I refuse to use Unifi products after a client’s one year old Cloudkey died because they use an actual hard drive inside for the OS, not just the data (it’s designed for storing NVR recordings).

They don’t even mirror the drive locally. There’s just everything wrong with this approach. The OS should run from M2 and the data drive needs to be mirrored - this is just basic high availability design today. And for the price they charge, there’s no reason to not do this. I just wonder what the requirements discovery looked like, and who signed off on such a weak approach.

For the price of a cloud key (which is essentially required for a business environment), it’s a piece of shit. Plus the damn things die all the time.

Add to it the whole system is problematic - they’re slow to discover devices when setting up/reconfiguring/replacing hardware, we’re constantly having to tinker with client sites for odd disconnects, etc.

Unifi belongs in the bin. For a home user you’d be better off with any decent consumer router, which doesn’t have the unnecessary complexity (and learning curve) of Unifi. I hate that it’s what our company prefers to deploy.

I know it’s been a week, but…

I assume the machine you’re using on your friend’s network has a Wireguard client configured for Wireguard account/network info.

I don’t use Wireguard, does it have it’s own DNS mechanism to resolve Wireguard-connected device names?

For example, Tailscale has MagicDNS which will always resolve host names that use a fully-qualified Tailscale name to a Tailscale address.

E.G: My Raspberry Pi host name is “raspberrypi”. Using just the short name it will attempt to resolve via local network DNS by appending local network domain to the end and querying the local DNS server.

If I append the Tailscale domain (“raspberrypi.tailscale2525.net”), the Tailscale client will intercept the lookup and resolve to the Tailscale IP and route through the Tailscale mesh, regardless of local IP range.

I assume Wireguard works the same (I’ve never used it). Mesh networks (somehow) see their own network differently than just an IP network.

What I do is run Syncthing on all mobile devices, have it sync the DCIM folder to a desktop (running Syncthing).

That desktop is backed up by Crashplan currently. Long term plan is to switch to Backblaze B2.

https://github.com/Catfriend1/syncthing-android

I prefer Syncthing-Fork because it allows finer control of specific sync jobs.

For Windows there’s SyncTrayzor, which gives you a system tray shortcut to manage ST. https://github.com/canton7/SyncTrayzor/releases/download/v1.1.29/SyncTrayzorSetup-x64.exe

There are clients for Linux and iOS too. For iOS there’s Möbius Sync.

Nowhere did you state your goal.

Hahaha, I like the shape cut of your jib, mate.

You bat me to it.

I have no idea what tomorrow brings, but some conduit through every wall will let me do whatever I want.

And I’d go with as large as I can fit in the wall.

So you’re saying you don’t like to use Docker?

DNS resolution takes so little bandwidth (network/memory/cpu) the only realistic answer is misconfuguration of some kind.

That a video from a site took longer to load probably isn’t a DNS issue, especially since your local DNS resolver keeps a cache of sites that have been resolved, and again, other than looking up the IP address, DNS has no other involvement with the network.

What you’re describing is like saying the phone book made my phone call not go through. A phone book is a directory service (they used to call them Directories), DNS works exactly the same way - find the name in the directory, get their numerical address.

The actual connection is another thing altogether.

An extender is just that, it extends the network wirelessly. The two devices create a wireless link between them that is unrelated and essentially invisible to Wifi devices. Extenders are generally a Layer 2 device, at most (they replicate the Data Link layer in the ISO Topology map).

Wireless routers are composite devices that have both a router and an access point in them. You could use wireless routers in this case, IF you can disable DHCP on them (effectively using only the Access Point component) and by connecting it to your existing wired network using one of the switch ports, not the “internet/uplink” port.

An access point is generally a layer 2 device also - it makes a logical connection from the wireless to the wired portion. Today’s access points may also have some layer 3 tech - it gets fuzzy pretty fast. But their primary job is to broadcast a common SSID so wireless devices think all access points in a given mesh setup are the same network. The access point doesn’t provide an IP address (DHCP) as that’s a function of the network. They’re kind of “dumb” devices in that their job is to be transparent to networked devices and just make the wireless network appear everywhere.

Indeed a process issue. My OneNote share can attest to this (I’ve saved gobs of articles to “Quick Notes”.

I recently restructured OneNote using the PARA idea: Projects, Areas of Responsibility, Resources, Archive.

Now when I save an article, I must file it properly at save time. It’s really helped.

There are plain motion sensing light switches without any connectivity. No reason to make this more complex.

$23 at home depot https://www.homedepot.com/p/Leviton-2-Amp-Single-Pole-Decora-Motion-Sensor-In-Wall-Switch-Auto-On-in-White-1-Pack-R02-DOS02-1LW/316126703

Uggh, it’s expensive to meet that duplicate backup requirement (and I agree with it!)

What are your thoughts on a single backup say with S3/B2/Impossible, etc? 25TB is quite a bit to have a local backup plus online (though it’s the right answer).

I’d look into cloud-based backup (for the off-site component) using something like Backblaze B2 to ensure you don’t lose the data on that external drive when it fails.

IIRC, 25gb on B2 is about $30/mo. ImpossibleCloud is about the same.

From a get-files-to-home while remote standpoint, Syncthing is hard to beat. It works, it has clients for every OS, it’s encrypted, it’s free.

I’d probably also look for more robust storage at home. External drives are notorious for failures. In 30+ years of doing this stuff, I’ve had a handful of internal drives fail (perhaps 3%, at most). While externals it’s more like 15%, and that’s in a relatively short time, within 2 years of use. Externals get dropped, experience greater and more frequent temp cycles, and lack cooling.

I haven’t priced consumer NAS lately, but for 25+ TB, that’s where I’d be looking. And that would also potentially give you an OS that can run things like Duplicati and Syncthing.

You’re backing up to off-site, right? What service are you using?

Edit: I’d also recommend duplicati in general, since it’s so flexible.

My Raspberry Pi’s cost $5 each. Should easily have a lifespan of 10 years. Show me a VPS that can beat a one-time cost of $5?

My internet cost is sunk, so I don’t count that.

I’m running Tailscale so roaming devices always have encrypted connectivity to home that isn’t through an exposed port (working on self-hosting a mesh, will likely need a VPS then).

I have Backups of systems via a combo of Crashplan (individual machines) and Backblaze for file server data and things like Docker. Backblaze and Crashplan are also sunk costs, because I used them long before self-hosting was an idea for me. I’d still have Backblaze costs even with a VPS.

Long term I expect to drop Crashplan and to setup Rpi’s for friends and family so they get the benefit of things like PiHole and centralized Syncthing to replicate their mobile device data, I get a Tailscale into their networks for support, and we can backup our file servers to each other.

Grocy sounds exactly like the kind of app I’m currently looking for - thanks!

Heading over to github, I assume it’s there?

You nailed all the reasons that I self host. This should be pinned to the sidebar.

And if you lose your phone, what happens to the data that’s in that app if it doesn’t sync somewhere?

Pick one, then email the company about buying a 220 power supply. Often the only difference these days is the plug part which often snaps on.

Alternatively you can just buy a generic power supply that meets the power and plug polarization requirements.

I often make my own from old power supplies.

Login to your Comcast cable modem and see if you can switch it to bridging mode