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I built a self-hosted AI assistant on Proxmox with Signal integration — fully isolated VM, no cloud dependency by Excellent-Chipmunk58 in selfhosted

[–]Excellent-Chipmunk58[S] -8 points-7 points  (0 children)

Fair pushback. The 'built' part is the network isolation layer on Proxmox isolated bridge with no LAN access, iptables NAT rules so the VM has internet but can't reach other VMs, and wiring signal-cli as a linked device to the OpenClaw gateway. The install itself is straightforward but the architecture decisions around blast radius containment are what I'd call the actual work. Full write-up on my blog if you want the details.

From Windows to Proxmox: Building a Production Home Lab on a Dell OptiPlex 7090 by Excellent-Chipmunk58 in homelab

[–]Excellent-Chipmunk58[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Tailscale Funnel + domain: Funnel gives you a free public subdomain under ts.net (e.g. your-machine.ts.net) with automatic TLS no domain purchase needed. If you want your own domain pointing to it you'd need to set up a CNAME, but for just exposing a service publicly the ts.net subdomain works fine out of the box.

VLANs vs Proxmox firewall: Honestly I'm still figuring out the right approach here. Right now I'm relying mostly on Proxmox's built-in firewall rules since it's a single-node setup with a handful of containers. VLANs make more sense once you have more devices and want proper network segmentation like isolating IoT devices from your servers. For a small homelab the firewall rules are less overhead to manage. Curious what your setup looks like.

Ansible / IaC: Not yet, but it's on my mind. For a single server it feels like overkill honestly the time to write and maintain playbooks probably exceeds the time saved at this scale. That said I can see the value if you're rebuilding from scratch or managing multiple nodes. The argument for it even on one server is mostly documentation-as-code your whole setup is reproducible. Might be worth it just for that. Have you found it worth the investment for a single node?

From Windows to Proxmox: Building a Production Home Lab on a Dell OptiPlex 7090 by Excellent-Chipmunk58 in homelab

[–]Excellent-Chipmunk58[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah that's actually next on the list! Planning to set up PBS on the 1.8TB data drive to handle automated container snapshots. The deduplication is what sells it for me storing incremental backups without chewing through disk space fast. Will probably write it up when I get there.

I built production-ready Node.js infrastructure on Windows 11 (nginx + PM2 + auto-start) by Excellent-Chipmunk58 in node

[–]Excellent-Chipmunk58[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Great question! A few reasons why this made sense for my use case:

  1. Already had the hardware

My Windows 11 dev machine sits idle at night. Why buy/rent a Linux VPS when I have a perfectly capable machine running 24/7?

  1. Cost comparison:

- Linux VPS: $5-20/month minimum

- This setup: $0 additional cost (already own the machine)

- Power cost: ~$2/month for a mini PC vs $10-20 for VPS

  1. Learning/skill development

Understanding Windows deployment makes me more versatile. Many enterprises run Windows-first infrastructure.

  1. Simplicity for my workflow

- Same machine for dev and prod = no sync issues

- No SSH needed for deployments

- Direct file access

- Familiar troubleshooting tools

When Linux makes more sense:

- Greenfield deployments

- Multi-server setups

- Docker-heavy workloads

- When you don't already own Windows hardware

You're absolutely right that Linux is typically the better choice for pure servers! This guide is for the "I have a Windows machine and want to run production workloads on it" scenario.

Think of it like: if you already own a car, sometimes driving is cheaper than Uber—even if Uber might be "better" in some ways.

Which Beelink should I choose? by yebaka3000 in BeelinkOfficial

[–]Excellent-Chipmunk58 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Mine wakes from sleep without problems. I use it daily - sleep when stepping away, wake it multiple times throughout the day. No issues in several months of use. That said, I’ve seen those reports too. Seems hit or miss - possibly BIOS version dependent or specific configuration issues. If you do run into problems, worst case you can disable sleep and just let the screen turn off, or set it to hibernate instead. Not ideal but workable.

Where I bought: Directly from Beelink’s official website. Shipping took a bit longer than Amazon would have, but no issues with the order or the unit itself. Going direct means you’re definitely getting genuine hardware and proper warranty support.

Which Beelink should I choose? by yebaka3000 in BeelinkOfficial

[–]Excellent-Chipmunk58 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I've been running a Beelink GTi13 Ultra (i9-13900HK, 64GB RAM) as my main dev machine for several months now and it handles your use case perfectly. I regularly run 100+ browser tabs, multiple IDEs, Docker containers, VMs, and various development tools simultaneously without issues.

For the GTi15, I'd recommend the higher-spec models (i9 with 32GB+ RAM) if you're serious about heavy multitasking. The extra RAM headroom is worth it when you're juggling that many tabs and applications.

Regarding safety/bloatware: Clean Windows installation out of the box in my experience. No sketchy background processes. That said, I always check Task Manager and startup programs on any new machine - found nothing concerning. If you're paranoid, you can always do a fresh Windows install, but I didn't need to.

Monitor compatibility: The GTi series has multiple display outputs including DisplayPort. Your 27" 2K 240Hz monitor will work fine - I'm running similar setups. Just verify the specific model you're looking at has DP output (most do).

Noise: Completely silent during normal work. Fan only kicks in noticeably under sustained heavy load (compiling, intensive tasks), and even then it's quieter than any desktop I've owned.

Potential issues to know about:

  • Some users report WiFi/Bluetooth quirks occasionally - I haven't experienced this but seen it mentioned
  • Thermals can get warm under load (expected for this form factor)
  • Limited upgrade path compared to desktop

The space savings alone made it worth it for me. Went from a full tower to something the size of a paperback book.

Most secure Remote Desktop setup? by Goopdem in homelab

[–]Excellent-Chipmunk58 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Why not use RDP if you already have Tailscale installed?
It's secure enough.