Scroll thru this sub for some recommendations, but DO NOT get a D3.0 modem! ISPs are phasing them out, and Xfinity probably won’t even let you add it to your account.

Check out the Arris SB8200 or the S33.

And check with your ISP (they have a supported modem list on their website) before you buy anything…

Nobody actually uses Cat8, not even datacenters (we just use fiber or DAC). The wiki article says it was designed for it, but it’s less reliable, has more overhead, and is more power hungry, so it never caught on.

I’ve never used keystones on the camera end, just terminated into a male RJ45, and right into the camera.

I’ve done it both ways on the NVR side. If the NVR will be wall mounted, I usually go male RJ45 and right into the NVR. If the NVR is going in a rack and some cable management panels are available, I’ll usually use keystones on a patch panel, and patch into the NVR, but not always.

As others have said, there’s no SOP for this.

In general though, it’s “best” to use keystones on solid core cable and male RJ45 ends on stranded, but I’ve done it the other way thousands of times and never had any issues. Ya gotta do what ya gotta do.

I voted DIY - No regrets. Myself (and a lot of others here) run used/surplus enterprise hardware that’s cheap/free. You’re kind of missing an option for that.

My primary NAS is a PowerEdge T620 with 13x 8TB HDDs (8 in the built in drive cages, 5 more in a caddy that fits in the 3x 5.25" bays). The server and the drives were free/surplus, but I bought an upgraded pair of CPUs (E5-2695 v2’s) , 128GB of RAM, and the drive caddy, for probably $200 total. It’s getting a little long in the tooth and I’ll be keeping my eye out for something newer (and less power hungry) during the next round of decommissioning.

This scratches my ‘play with enterprise hardware’ itch and is easier on the wallet upfront, but the power cost is probably more in the long run.

Also, you’ll likely get very different answers in the polls here vs in r/synology or similar. You’re asking homelabbers here, so you’re going to get homelab answers. But that’s okay, because it sounds like you fit in just fine here!

This is a pretty awesome project, and is very well done! I’d love to see more pictures!

It looks like custom PCBs for the blades and the backplane? More details on that would be very interesting.

What all are you running on this system so far, and what software do you have plans to add? Are they running independently or as a cluster?

Summoning u/geerlingguy here, I’m sure he’ll love this project!

There are a lot of different variations of PON/FTTx. Most are symmetrical, some are not.

ISPs did a lot of experimenting with fiber based delivery methods over the years, and a lot of that old gear is still in use.

It might even be something like RFoG in your area, where it’s fiber to the hole but converts directly to coax (with a micro node) at your house and uses a standard D3.1 cable modem.

You’d have to ask the ISP for more info, namely what delivery method they use at your address. There’s a good chance the sales rep won’t know anything about it, tho.

Wifi is fine for some things, but it’s power hungry, it requires an IP address for each device, and is subject to interference from other wifi devices. If you want to block all of the devices from accessing the internet, it adds some extra complexity. If you have a battery powered wifi device, it will power itself off until activated, then have to connect to your wireless network (DHCP, etc) before it can transmit, which takes a second or three.

ZigBee, ZWave, and BLE are low power protocols, and are fairly statically configured. They use less power and can have much better battery life on much smaller batteries. When activated, they connect back to their respective networks immediately, so things like smart buttons and motion sensors are very fast.

What about using a Shelly relay with power monitoring, and installing it inside the outlet?

I have a few Shelly 1PM Pluses that I do this with, but Shelly is starting to make ZigBee and ZWave devices too. I haven’t looked to see if they have a ZigBee one with power monitoring, but I’d bet they do.

Another option is something like using an Emporia Vue 2 or a system from Circuit Setup to monitor power from your breaker panel. Both can be flashed with ESPHome and record directly to HA. Not sure how well they work in the EU, but I’m planning on getting an Emporia Vue 2 here in the US.

Thanks for the follow up post!

I’m impressed they came back out so quick, but it definitely looks way better. And most importantly, they used the correct (SC APC) connector this time, so you don’t lose a ton of light at the coupling 👍

Smart switches and local automations are the key, not smart bulbs in the cloud.

Every light in my house is smart in one way or another, but if HomeAssistant and my internet connection both went down, basically everything would still function totally normally. Light switches would still turn on lights, etc. They’d just lose their voice control and wouldn’t be turned on by motion sensors, etc.

I do have some smart bulbs in the house, but they’re in accent lighting (pendants, etc), they run 100% locally, and they’re turned on and off by automations that are triggered by physical light switches. For example, you turn on the main kitchen lights with the smart switch, and that triggers the pendants to turn on. Its reliable enough that I’ve only seen the bulbs miss a trigger or get out of sync twice in two years, and toggling the light switch and extra time fixed it both times. If the bulbs ever had a network issue (which they haven’t), they’re accessible without a ladder or much fuss, and can be easily unscrewed/reseated for a power cycle.

My family doesn’t share my interest in home automation, but as long as everything works reliably and in an intuitive way, they’re fine with it.