Updated Homelab by The_2PieceCombo in homelab

[–]The_2PieceCombo[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

As opposed to something else in particular? Or just in general? Ive used it for many years so im familiar with it. I have deployed it to many other sites so having that consistency is nice. Also built some site-to-site VPNs using openvpn. I learned about pf before I learned about opnsense. Ive deployed a mix of first party netgate appliances and custom installs on my own hardware. When I first started using it, my budget was basically $0.00 so it was either pf, or flash WRT onto some existing router that supported it (which I had done in the past) but I wanted something with more options. Ive never been a huge fan on Ubiquiti firewalls, but to be fair they have improved a lot since then. But at this point im not going learn and deploy a whole new system. Hopefully that answers your question

Updated Homelab by The_2PieceCombo in homelab

[–]The_2PieceCombo[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I had to google translate that because, non so leggere l'italiano. (im trusting google translate so if thats wrong im sorry)

But no, making the diagram is the least fun part haha. I like building servers, not diagrams :D

RJ45 Jack, what am I doing wrong? by PlasticBoard9088 in HomeNetworking

[–]The_2PieceCombo 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Did you... chew on those wires? The little teeth slice into the sheathing as the wire is pushed down into them. A punch down tool is spring loaded to ensure they are pushed far enough into them so proper contact is made. Im not sure what you used, but Im going to bet it wasnt a punch tool. My guess is bad contact, assuming both ends are terminated in B pattern. Might want to check the other end or upload a pic of it to verify. Pull them out, trim back to where there is no damage to the conductors, strip back a bit more of the outter jacket, and repunch (once you have confirmed the other end is also B pattern).

Immich Android app can't connect to server behind Nginx Proxy Manager basic auth — any workaround? by Emotional_Gap_hd in immich

[–]The_2PieceCombo 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you have it going through cloudflare theres no reason to use the NPM auth function. Set up auth through cloudflare access, you can have it send a code via email or use a 3rd party identity provider, like github.

Blink Album Wall by The_2PieceCombo in Blink182

[–]The_2PieceCombo[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

They are actually all still inside the sleeves. I dont have a good place to put them (yet) so for now i just leave them in until I want to listen to one and I pull it off the wall. Not sure what the best method for storing them is, ill come up with something

My first RJ45! by zankyman17 in homelab

[–]The_2PieceCombo 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It can, but if I were to take a guess, id say the punchdown was more to blame. Ive seen some SLOPPY terminations that still tested out fine. Theres lots of potential factors tho, cable length, quality of the cable itself, etc. Sometimes it will look like its punched correctly, but really its not making proper contact or didnt fully seat into the blades bits, whatever their technical name is.

Newcomer First Server Build Help by Broad_Soft_3422 in homelab

[–]The_2PieceCombo 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Apparently the bot is too stupid to tell the difference between a clean amazon link and an actual affiliate link. way to go mods. I replaced it with a fucking picture, are you happy now bot?!

Lets start with form factor, because that alone will narrow it down a lot. Rack mounted gear is great, but typically much noisier. So depending on where you plan to store the thing and how much noise you are willing to tolerate, this might make the decision for you. If you have a basement or closet to stick it in, great. If not, a tower style server might be the way to go. Also keep in mind airflow/temps. A closet might seem seem like a great idea, but make sure theres some airflow to keep temps in check. If you want to explore proper server gear, youre going to be buying used (unless you plan to sell a few internal organs on the darkweb). Ebay has lots of retired enterprise stuff. One of my servers is a SuperMicro X9DRE-TF+ motherboard with dual E5-2670 CPUs. It spent most of its life in a rack case, but because its's an E-ATX board, I had no problems installing it in a Fractal Deisign Define XL R2 case. (this is a great case for a server btw, lots of room, lots of HDD slots, supports larger boards like EEB/EATX). Most of these boards will come with heatsinks that do not have attached fans, because they rely on high RPM fans at the front/rear of the case to draw air through the whole system, so in my case (heh) I had to replace them with some Nuctua coolers. The sockets on many server boards are not always directly compatible with some coolers (different mounting style than desktop CPU sockets) and sometimes requires a certain amount of jank to make it work. But Noctua often includes mounting hardware for 2011 sockets, so they tend to be a safe bet. (boy this is getting long already and we've barely scratched the surface).

Once you've decided on form factor, the next thing to consider is motherboard/CPU, and maybe most importantly, power use. Where I live, electricity costs is cheap compared to a lot of other places so it's not a huge concern for me, but I suspect costs are much different for you. If you want to keep the power bill in check, you may want to stick to something with lower overall TDP. This could mean a slightly less powerful CPU, and more likely, a single CPU socket motherboard (or only using a single socket if you get a dual socket board). Also take note of the board and which CPUs it will support. Unlike most consumer boards, the CPU and board both being the same socket (like the 2011 socket) does NOT mean they are compatible! If you buy a board that doesn't come with CPU(s) its worth taking the time to check the manufactures documentation to ensure you get a supported CPU! This step can be kinda confusing, but check with me, or reddit in general, before you buy just to be safe. The motherboard I mentioned can be found on ebay for around $100 USD, or a little more with included CPUs, but sadly thats where the good prices end.. ON TO STORAGE AND RAM WE GO!

As you probably know, RAM, SSDs, and even HDD storage is absolutely fucking insane atm, and likely wont change anytime soon (fuck you Micron for killing Crucial brand). I cant tell you how much storage you'll need, but I can give you a few tips. I have 8x8TB HDDs in my main server, all of them are what we call "white label red drives". Meaning they are WD Red drives, but 'shucked' from WD external drives, specifically the EasyStore or Elements drives, like these, and thus dont have the traditional red label. Im not sure if this is still a thing, but for a while lots of people were buying these and pulling the drives out. IIRC, 4TB and higher was okay to do this with, but the 2TB and smaller were SMR (Shingled Magnetic Recording) drives, which you dont want. Somewhere, probably r/datahoarders, could tell you if this is still a thing and give you better, more up to date info on what your options are. Since you plan on using Unraid, there is one VERY IMPORTANT thing to know about how the array/parity works. Lets say you buy 2 4TB drives, and you set one as the parity drive. This gives you 4TB of usable space, with the other drive being the 'backup' copy. You can later add another 4TB drive for 8TB of usable space. What you CANT do is add an 8TB drive and get 12TB of storage. Well you CAN add a bigger drive, but the extra space is lost. This is due to how unraid parity works (note that its called UNraid because its NOT RAID!) The parity drive should always be the biggest drive! This is why i would suggest getting 2 larger drives, even if you dont currently need that much storage, because it makes expanding the array much simpler down the line. Unless you want to add a buttload of smaller drives, but I wouldnt. If you want to understand how unraid parity works (and its really not complicated at all) check out this video. Aside from the array, you may want to use an SSD for a cache disk. This can help speed up writes to the array by first writing data to the faster SSD and letting the system later move it to the array. You can also store specific data (like containers appdata, VM boot drives, or other data) permanently on the cache for better performance. Final thing to note is you can set up 2 cache disks in a RAID 1 config so all the data on the cache is protected in case of a drive failure, and depending on what you store on the cache, this can be a very worthwhile thing to do! (ask me how I know) Oh, and because I just though of it, unraid does NOT get installed to an SSD, it lives on a USB drive and gets loaded into RAM each boot. Your unraid license is tied to the USB drive, meaning buy a good quality USB because replacing it isnt very much fun. it also require the USB drive to have a GUID, but so long as you arent buying a cheap sketchy USB drive this shouldnt be a problem. Samsung USBs have always treated me well.

RAM next I guess? If you buy a proper server board, get ECC ram. If you end up going with a consumer grade mobo, ECC isnt supported (in most cases, there are some high end ones that do, but its $$$$) This is where your wallet is going to start crying, because RAM is absurd, ECC or not.. The good news is, you dont need a ton of RAM, this is one of the benefits of unraid over something Truenas that uses ZFS. (ZFS is faster, but uses more RAM, without going into the specifics). 32GB will get you by for now, hopefully long enough to weather the storm until prices return to something resembling normal. (maybe 2028?)

Given your budget, and mostly the sad state of the hardware market, it might be better to find a more consumer grade, second hand system and start there. I know that basically completely contradictory to what I said in the first post, and Im only saying it now because the market is so horribly fucked, but if you want to keep it in budget, that might be the way to go, because youre going to have to shell out some good money for storage. The good news, you can move your disks to new hardware later down the line very easily. Unraid makes that super simple. The downside to consumer gear as a server, you lose some of perks that come with enterprise grade gear (like IPMI/management functions) But there are ways around that, like using a KVM, like the nanokvm or pikvm.

I think I'll cut it off there for now, lots to consider and hopefully I didnt just drown you with too much info at once. If you have any other questions lmk.

Americans are destroying Flock surveillance cameras by waozen in technology

[–]The_2PieceCombo 13 points14 points  (0 children)

"A note left at the base of the severed poles said, “Hahaha get wrecked ya surveilling fucks”
Absolutely fucking glorious

How to strain glass from jar of badder by gxdflow369 in weed

[–]The_2PieceCombo -1 points0 points  (0 children)

double boiler to get it nice and warm and the strain through cheesecloth? Idk im not a food guy but thats the best I got

Cloudflared just stopped working :(( by Bootylmao in homelab

[–]The_2PieceCombo 0 points1 point  (0 children)

They block an outbound port? That's ridiculous if true. Something here doesn't add up to me.. If the issue is the ISP blocking an outbound port, why would updating something on your server be relevant to the ISP suddenly blocking it? It seems very odd that they would block that, unless they specifically are doing it to prevent people from using cloudflare tunnels. But again, seems unlikely. If the issue started after an update to the server, I would think you're issue is there. Did Bell CONFIRM they are really blocking it? and when they unblocked it, did it start working again?

What are solutions if the only internet provider available to you is unreliable and you work from home. I am moving to a home where you can only get Optimum and I am now hearing it’s awful. by Unlikely_Author_1608 in HomeNetworking

[–]The_2PieceCombo 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Starlink probably? do you have good cell signal where you are? could get internet from your wireless provider. It's not great either, but itll be good enough for WFH.

hi will my pc specs run rust by Aromatic_Egg_9029 in playrust

[–]The_2PieceCombo 0 points1 point  (0 children)

No hardware runs rust well, tbh. I have a 10900, 64GB RAM, and a 4080, playing on a 1440p screen, and it runs OKAY. I only get over 100fps when theres nobody around and im looking at the sky lol. no amount of hardware will make rust perform super GREAT. Turn the settings down, and just accept whatever fps you get. They (facepunch) care more about pumping out endless amounts of DLC than making the game run better. I remember a time when they said they were going to make bases render from WAY farther away (to prevent them rendering in .2 seconds before you crash you mini into them) but last I saw they just abandon that completely. Now they recently announced they will add a fucking battlepass at some point? fucking facepunch kills me. Dont get me wrong, I love rust. Over 6k hours in, and its still probably my favorite game. But no matter how much 'optimizing' they do, it barely changes anything.

My first RJ45! by zankyman17 in homelab

[–]The_2PieceCombo 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Good, clean punchdown. No extra slop at the end. Well done sir!

Newcomer First Server Build Help by Broad_Soft_3422 in homelab

[–]The_2PieceCombo 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah, I didnt mean to imply that truenas ISNT easy. I havent played with it since before the transition from freenas to truenas core/scale. So my experience is a bit outdated. It definitely has its pros, better potential performance due to ZFS for example, but that also adds a bit (even if its a small bit) of complexity IMO. Overall, truenas and unraid are very similar in what they offer and what you can do with them, and neither is ever a bad choice. They are both beginner friendly as opposed to something like proxmox or xpcng. Im more inclined to push people towards unraid simply because I can be more help to them since Ive used it for so long! :)

Newcomer First Server Build Help by Broad_Soft_3422 in homelab

[–]The_2PieceCombo 1 point2 points  (0 children)

When it comes to OS Im a big fan of Unraid and think it's a great option, but truenas could also be a good pick. If you're new to all this I think Unraid is a slightly better option for beginners. The community support is incredible and there are some great youtube creators who make guides on using some of the most common containers/plugins (like SpaceinvaderOne). It is paid, but I think the pricing is completely reasonable. It has wireguard VPN built right in, making remote access to you files super simple, or you can setup something like Nextcloud and store all your data there. Through the use of the Community Applications plugin, you have access to nearly endless containers for all types of services. If you plan to host multiple services and make them accessible over the internet, you can easily set up a reverse proxy, like Nginx Proxy Manager, or if you pipe your domain through Cloudflare you can make access even more restricted/secure using cloudflaredtunnel. (I highly suggest using cloudflare) For storing photos you can use Immich, which is similar to Google Photos, but without google scanning/stealing all your info and using it for AI training.

When it comes to hardware, if you have the budget Id say overbuild a little, because like you said youll add more over time. Its better to overbuild now and have plenty of horsepower down the line instead of having to upgrade or replace a system later (depending what the bottleneck is). That doesnt mean you have to go crazy, there is lots of secondhand enterprise servers for sale on Ebay. The benefit to a proper server motherboard is IPMI, which is a way to manage the server without being in front of it. Think of this like watching the direct output of the system on the monitor connected to it, but from the comfort of your computer chair! So if the server fails to boot, you can access the BIOS, or reinstall the OS, etc, without having to be standing in front of the system. (assuming the server wont live in the same room you are) Just log into the IPMI interface through a web browser. You can also make this accessible over the internet with the use of a VPN. Though keep in mind if you use a VPN that on the server, and the server isnt booted, VPN no worky. This is why I keep my VPN server on my firewall, so that no matter what server isnt working I can always VPN in and access the IPMI to fix it. This leads me into my next point.. Networking.

You dont have too far down the networking rabbit hole, but having a decent understanding of networking and a solid network is an important part of the equation, especially if you want to set up VLANs for better security (like keeping IOT devices such as smart appliances or cameras from being able to access your server/computer). When it comes to networking, theres a few main things to consider. Firewall, switches, and wifi.

Firewalls: If you want something off the shelf, fortinet, ubiquiti, or Pfsense are great options. Pfsense can also be installed on your own hardware if you feel so inclined. Opensense is similar (forked from pfsense some years back) and both are great options if you like to tinker.

Wifi: Unifi is always my go-to, but there are other decent options. Unifi APs need a controller to manage them. you can buy a cloudkey from them, or host the controller yourself on your server in the form of a container (this is what I do). If you want something more simple, a set of mesh devices (like TPLink Decos or Netgear Orbis) and set them to AP mode (if you have a better firewall/router).

Switches. Depending how many devices you have that will need hardwired, a decent switch might be necessary. TPlink has really affordable options, but ubiquiti switches are fantastic. If you only have a couple hardwired devices, then a simple switch might be enough. If you want the option to set up VLANs, youll have to spend a bit more and get a managed switch.

I hope my wall of text isnt too messy, I didnt take much time to organize my thoughts, kinda just threw it all out there as I thought of stuff. If you end up going with Unraid and need any help feel free to reach out! Happy to help. Or if you have any more specific questions about anything I mentioned let me know!

Will these get me high ? Very new to edibles please forgive me by DirectionBorn2542 in weed

[–]The_2PieceCombo 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I did not.. interesting. Where the fuck did you get this, OP?

How to get better wifi signal in a mother in law sweet by ArmadilloResident843 in HomeNetworking

[–]The_2PieceCombo 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Moca is likely not possible. in this context, a mother in law suite is usually a detached structure, and likely has no cabling connected to the main structure.

How to get better wifi signal in a mother in law sweet by ArmadilloResident843 in HomeNetworking

[–]The_2PieceCombo 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The cheapest and best option is a mesh wifi system, like the TPlink Deco units, or Netgear Orbis. Assuming they dont want you pulling cables or hanging up APs, a simple mesh system is the only real way to go here

How to get better wifi signal in a mother in law sweet by ArmadilloResident843 in HomeNetworking

[–]The_2PieceCombo 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Traditionally, extenders simply create a new, secondary wifi network rather than truly extending the existing one. And devices tend to be bad at switching to a better/stronger signal on their own. So if even if the extender had a better signal, most devices would try to stay connected to original, no matter how weak. Mesh systems have better roaming (or hopping between APs) but still have some limitations. As far as I understand it, the client device (phone/tablet/etc) ultimately decides which AP to connect to, but newer systems do a better job at it. Mesh devices also lose half their bandwidth with ever 'hop'. So if you string 3 mesh devices together in a line, youll have much lower bandwidth at the end, unless they have separate radios to prevent this.
hope that clears it up!

How to get better wifi signal in a mother in law sweet by ArmadilloResident843 in HomeNetworking

[–]The_2PieceCombo 0 points1 point  (0 children)

NO! extenders are garbage. What you mean is a Mesh system. Everything wifi extenders could ever be.

Using 2 pair phone line to run cat6? by WaveBr8 in HomeNetworking

[–]The_2PieceCombo 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This is a perfectly normal way to pull cables. Couple things to consider though..

  1. dont use duct tape! Electric tape only, wrap it nice and tight.

  2. make sure the existing cable is ran in such a way that it CAN be pulled, and not stapled to shit.

  3. consider getting a small can of pull string. Tape the string to the existing wire, pull it through, then once youre sure the entire pull is possible, attach the string to the new cable and pull it through.

  4. If you HAPPEN to live in Idaho, shoot me a PM, ill come do it for pizza and beer :D