wireless (wiring is pretty old and sockets are in some unfortunate places). There are both 4GHz and 5GHz wifi networks.
All my personal devices have static 'leases' to my "dev" subnet, which has no restrictions, port forwarding for certain services, multiple split VPNs with different routes.
My significant other has her devices on a "trusted home" subnet (with static leases).
All other home devices that may need an internet connection (eg: Homepod), live on a restricted (firewall) subnet (with static leases).
Any new device gets leased an IP on a "guest" subnet, that can only communicate on that subnet, and to the internet unrestricted.
- 8 port managed switch connected to the router with a number of VLANs (IoT network, general/guest Wifi, trusted local network + Wifi, NAS Service Processor, DMZ network, externally accessible services network etc.)
- 3 Apple AirPort Extreme WiFi access points (for various VLANs) + 1 in another room for extension via Ethernet. These run in bridge mode.
- 2 more unmanaged Netgear 4/5 port switches (16 port managed switch is hard to get these days due to chip shortages and also significantly more expensive than the current solution) connected to the managed switch
- another Netgear switch in the closet to connect the in wall Ethernet sockets from several rooms together
- handful of Raspberry Pi boxes running Raspbian (Pihole/NTP server, another for Weather/environment monitoring, another for Docker to host some Wordpress - via Cloudflare tunnel, another for displaying weather information on eInk display, another for monitoring my working habits)
- NAS running TrueNAS in Fractal design Node 304 case with 6 drives, PCIe SAS card (for redundancy/more robust checksumming), beeper for alerting. Backups done to Backblaze and also to internally strapped USB drive.
Some of the stuff has alerting setup via PagerDuty (esp. the NAS and environment monitoring). General monitoring done by Grafana.
Most of the stuff is located on the top of a large bookshelf.
Except the NAS everything is fanless and the NAS was modded to be as quiet as possible (large silicone feet, large+slow fans)
The network is double NAT and there is no IPv6 which sucks.
Would like to buy Intel NUC for learning K8s however these are hard to get these days, at least in the spec I want.
The ERX is tiny, sips power and can route traffic with QoS turned on at ~100-120Mbps (without QoS it routes at 1Gbps). The wireless access point provides good 5Ghz coverage for an average two bedroom flat (placed centrally in the flat).
Both devices support Ubiquiti's old PoE standard and the ERX has a PoE passthrough port so I power both with a single PoE injector.
The QoS feature of the ERX was a life saver in our old flat where the best connection we could get was DSL (~16Mbps). Without it we couldn't have worked from home during lockdown (two developers constantly in meetings and pulling/pushing Docker images and npm packages :)
Now we've got fibre but I'm still running the same setup because it worked so well in the past (with the ISP's fibre modem in front of the ERX).
The living-room wifi access point usually serves two iphones, a smart TV and a laptop.
The main router/wifi in the office serves the main server computer via ethernet cable, and a raspberry pi which is a UPS controller and dedicated web server also via ethernet cable.
A separate office laptop, when used, is served from the router's wifi. A wifi printer-scanner is also served from there.
The extra wifi access point in the living area is connected to the router via an Ethernet-over-Power-Lines adapter.
I used to have bandwidth problems in the living area until I added the extra wifi access point.
Occasional wifi connections are served to MP3 players, etc.
Most stuff has IP addresses allocated via a DHCP server in the router, though some pieces of equipment have reserved IP addresses, such as the printer, the main server, and the raspberry Pi.
TP-Link TD-W9970 Router 5 x BT Whole Home Wifi (one wired to router, two wired to the SkyQ boxes)
Went with BT Whole Home Wifi as it was cheaper than the other mesh networks and had good enough reviews.
We have actually kept the Wifi on the TP-Link router turned on as an additional network (hadn't planed to) as we had connection issues between the BT system and a Natatmo Indoor Camera, it would constantly disconnect/reconnect to the network.
* Unifi Security Gateway Pro (for the 2 WAN ports with failover)
* Unifi US-8-Lite-PoE
* Unifi AP-AC-Pro meshed to a:
* Unifi AP-AC-M
2 servers, about 40 devices (including ~10 phones), 2 WiFi access points. Looking for 10 Gbps fiber in key places, but other than affordable Mikrotik switches I was not able to source the components. Several computers have 2.5 Gbps onboard, but good luck finding cost-effective 2.5Gbps switches with 10 Gbps uplink.
I have no recommendation for switches, availability and price is very good for 1 Gbps. For access points any decent Wifi 6 from a reputable manufacturer should be fine.
- 200Mbps FTTH (Australia NBN via iiNet)
- ASUS RT-AC68U AC1900 WiFi router running Asuswrt-Merlin
- Internal Cat6 cabling from FTTH NTU to comms closet then to office desk and TV.
- Cisco SPA112 VoIP adapter
- Intel NUC7I7BNH running with external drives for media storage and Plex server (recently had to take it apart and apply new thermal paste due to overheating).
It all works very well.
My next enhancement would likely be some Raspberry Pi-based audio devices/speakers in different rooms and on the back deck, perhaps running balenaSound.
(I keep thinking I should get a proper NAS again; I had one for media and backups years ago but it died, and it's never been a huge urgency to get another one, I guess because there's not so much need for local storage now with the streaming platforms and cloud storage.)
- ISP provided router that splits out IPTV into my TV box and has one port as passthrough to my pfsense box. It should be possible to do this splitting in pfsense but I never managed.
- The pfsense box is a passive ITX machine with a Celeron N3350 and two intel NICs.
- A dumb gigabit switch is connected to the LAN side of the pfsense box.
- I run ethernet to my stationary machines.
- A Ubiquiti access point feeds the wifi.
This setup has worked pretty much flawlessly for two years.
If I was goinig to do it again I would install OpenBSD instead of pfsense on the box. I didn't like the political drama around pfsense the last few years and I hardly use any of the features. I just want something that never breaks and has few foot-guns.
With so many radios, I've segregated IoT devices on their own frequency to maximize throughput on workstations. VLANs provide network isolation.
I think the routing performance is fine for most households. If you need a router that does QoS on a gigabit internet connection, you'll need something more powerful.
Occasionally I'll wish that I had something faster than 1GbE, so the hunt for hardware continues...
What hardware do you use for your home ZFS-based NAS setup? (Motherboard, chassis, cpu, PSU)
ISP-supplied wireless extender for the annex which gets ~ 200Mbit due to distance and walls, but better than the crap we used to have.
Native, full IPv6 with a /64 subnet so I have port 22 to one /128 destination (my old recycled HP used as a media server) open in the IPv6 firewall with an AAAA record pointing to it.
It sucks when I'm on a network without IPv6 but I can always use one of my Linodes as a jump host to reach it.
Pros: - Reliable 1 Gbit/s symmetric with dedicated IPv6/48 block with prefix delegation, so no NAT on IPv6. - Good WiFi coverage, typically ~300-500 Mbit/s - Easy management and option to add camera surveillance - No power cables to most equipment
Cons: - UI software at times flaky - USG doesn't support real-time protection at 1 GBit/s (but at ~120 Mbit/s)
1. Ubiquiti ER-X
2. Ubiquiti AP Lite x 2 (upstairs and downstairs)
3. Inbuilt Cat6 cabling in house
The benefit of this approach is I get to use prosumer hardware but at reasonable cost (total < $350 AUD). For the AP's I have just setup via pairing on the mobile app and use the same SSID and passwords which allows for easy roaming.
I'm contemplating upgrading to an Ubiquiti dream machine pro to replace the ER-X for more ports and ability to have video recording & security cameras but really happy with current setup from a wifi performance and stability perspective.
* Asus with ai.mesh for access layer, sometimes openwrt, sometimes merlin
* Ubiquiti ER-Pro 8 with openwrt. Likely Mikrotik RB5009UG+S+IN soon
* copper to APs, copper for core
* chunky Linux server for compiling and rendering
* tiny Linux for Ceph nodes
* mysensors for sensing and control
* pis (orange and raspberry) and Jetson Nanos for kubernetes
* nodered and mqtt for mysensors and integrations - mostly replaced Home Assistant
* Most VLANs are dual stack (IPv4 and IPv6)
* openvpn to a central cloud hosted server
* tor specific SSID
* Nautobot to keep track of everything
* CoreDNS, traefik, terraform/matchbox, jellyfin
I also run my own DNS: two pi-hole docker instances running on Linux servers, backed by unbound. That I can recommend wholeheartedly.
Used to use Ubiquiti Edgerouter, until it failed. The Smart QOS feature was pretty good. Used to use Unifi for wifi, but always struggled with clients getting stuck communicating with the most distant access point.
(Edit: In case it's relevant for some, I should also list: a Draytek 130 to adapt perculiar UK PPPoA broadband to PPPoE.)
pfSense router
24 port PoE Managed Switch
This then splits off to my homelab, Ruckus & Unifi APs for WiFi and a few other switches around the house for the office, TV and bedrooms.
Unifi 24 port switches as backbone
6 Unifi WiFi APs powered over POE
Pihole on 2 virtual machines for redundancy
an old IBM M3650X4 2HE server running Proxmox with dual CPUs, 40 cores, 400GB RAM
Self built freenas with 72TB of storage
Some Pis for home automation stuff
A plethora of servers running on the VM host.
I am Planing to get another Server machine to make it more redundant.
I'm the only user, with 6-8 WiFi devices, so bandwidth is not an issue.
There's also a QNAP NAS and a gaming PC connected via LAN, everything else is WiFi only.
I used to have a FRITZ! repeater as well, but in the new flat it's not necessary anymore.
Then I have a Google WiFi mesh system that is linked to the main modem in cascade and I use that in order to have reliable WiFi all over the house.
Will probably add a Pi sometime later this year in order to have ads blocked globally while keeping Cloudflare as encrypted DNS provider.
- Main router: D-Link DIR-1960 with openwrt
- 2nd router: Asus RT-AC51U (old router)
- Wifi AP: Netgear EX-6120
If I were to build it again I'd have a look at the TP Link Omada gear, I hear good things about it.
DNS and DLNA is managed on a Raspberry Pi B+ dangling with a USB cable from the Fritz!Box
* Unifi AP-AC-Pro * Edgerouter X * Netgear GS308E managed switch
Split into VLANs for trusted devices, IoT devices and guest wifi. Proxmox server with Pihole and Wireguard for adblocking and VPN access, along with other non-networking services (Firefly III, MySQL DB, Plex...)
They route 1Gbit fiber just fine though.
Before the NAS I just plugged in multiple USB HDDs in a "poor man's home server" setup.
Works well for me.
1x MikroTik RB952-something, switch & AP
Though I'm in the planning stages to replace it all with a NixOS solution, the CPU is too slow to encapsulate with wireguard at decent speeds. (caps at 70 Mbps)
Been researching 2.5Gbe retrofit but it’s still a touch expensive for the benefit
Pack of 3 works well enough to cover the whole house + shed located in the far end of the garden.
Also cheaper then google mesh.
Ethernet to my workstation (because it's in the same room as the switch)
- Cat-6 throughout (60 runs)
- 18U Rack
- Synology RS819 NAS
- Dell R720 VM host
- Ubiquiti Unifi stack:
-- Security Gateway Pro
-- 48 port PoE switch
-- 24 port switch
-- CloudKey Gen2 Plus
-- 5 AC-Pro Wifi AP's
-- 5 G3 Flex Cameras
- Various subnets running a mix of EdgeRouter and OpenWRT.
> TekLager i5 w/ Untangle NG firewall
> UniFi managed switches
> UniFi POE APs
Looking to replace the Unifi gear time permitting.
Works very well. Router was from Costco.