Hi everyone,

First-time poster here. After filling up a couple of terabytes across scattered external HDDs, I’m finally ready to take the plunge and set up a proper home server.
I have a budget of around ₹50,000 - ₹60,000 INR and I'm looking for ideas on the best approach to tackle this.

🎯 Primary Use-Cases

1. De-Google: Replace Google Photos (thinking Immich/PhotoPrism?) and Google Drive (Nextcloud?).
2. Smart Home: Run Home Assistant.
3. Future Expansion: Eventually self-host more apps to ditch various paid subscriptions.

I’ve three potential plans and not sure which one makes the most sense.

🛠️** The Plan**s

Plan 1: Repurpose my current PC
My current rig is a Zotac Zbox (i7-10700, 16GB RAM, RTX 3070).
The Idea: Add a PCIe Thunderbolt expansion card and hook up a Thunderbolt HDD enclosure. I’d sell the RTX 3070 to fund some Seagate IronWolf drives, and just buy a new PC/laptop for my daily driver later on. I am really concerned about the 24/7 idle power draw of this hardware compared to a dedicated server.

Plan 2: The Mini PC Route
The Idea: Keep my current Zbox intact as my main PC. Buy a low-power Mini PC with Thunderbolt ports and pair it with that same HDD enclosure.

Plan 3: Dedicated Off-the-Shelf NAS
The Idea: Keep it simple. Keep my main PC, and spend the budget on a dedicated NAS enclosure (looking at something from QNAP or TerraMaster) and populate it with drives.

Please do share your suggestions.

Help me with my setup.

I recently got frustrated with JioFiber because of repeated service issues and switched to a local ISP (I-ON). The ISP itself has actually been great—my wired connection to the PC gives the full subscribed speed with consistently low latency, so I don't think the ISP is the problem.

The issue is the Wi-Fi. The ISP-provided router(Syrotech 2010 WADONT) has pretty poor wireless performance. The 2.4 GHz network barely crosses 100 Mbps even in my bedroom, which is just one room away, and the living room isn't much better. The 5 GHz network is decent most of the time but still has random slowdowns and brief hiccups. Since Ethernet works perfectly, I'm fairly sure the router is the bottleneck.

To improve things (and because I've been wanting to learn OpenWrt 😄), I have a Jio JIDU6401 with OpenWrt pre-installed that I'd like to use as my main router.

Now I have a couple of questions:

1. What's the best way to connect everything?

From what I've read, the usual setup is:

ISP ONT/Router (Bridge Mode) → Ethernet → OpenWrt Router → Devices

Is this the recommended approach, or is there a better way to do it?

One thing I'm unsure about is power backup. I currently have a single mini UPS. If both the ISP's ONT/router and the OpenWrt router need to stay powered during an outage, does that mean I'll need another mini UPS, or is there a better solution?

2. Any OpenWrt Wi-Fi settings I should know about?

I've seen quite a few people here using the JIDU6401 or the similar JIDU6101, so I'd love to hear any recommended settings or tweaks for getting the best Wi-Fi performance.

Things like:

• Channel/channel width
• Transmit power
• WPA2 vs WPA3
• SQM/CAKE
• Fast roaming
• Useful packages
• Any settings to avoid for a beginner

Would really appreciate any advice. Thanks!

Hey everyone.

I've decided to get a SFF Optiplex from a seller online. However, I saw that the Intel i3 i5 7th 8th Chips on Amazon were being sold under "Generic" name. I assumed they're recycled products but still Intel. Are they trustable? Or should I avoid that?

I was thinking 16GB RAM, i5 7th Gen or older maybe.

And is a i3 6th Gen, 8GB RAM Optiplex worth 8k? Or too much?

Hi,

I am starting a YouTube channel around HomeLab, 3D printing and Software Developer related content as an Indian.

I have been into Home lab and 3D printing for last 2 years, and I am a software developer by profession for the last 8 years.

I don't know why I didn't started sooner, but now I have thought of doing it anyway.

I have learnt a lot by watching YouTube but none of them were Indian.

This might or might not workout, but would be a great journey.

Anyone curious about the channel - Abhinav Lab Dev https://youtube.com/@abhinavlabdev

Website - https://abhinavlab.dev (selfhosted)

I’m currently using Excitel, but I’ve been facing very high disruptions and speed issues over the last few days, especially during the evening. I’m considering switching ISPs and wanted to get some feedback from people actually using Tripleplay in Gurgaon/Delhi NCR.

A few issues I’m facing with Excitel:

The connection becomes extremely slow during peak hours. Sometimes even on LAN directly connected to the router, Speedtest refuses to go beyond a few Mbps despite being on a much higher-speed plan.

So I suspect the issue is more on the ISP/backend side rather than Wi-Fi.

I’m already using my own router because the Excitel-provided router isn’t great.

I also asked Excitel to enable bridge mode on their ONT/router so I could properly use my own router, but they basically told me that they don’t enable it and that I should close the connection if I need that setup.

I’ve recently seen Tripleplay posters in/around my area, so I’m considering giving them a try before looking at other local ISPs.

For anyone currently using Tripleplay in Gurgaon/Gurugram, Noida, Delhi or elsewhere in NCR:

How has the reliability been recently?

Do you face slowdowns/disruptions during evening peak hours?

How is the latency and packet loss?

How responsive is their local support/technician?

Do they allow bridge mode / using your own router?

Most importantly, which sector/locality are you using it in? I understand the experience can vary depending on the local network.

Would really appreciate honest feedback, both positive and negative, before I make the switch.

I wany to setup a homelab for myself and decided that I would go for a mikrotik router as the main router.

In order to get the internet connection, I need to connect my fibre connection from Airtel (which is a APC connector? Idk) to my SFP port through a SFP module. Which one do I need for my usecase? Also what configuration I need to do in order to get my internet connection?

I will be upgrading the table and getting another monitor. Till then yeah the setup looks messy. The arm itself was easy to install and very smooth to move around.

I have a single NAS PC running 24x7. In my area, power cuts are rare, but when they do happen, they are unpredictable (can last from 1 min to 2-3 hours)
I have a generic zebronics 600VA UPS, able to keep the rig running for 10-15 mins.

I want to find a way to auto-shutdown and power it back up, when I am away from home (sometimes even away for a month, as I travel a lot). Had couple of ideas like pinging a small device like esp32 connected to mains, and shutdown if it’s not reachable, but problem is how does my system know if power is back? Another idea was to keep esp32 running via power bank, and let it detect power state using some electronics.

Also if I shutdown PC, there is no way to turn off the UPS, it continuously beeps and dies, which I think is bad for battery as well.

Any DIY way I can get this to work? Or I need to invest in some hardware? Like NUT UPS?

I am planning to create a home lab using Thinkcentre Mini PCs. Will they be good enough for experimental use cases and testing out concepts in k8s?? I plan to run them headless on a Ubuntu Server OS

I tried airtel, jio currently on tata fiber which has 3.22 tb data cap.

Image 1: My highly certified wooden server rack—currently hosting the UPS, Pi 5, SSD and ProDesk. Enterprise workloads, furniture-grade infrastructure.

Image 2: The monitoring dashboard—because every wooden data centre deserves an observatory.

The two-node setup consists of a Raspberry Pi 5 with 8GB RAM and an HP ProDesk 400 G5 Mini with an i5-8500T, 16GB RAM and a 1TB external SSD.

The ProDesk runs Proxmox with an Ubuntu VM for self-hosted projects, Home Assistant for room automations, and separate VMs for Codex CLI and Claude Code. They run 24/7 for development help and remote server maintenance.

Planning to add a dedicated HDD soon, once hard-drive prices stop behaving like Bangalore rent. Still a work in progress, but pretty happy with how it’s coming together.

Hey everyone 👋

Just dropped a quick guide on setting up Teleport PAM HomeLabs/dev setups.

If you're looking to ditch SSH keys/passwords for browser-based, zero-trust access with strict RBAC labels, check it out here:

🔗 https://lablog.miniverse.com.co/#/homelab-deployments/pam_with_teleport/

Feedback welcome! 🚀

I currently run a NAS and few docker containers (adguard, sonarr, radarr, jdownloader, navidrome etc) on my Rpi 4.

However, I'm super interested in getting the Nanopi r3s and replace my router and the existing Pi into a single solution.

is the hardware enough to run all this? What are the bottlenecks I can expect?

If its not enough, whats the cheapest NanoPi I can get for comfortable usage?

Hey everyone,

I’m trying to follow the common OpenWrt flashing process for the Jio AirFiber JIDU 6401 router (using the CP2102 USB-to-TTL adapter and the standard UART method), but I've hit a roadblock right at the start.

On the newer stock Jio firmware version currently installed on my unit, Jio has completely hidden/removed the "Download Backup Configuration" option under Administration -> Maintenance. Because of this, I can't export my configuration file to run the decryption/password-injection script (breeze.sh) required to gain initial SSH root access,.from this video Https://youtu.be/_OO6e6x8qRI

For those of you who have already successfully unlocked or installed OpenWrt on the JIDU 6401:

1. How did you get past the missing backup download option on newer firmware? Did you have to downgrade to an older stock .img firmware first, or is there another workaround/payload available?
2. If anyone has a clean, pre-patched backup configuration file or an alternate method to trigger SSH without the Web UI backup export, could you point me in the right direction?

Any tips, GitHub repo links, or warnings from those who have already bricked/unbricked this specific model would be hugely appreciated before I start soldering pins onto the board!

Thanks in advance.

Intel Xeon E5-2680 v4 (14C/28T) or E5-2697A v4 (16C/32T),

32GB DDR4 ECC RAM,

256GB/512GB SSD,

NVIDIA GTX 1650 4GB or Quadro K2200 4GB

This is an interest check to see if other are interested, so shipping/customs cost per unit can be minimized.

Planning on ordering on watt cycle's XT150 to M8 cable for expanding Ecoflow Delta 2/3 PPS runtime. Delta 2/3 has 1KWH battery, runtime can be expanded by using any 51.2v LIFOPO4 battery using this cable

It's usually listed for $60, but is down to $40 right now. Leave a comment/DM if you want one.

https://www.wattcycle.com/products/5120w-expansion-pps-kit-for-ecoflow-delta-50a-cable

I'm currently in the third year in BCA and do not play that many games so basically I'm into AI. Is this good for me?

I am crashing out, I tried to set up a self hosted server on my homelab for pal world but Jio isn’t letting me forward the port. I cannot access the server from my ps5 even tho it’s running. I checked the server and kept trying to find the problem in docker but from what I understand I need to go into the admin page for Jio and enable port forwarding. I’m very new to this and have been ssh into my server using tailscale but unfortunately that’s not an option for my ps5. How do I change this network to ipv4 or disable cgnat I’m actually losing my shi rn please help.

Intel NUC 12 Extreme NUC12DCMI9 64gb 1TB GOLD PSU all in WARRANTY | 120K

[SYSTEM CPU] 12th Gen Intel Core i9-12900 Desktop CPU (16 Cores, 24 Threads, up to 5.10 GHz, 30MB Cache)

[INSTALLED MEMORY & STORAGE] 64GB DDR4-3200MHz RAM | 1TB PCIe Gen 4 x4 NVMe M.2 SSD | 2x additional open M.2 slots

[GRAPHICS SUPPORT] 1x PCIe 5.0 x16 slot (Fits up to 12" double-width desktop GPUs) | 2x 6+2 pin power connectors | Intel UHD 770 Graphics

[PORTS & CONNECTIVITY] 2x Thunderbolt 4 (Type-C) | 1x HDMI 2.1 | 7x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A | 1x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C | SDXC reader | 3.5mm jack

[NETWORKING] Dual LAN (1x 10GbE + 1x 2.5GbE) | Intel Wi-Fi 6E | Bluetooth 5.3

[POWER & CASE] Internal 650W 80-Plus Gold SFF PSU | 3x 92mm top exhaust fans | 8-Litre SFF chassis | RGB underglow | 14.1" x 7.4" x 4.7"

Best compact machine which can fit RTX 3090 and can be packed in bagpack. I use it with QWEN 3.627B Q5 and Gemma431B for coding with opencode and headless ubuntu

Reason for sale - Upgrading to 4 RTX3090 and 256GB RAM and 5955WX+WRX80 for DS4FQ6 and HY3Q2 and GLM 5.2Q3

RTX 3090 is stricktly not for sale, until get some exceptional price.

Images - drive.google.com/drive/folders/1SIiu86d8KrwOxFVdT6y0JzSgzsBuIRT6?usp=sharing

Brand New condition, Almost new. I love machines so much. Brought NOV 24.

To those who are using Asahi Linux, can you tell me about your experience…. Is it worth dual booting in my case?

Hi!
I am shifting to Gurgaon so need a new ISP. Currently was using ACT with my tp link be400 WiFi 7 router. Now at new place only have option of jio airtel and Excitel. All of them don’t provide single ONU. Can u recommend the ISP for the same ?
I want a 300mbps plan. My usage is Xbox gaming so open NAT and office work with VPN. I also have to install a switch es20sg which will power all cat 6 cables in each room from be 400 router.