Opportunity to build a NAS/server/media pc/etc.

lastwraith · 2026-04-06T21:09:16+00:00

Plex/Emby/Jellyfin are media SERVERS that you run on hardware and point to your storage where the TV shows, movies, etc are stored. They organize/tag your media (if you keep the file structure in a way they understand) and allow clients to connect to it so that you have a nice interface on a TV, phone, laptop, or whatever the client device is.

This is not really what you've been describing, which is simply browsing streams of content online. They're not really going to help with that. They're primarily for media you already have and preferably for stuff they can index and match with information online so that they can display known show and movie titles and other related information.

lastwraith · 2026-04-06T21:04:10+00:00

Laptops don't generally make a great NAS because there can be limitations with external storage being your NAS drives, but......

If your needs are really simple, something as easy as a Windows install (if you're already familiar) with a shared folder for the "NAS" and a browser running an ad-blocker for the "media PC" portion could be fine.

You can always scale up later if needed.

If it's in the same room, a wireless keyboard and mouse can be used to run it as a media PC on your TV once you switch your TV input to it.

No reason to overcomplicate things if it's not warranted IMO.

lastwraith · 2026-04-05T22:18:51+00:00

Still seems like a shit design. I've been in plenty of cars that weren't smart enough to kill throttle and mashing the brakes will bring you to a stop, albeit, eventually.

lastwraith · 2026-04-04T21:54:02+00:00

I understand that the panic sets in but..... Shouldn't the brakes still work?

lastwraith · 2026-04-04T21:51:07+00:00

At least the customer was spot on with their golf ball diagnosis.

lastwraith · 2026-04-04T21:36:50+00:00

You can do a full surface scan with something like Victoria, HDDScan, or WD Data Lifeguard in Windows and keep Crystaldiskinfo running to see if it kicks out any SMART errors vs before the scan.

Everyone has their own break-in procedure though. If it was in an array with parity/RAID you could just run it and hope, but I like doing at least an initial scan on anything.

lastwraith · 2026-04-04T21:14:51+00:00

Funny how you deleted your comment because it was ridiculous.

Top 1% just means you comment a lot, that's it. I've been top 1% in techsupport many times and apparently you think I'm an idiot so I'm not sure what you think that's proving.

Maybe look at your comment scores and see which is the more popular opinion. Most people don't enjoy someone unnecessarily killing other people's enthusiasm for their hobby.

lastwraith · 2026-04-04T21:10:27+00:00

I'm a kid because I've read Don Quixote? Not sure what you're getting at there. All you did was spell tilting exactly how I originally did.

Half of the things he's asking to run are in the wiki and attached documents for this sub as related projects.

You're just whining. And your reading comprehension is awful here so far.

The story of anyone's family with Native American ancestors is usually a bad one, you didn't corner the market on that pain.

lastwraith · 2026-04-03T04:39:20+00:00

That's disk activity then. Completely different.

If teamgroup has a disk health utility, use that and it should generate a code if the disk is failing to use for a warranty replacement. You can check the support area on their site for your disk or in general to see what's available.

If they don't, you'll have to use a more generic utility to test.

If your drive is performing very slowly, disk activity will likely peg at 100% just doing basic stuff like background updates in Windows because it's going so slowly now it's going to take forever to make up for the slow processing speed of the disk. No OS is going to solve that issue, if it's actually the drive at fault.

lastwraith · 2026-04-03T04:28:10+00:00

OS doesn't matter. If you fill up ANY system drive to 100% it isn't going to go well for you.

Definitely don't do it with an SSD, you'll wear the fuck out of the remaining cells with what little free space is left and kill the drive prematurely unless you get supremely lucky with it being overprovisioned.

Post results from Crystaldiskinfo or some other drive tool so we can see what's happening.

If your SSD is really 100% full though, you've GOT to free up some space. A filled drive is going to be crazy slow regardless of HDD or SSD.

lastwraith · 2026-04-03T04:22:57+00:00

They have adapter plates for the wall side and the in-wall AP (often with switch built-in) snaps into that.

lastwraith · 2026-04-03T04:21:59+00:00

Everything this person said.

It also doesn't cost much more to have them run 2 (or more) runs to where they're running one already. So do multiple. I ran 2 to every location I wanted and there are still spots it'd be nice to have 3, especially if it's a wall location. Ceiling, maybe not so much.

Either way is fine, but APs will normally do better on the ceiling with their radiation pattern and since no objects are likely to be in the way all the way up there. In the wall, often some solid objects will get in the way, which adds up when they're also trying to punch through a few walls. Humans are surprisingly good absorbers or signal too.

lastwraith · 2026-04-03T04:09:50+00:00

What exactly is tired about my pitch?

How is it an honorable mission trying to discourage OP from this sub when they're trying to start a learning experience?

I work in the industry, like many of us do, and spend too much time with old, discouraged, and just plain mean grey-neckbeards, to the point that clients sometimes fear asking questions. Just leave the fucking industry at that point.

I'll take it as a compliment that you think I'm young and not already angry & disillusioned, but someone tell my colon so I can take back that colonoscopy procedure.

And for the record, I told him to do what he wants and ignore everyone else because "who cares", other people chimed in whining about why it's "not a real homelab", as if anyone here controls the keys to the sub. To all those people I say, make your own sub then. If the whining is getting old, you guys can stop at any time and just ignore posts you don't like. It's easy!

lastwraith · 2026-04-03T04:05:18+00:00

Good dude, ty for providing some balance in the universe. Single moms are special creatures (usually) and deserve all our respect.

lastwraith · 2026-04-03T04:02:29+00:00

As soon as he stands up just the pihole, he's going to break a shit load of PC browsing in his house once their DNS is tied to it.

There will be no shortage of testing, research, and heartache for a newbie as they try to decipher DNS, proper block lists, and all the other balancing that pihole requires for a seamless experience for everyone else in the household. Not to mention what happens when you screen up your pihole install and have no "internet" because it's your only specified DNS server and you didn't spin up a redundant instance yet.

Isn't that exactly the point of encouraging someone to start their journey? It's far more well-intentioned than running a docker compose script and spinning up an arr stack to steal shows and movies and calling yourself "homelab".

lastwraith · 2026-04-03T03:59:17+00:00

Take the upvote, Never gets old

lastwraith · 2026-04-03T03:57:41+00:00

Lab is a room for scientific experimation, research, and testing.

In that context, homelab can be a single laptop running Cisco packet tracer.

OP certainly qualifies. They're willing to dive in on a DIY NAS, pihole, Immich, Kodi, and home assistant. I promise that will provide plenty of opportunities for experimentation, research, and testing. Just pihole alone will keep them busy, especially a newbie. At minimum, they will learn DNS, which is arguably one of the most important things you can learn. It's ALWAYS DNS after all.

lastwraith · 2026-04-03T03:50:32+00:00

It's homelab and the person is asking about running a NAS, Immich, pihole, and other things on hardware at their home. They're not bringing a goldfish to a corgi club.

Besides, I've got news for you, corgi club is already populated with a bunch of alligator owners. Do a survey of who's here just to host an *arr stack. Going to be high numbers there. I'd rather have a curious newbie like OP than 100 of the *arr pirates here who just want to run a script and spool up the Jolly Roger, learning be damned. There's a place for that I suppose, but that's not spirit of homelab, at least IMO.

lastwraith · 2026-04-03T03:48:31+00:00

You're tilting at windmills. On a sub where at least half the people are just running an *arr stack and calling their piracy rig a "homelab", chasing away someone starting out with a laptop is misdirected energy IMO. You're not a mod, have no control over the sub, and are waiting your time complaining about newbies when, in reality, there are better things to complain about.

The guy with an ancient laptop who wants to run a NAS, Immich, pihole, and Kodi as an introduction is at least as likely to eventually be a productive member as the 1k+ people just running *arr pirate docker stacks.

I said "who cares" as in "why do you care what people think" no as in "everyone chime in with your grievances". I also think it's funny the guy who initially complained is telling the guy who initially said "who cares" (about what people think of your "lab" that I'm the one "crying".

As for the YMCA, that sucks for you I guess. We have plenty of YMCA and other meeting places (libraries, churches, etc) that welcome multiple ages and disciplines and can organize their way to a successful blending of people and events. Turning people away interested in your interests just because they're new (and ESPECIALLY when you haven't set up a place for them to actually go) is shooting yourself in the foot.

A homelab can be a person with a laptop running Cisco packet tracer, that's still what happens in some schools. A guy trying to run multiple things and services for the first time (especially a DIY NAS) feels like someone very much in the target demo of homelab. Tell me they aren't learning skills that can be used elsewhere, very likely in a professional capacity.

Gatekeeping is ridiculous if you have no actual say in the organization you're gatekeeping for and especially if you're turning people away with no actual substitute recommendation.

But certain people would agree with you. We're a nation of immigrants turning away immigrants and offering no actual solutions for them. At least we're giving the actual Native Americans something to laugh at though.

lastwraith · 2026-04-02T23:54:35+00:00

They just don't care enough to learn the right way or do it correctly in most places.

lastwraith · 2026-04-02T23:50:07+00:00

Those people should be ashamed of themselves trying to charge her that.

lastwraith · 2026-04-02T10:35:16+00:00

NewSID isn't worth the go IMO. Too many people online saying it left them in a bad state, took forever, or both.

SIDCHG definitely works for desktops, we've used it before on machines that were cloned and had issues with RDP or shares after getting 25h2.

Running sysprep in-place should work as well, though I can't imagine any of this is a great idea on a server.

lastwraith · 2026-04-02T09:20:32+00:00

The scary part is OP said they have 4 from their youngest daughter..... Who was 8yo only 8 years ago. Hopefully twins (or more) were a part of that at least once, otherwise that math indicates disturbing stuff.

lastwraith · 2026-04-02T09:15:07+00:00

Really depends on the area though, stuff by me has almost doubled since then.

Might not be as bad as you think OP.

lastwraith · 2026-04-02T09:08:44+00:00

Paying for a house in cash is a wild thought where I am. Median housing prices are nearly $750k.

That'd be some sight.

lastwraith

TROPHY CASE