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Joined 3 years ago
Cake day: July 7th, 2023
  • I use a 2012 Mac Mini running OPNSense. I use the Apple Thunderbolt to Ethernet adapter in addition to the built in Ethernet. You could probably do the same for the MacBook Pro. I have a separate switch and access point. It works really well. And it was cheap.

  • I believe the only part of Meshcore that’s not FOSS is the official app, and there’s a FOSS alternative.

    Personally, I’d use Meshcore. I tried MT for a month or so. I never saw a conversation, just a few scattered “test” messages. Meanwhile, on MC, I was away from my phone for 4 hours yesterday and came back to 250+ coherent messages in a conversation from all over the region (not to mention the hundreds of test messages).

    MT is better in ad-hoc situations since clients can repeat messages, but MC is better for establishing a region-wide communication network.

  • I’ve got a bunch of notes in Trilium.

    I have a note for each service with the docker compose file, notes on backups, any weirdness with the setup, and when I update each service. I use Trilium as a crappy version control for the compose file.

    I also have a note for the initial setup of my server (mostly setting up docker, setting up mergerfs and snapraid).

    Other than that, I have one note for each device for my setup. (Wifi AP, OPNsense router, switch, etc) That I populate with random crap I might need to know later.

  • Here’s what I did: I bought a $50 Dell Optiplex desktop with a 4th generation Intel CPU on ebay. I stuffed in 3 HDDs from ServerPartDeals and a boot SSD I had laying around. This machine draws 50 to 60 watts continuously.

    I got caddies for the HDDs from my local used computer parts store. I got 5.25 in to 3.5 in adapters from Amazon.

    I added a 10 gig SFP+ card (which isn’t fully utilized since my network is mostly 2.5 Gig). Realistically, the onboard gigabit port is adequate.

    I got a SATA PCIe card so I can add a 4th drive if needed.

    I also bought a Nvidia Quadro P400 graphics card (similar to a GTX 1050, but half the price) for $30 on eBay for Jellyfin transcoding. I couldn’t get the onboard Intel GPU to play nice with Jellyfin.

    Excluding the cost of the drives, this setup cost me about $130.

    Tailscale works pretty well, but I usually use Wireguard to connect to my router remotely. I’ve had issues getting Tailscale to work well with my reverse proxy, but I suspect that’s a me problem rather than a Tailscale problem. I have OPNsense and Adguard running on an ancient Mac Mini that serves as my router. (If you follow this route, make sure you get a Thunderbolt Ethernet adapter, not a USB one.)

  • When I build my NAS/server last year, I bought a used Dell Optiplex from 2013 on eBay for $50. I tossed in an old SSD I had laying around, and squeezed in 42 TB worth of HDD drives. I added a PCIE SATA expansion card, and a 10 gig network card for 60 bucks to improve performance.

    The only real downsides of doing it this way are

    • No realistic way of upgrading hardware
    • Limited space for internal drives
    • No hardware transcoding abilities out of the box
    • More power consumption than buying something newer