I’ve gotten into selfhosting and have 3 mini PC’s

ODROID H4+ for TrueNAS
One for Home Assistant
and another for Immich and Nextcloud

They’re all just plugged into the router my ISP provided with network cables.

I’d like to get a managed switch or a router of my own that can function as a switch and router

I’ll be putting everything in a 10" rack at some point so it has to fit.

Any suggestions or tips would be appreciated, I’ve done some research and looked at options but unsure what is right/wrong

I’m especially stuck on what Hardware to get. Is 2.5ghz managed switch overkill? Should I get PoE for future use?
What brands are good, what should be avoided?

  • Seefoo@lemmy.worldEnglish
    4·
    3 days ago

    Mikrotik makes a few that are rack ready. Not sure about rack size. They are extremely customizable and pretty cheap in the grand scheme. I absolutely love mine. some things I am using it for:

    • natively supports Wireguard, allowing me to keep everything private and just wireguard into my home network
    • I have set up firewall rules that force all DNS through my pihole, including those pesky LG/google devices that try to bring their own hardcoded DNS servers.
    • I have backed up my config to a script and literally trashed a switch a few weeks ago, bought a replacement and was up and running with the same config in <30 minutes of setup.

    My one qualm with them, is their warranty service is pretty jank. The devices themselves are generally very good, but having had one die on me after 3 years, I was a little dejected I couldn’t really get it replaced (they do still offer support though). If you need a specific recommendation the RB5009 is really solid for homelab stuff. The one saving grace is the routers are pretty cheap if you know what you need…replacing them (compared to a unifi or something else) is easier? if you’re ok with that