Anyone dabble in building their own Home Network?

[LineSkiCat14]

People seem to ask an awful lot about cord cutting, but most don't realize that you need a solid network to get anything accomplished. Plus, you know.. porn.

Part for learning purposes and part to make a super fast/secure network.. I'm in the process of building my home network from scratch. Didn't know if we had any resident CCNPs or home network enthusiasts. Would love to bounce some ideas off people or even just see what others are running.

Currently building out a Sophos UTM appliance on an old Dell Optiplex 780 with a 4-port Gig nic as an add-on. Essentially a more user friendly version of PFSense, an open source firewall and router. Also looking to buy a Ubiquiti Unifi AC Lite Access point (or two) to run off of the Sophos Box. All attached to Motorola Surfboard 6141 modem.

Anyone have experience with this stuff? I'll be working on finishing the UTM box this weekend and hope to cut up some Vlans and such. The only thing in doubt is if I want to put a switch between the UTM Box and the APs.

 

[GnarlsBarkley]

Well I was interested in a home network until I read your post. It might as well have been written in sanskrit.

I just want something with a large hard drive that I can store movies and music on that I can then stream wirelessly to devices in my house.

I want to either build or buy a system for playing hi-res music files with integrated speakers I can control. Also would like to add a security system.

 

[allabouttheUK]

People seem to ask an awful lot about cord cutting, but most don't realize that you need a solid network to get anything accomplished. Plus, you know.. porn.

Part for learning purposes and part to make a super fast/secure network.. I'm in the process of building my home network from scratch. Didn't know if we had any resident CCNPs or home network enthusiasts. Would love to bounce some ideas off people or even just see what others are running.

Currently building out a Sophos UTM appliance on an old Dell Optiplex 780 with a 4-port Gig nic as an add-on. Essentially a more user friendly version of PFSense, an open source firewall and router. Also looking to buy a Ubiquiti Unifi AC Lite Access point (or two) to run off of the Sophos Box. All attached to Motorola Surfboard 6141 modem.

Anyone have experience with this stuff? I'll be working on finishing the UTM box this weekend and hope to cut up some Vlans and such. The only thing in doubt is if I want to put a switch between the UTM Box and the APs.

You must have a huge house/mansion. You sure you're doing a home network and not a small business network? What kind of upload are you getting from your ISP?

 

[LineSkiCat14]

@GnarlsBarkley The only thing crazy about mine is that I took an old desktop and turned it into a security box/switch. Otherwise, the modem is standard, and I'll be adding a few Access Points (Kind of like your wireless router at home).

@allabouttheUK This is mostly for work purposes. I'm an IT Professional but haven't gotten to get into much networking. Best way to start is to build my own. Admittedly, it's super overkill hahaha. I have a 50mb pipeline.

 

[LineSkiCat14]

This type of project will teach you about small business networking, security protocols, routing and switching, wireless networks.. all on a small scale and all for roughly $400. And once it's finish it will be super optimized. Fast network very secure.

 

[RandomUser]

Was going to ask what purpose the switch would serve but, if all of the switch/VLAN stuff is for learning purposes, then that sort answers your own question, right?

 

[LineSkiCat14]

Well network segmentation does help performance and security. I may run a switch OFF of the UTM box, not to sure if I should or need to. If not, then I'd be plugging APs and other stationary devices (blu-ray player, PC) into the Sophos UTM box.

 

[BBdK]

Mumble for most of my communication, essentially setup as a walkie-talkie network.

Asterisk and Google Voice for phone calls.

File sharing is done using Samba for proper stuff. SFTP + grabbing from my web server when I want a one time transfer.

Media center is Plex Home Theater clients + Plex Media Server.

Website is apache, php, and MySQL...and I use bind for DNS caching and squid for HTTP caching.

My internet connection is redundant thanks to a 4G tether running on my router.

My Wi-Fi range and speed comes from using an Asus N66-U as my wireless access point with the antennas swapped for 9dBi gain TP-LINK wall mounted ones. I live in a rural area which helps massively but with my setup I can pickup my neighbors network which is over 700 feet away.

 

[RandomUser]

Do you need to have the switch? I doubt it. But... if you're going to play around with VLANs and other switching options to better yourself professionally, it could (depending on the switch) be more worthwhile than the direct connection option.

 

[KyCatFan_rivals45723]

I don't really have anything to add so I will just post this gif. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

 

[LineSkiCat14]

Do you need to have the switch? I doubt it. But... if you're going to play around with VLANs and other switching options to better yourself professionally, it could (depending on the switch) be more worthwhile than the direct connection option.

I probably don't. I have the 4-port nic, and that will handle an Access Point, My work VPN Switch and two other devices (COmputer, DVD player, etc). So 4 ports is fine for now, I've just always heard about network segmentation. The Sophos UTM box really *shouldn't* be used as a LAN switch, right?

 

[LineSkiCat14]

@B.B.d.K.

Damn man. You an enthusiast or in in the industry? Or both?

 

[argubs2]

Dayum.

Can you link the antennas you have?

 

[BBdK]

@B.B.d.K.

Damn man. You an enthusiast or in in the industry? Or both?

Just a side hobby. Still have a lot to learn, but it's fun & kinda rewarding to do it yourself. Yes, I'm a bit of a techie dork you could say lol. :sunglasses:

 

[Hank Camacho]

Whatever I pay for cable a month is worth it so I don't have to even comprehend whatever the hell it is that you're talking about.

 

[LineSkiCat14]

Currently stuck on getting my WAN link operational on the UTM box. I've read that I need to contact my ISP to have them turn my gateway/modem into Bridge-mode.. That way it will pass through to the UTM Box, which will then be the gateway (192.168.x.x).

My worry is that dealing with TWC is a cluster, and because I'm very novice.. I don't want to take down my network for extended periods of time, to then have it not work (or something else that needs to be done).

 

[LineSkiCat14]

Here was a funny problem/learning experience.. Don't assume that the left most port is ETH0 or ETH1 interface.. I don't care to admit how long it took me to figure out that the right most port was ETH1.. Must have been the way the card is installed in the desktop..

 

[allabouttheUK]

Currently stuck on getting my WAN link operational on the UTM box. I've read that I need to contact my ISP to have them turn my gateway/modem into Bridge-mode.. That way it will pass through to the UTM Box, which will then be the gateway (192.168.x.x).

My worry is that dealing with TWC is a cluster, and because I'm very novice.. I don't want to take down my network for extended periods of time, to then have it not work (or something else that needs to be done).

Dealing with them for stuff like that shouldn't be an issue, it's billing problems that make them such a hassle. Why not buy your own modem and do away with their equipment? It would save you the cost of the rental..10-15 a month.

 

[LineSkiCat14]

So it is my own modem, Went into the settings, and didn't see an area to change Bridge-Mode. I'm being "told" by others that whether it's yours or theirs, you still need to contact them to enable Bridge mode. It's a Surfboard 6141.

I need to double check, but the Modem is DHCP enabled, and it's not handing anything to the dedicated interface (Eth1).

 

[-LEK-]

So it is my own modem, Went into the settings, and didn't see an area to change Bridge-Mode. I'm being "told" by others that whether it's yours or theirs, you still need to contact them to enable Bridge mode. It's a Surfboard 6141.

I need to double check, but the Modem is DHCP enabled, and it's not handing anything to the dedicated interface (Eth1).

So you have a combo router/modem? Why are you trying to put in bridge mode?

 

[LineSkiCat14]

Mainly because I want my sophos box to act as a router. But it's not a modem (atleast not physically.. No coax interface).

So ISP -> SB6141 -> sophos utm firewall/router -> ubiquiti AP..

Or so i planned..