u/Kekeripo

Removed my NAS from my room after 3 years of putting it off. When we first moved here, the landlord wanted to rip this built in closet, but we asked to keep it to avoid having to buy more furniture.

I now got the willpower to execute one the shity closet network and I'm decently happy with it. First time using a massive hole saw drill, my dremel and installing + trimming the vents.

Electrician nephew will add me a rj45 and power socket in there sometime this decade.

I understand this isn't the prettiest solution, but i got no rack nor hardware to populate a rack. Plus it's out of sight and noise is gone. Plenty of ventilation with 3 intakes and 2 exhausts. UPS is cooler to the touch in there than it was on an open shelf.

The black sponge is a 40mm neoprene pad i had left over from a project. It's just there as vibration absorber, since that was the loudest contributor in that cabinet. Hanging over because air intakes at the bottom.

Hello! An intro for what i plan to do next year: Our home in my parents' home country is a mass of concrete and bricks. Any networking was mauled by "masters" by just removing the RJ45 socket and running cables through the one conduit we have between floors, instead of doing a passthrough jack or something like that.

We only have DSL available currently, with the faster variations maybe coming sometime this millennium. Based on that and the option of Starlink becoming available, i have been looking into an affordable ecosystem to get good wifi coverage through 2 (3) floors and the other home additions. While the speeds we have now are really bad, the wifi signal just can't deal with all the concrete, rebar, and bricks; therefore, i've decided on a wire mesh network.

Why i've chosen TP-Link/Deco/Tapo: The ecosystem offers most things i need for an ok price. Reputable and well reviewed at that. The Deco X50-DSL is also amongst the best DSL Gateways that down the road could be turned into a WAN Gateway (Starlink).

I also like that i can manage the network (and Tepo lamps, I hear) through one app.

DSL line
    └── MAIN: X50-DSL
            ├── ISP Provided IP-TV Box
            ├── Starlink (backup WAN — if it becomes available)
            └── TL-SG105 (switch)
                    ├── Raspberry Pi 4
                    │       ├── Pi-hole (network-wide adblocking)
                    │       ├── WireGuard (backup VPN — independent of TP-Link
                    │       │   cloud, ensures remote camera access even if
                    │       │   TP-Link discontinues their service)
                    │       └── NOTE: Needed because X50-DSL does not support
                    │           VPN/WireGuard
                    ├── SLAVE1 (X50) — WiFi mesh + 2 free LAN ports
                    │       ├── ISP Provided IP-TV Box
                    │       └── PC
                    ├── SLAVE2 (X50) — WiFi mesh + 2 free LAN ports
                    ├── SLAVE3 (X50) — WiFi mesh + 2 free LAN ports
                    └── H500 (camera hub)
                            ├── 750GB 2.5" SATA HDD
                            └── Cameras (via WiFi):
                                    ├── C645D KIT x2 (solar, outdoor)
                                    │       └── 256GB microSD each
                                    ├── C610 KIT x2 (solar, outdoor)
                                    │       └── 256GB microSD each
                                    └── C210 x6 (wired power, indoor)

Currently we have an ancient camera security system with very, very low image quality. I believe it's running through coaxial cables, so not really upgradable. That's why i've decided on WiFi-connected + solar-powered for the outdoors and normal socket-powered ones for the indoors.

In case TP-Link/Tapo goes belly up and their servers sink with them, i added a Pi4 to remote in to the network and view the camera feeds that way. Plus it allows for pi-hole. Shame the DSL variant of the X50 can't do either of that...

This setup would also allow me to get WiFi in all the places where it's needed and where WiFi cameras will be close by. I Can run low-profile ethernet cables through our floor trim to spread the X50 meshnet throughout the entire house.

Reasons I can't pull wire through walls, install conduits, or do PoE cameras: Concrete, Bricks, isolation, and no willpower to deal with the floor plan nightmare.

Note: If i find money on the streets, I might add a NAS for offsite backup.

So, anything i could do better or other suggestions?

Put my tiny network in to our unused shoe cabinet

I'd like to hear opinions/advice on my plan