Choose network-edge hardware for self-hosting by balancing routing, firewalling, VLANs, VPNs, throughput, security processing, power, noise, and recovery.
Guides
Compare the hardware, specifications, and tradeoffs that matter for this buying area.
Most home-lab gateway shopping starts with the wrong number: the speed your ISP advertises. A software firewall on x86 hardware does its work on the CPU,…
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Both paths can run the same firewall software. A dedicated Netgate appliance and a repurposed office PC with a multi-port NIC can both run pfSense.…
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You've outgrown a flat network. You want VLANs to isolate lab gear from IoT devices from personal machines, and now you're facing a topology question that…
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The VLANs exist. The interfaces are up. DHCP hands out addresses on the lab network, and the switch shows every port exactly where you put it. Then you…
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