I really went nuts on this one; the complexity is a bit higher than your typical home modem & wifi router, but I get exactly what I want out of this setup.
Hardware:
-Motorola Cable Modem
–ASUS AC88U(#ad)
–Cisco POE 16 port Gigabit Switch (#ad)
–Raspberri Pi 3(#ad)
-HP Server (Xeon Processor, 32 Gigs Ram, 4-4TB HDs in Raid10)
–Bother MFC-L8850CDW(#ad)
–Brother QL-800(#ad)
-DVI KVM
–AC Infinity S9 (x2)(#ad)
–AC Infinity Controller(#ad)
–Mac Mini(#ad)
I use the ASUS AC88U to provide general routing across my entire network, most of my hardware gets assigned static IPs so I can monitor things a little bit better. The Raspberry Pi is running PiHole DNS filtering on the house to filter malicious advertisements and other things out of the entire network. The POE switch powers the PI through a POE Injector, along with a few security cameras. The server provides access to PLEX from any smart device within my network, secure VPN access to my network, additional firewall security, virtual machines (passed through hardware – physical video card and physical USB Cards) which are then ported through the KVM.
The printers are networked (or network shared as the QL800 is USB only), including the ability to scan via network. The AC Infinity fans are for the server cabinet on the desk I built; thermally controlled fans – they slow down to reduce noise when the temp is below a set threshold, and spin up as needed when it’s hot. I take the heat generated from the server and recycle it into the area my 3D Printer (Anycubic Chiron, modded) sits to keep it nice and toasty. The AC Infinity fans are 3-120mm fans that move a LOT of air. They are ball bearing and are super quiet (we only hear them when they are on high, and that’s only due to air movement).
I’m really over simplifying with this post, but that’s the general snapshot of what I’ve done. In the end, our home network is very secure, has a lot of media options and does everything we need it to do. The hardest part was setting it up for the “general user” and not the “geek of the house.”
