Owning My Data - The Equipment

This will be a quick post. Here is a list of equipment I have purchased to build out my home network, with a description of each item and why I purchased it.

Ethernet Crimper & Cable Tester

What: A tool to create my own Ethernet cables.

Why: It can be cost effective to make your own cables, and it gives flexibility to create different lengths. The cable tester lets me verify cables before installing them.

Setting it up: Crimping cables is super easy. I started making cables back in 2003 in high school — 15 years later, the process hasn't changed. There are plenty of tutorials across the web.

Network Switches (Unmanaged and Managed)

What: A switch turns one Ethernet port into many.

Why: A switch allows me to connect many more devices via Ethernet than I could through a router alone. Wired connections are more stable and secure than wireless, so switches give me a more consistent network. The managed switch has expanded capabilities like establishing VLANs that I plan to explore in the future.

Setting it up: Easy — essentially plug and play.

Powerline Ethernet Adapters

What: Allows me to use the copper power lines running through my home as a wired network connection.

Why: This gives me a wired network without the cost and effort of running Ethernet cable throughout my apartment. There is some signal degradation, so speeds are slower than pure Cat5e cabling.

Setting it up: Easy. I plugged the adapters into power outlets near my equipment, then plugged my Cat5 cables into the adapters. Boom — wired network.

Libre Computer Board ROC-RK3328-CC (Renegade)

What: A Raspberry Pi-sized computer with 4GB of RAM, USB 3.0, and a Gigabit Ethernet port. Product page

Why: I want to host my own version of Netflix at home. To make sure this was doable, I needed something beefier than a Raspberry Pi. After some research I decided on this board, though I do question the choice in hindsight — I probably should have gone with the ODROID-XU4, which has far better support. That said, the Renegade has been a great learning experience that's taught me far more about Linux than a well-supported board would have.

Setting it up: An interesting experience with several hiccups — I'm still learning the ins and outs of this board. The process is essentially the same as a Raspberry Pi: burn an OS to an SD card. For the Renegade I had the option of Ubuntu 18.04, Debian 9, or Armbian (Debian 9). I chose Armbian for its community support. After first boot I set everything up as I normally would.

Troubleshooting: No IPv4 Address

One problem took me forever to figure out. The machine was not being issued an IPv4 address — only IPv6. After much tinkering, I discovered that the /etc/network/interfaces file kept being overwritten on reboot.

Here's the fix. In /etc/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.conf, change:

managed=false

to:

managed=true

Then add the following lines:

auto eth0
allow-hotplug eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp

After a reboot, everything worked.

Current Equipment List

• Linksys WRT1900ACS
• TP-Link 5-Port Gigabit Ethernet Network Switch
• TP-Link 8-Port Gigabit Ethernet Easy Smart Switch
• TP-Link AV600 Powerline Ethernet Adapter
• Libre Computer Board ROC-RK3328-CC (Renegade)
• Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ (x3)
• Raspberry Pi Zero (x2)
• Homebuilt Ubuntu PC (running Ubuntu 18.10 at time of writing)

More equipment will be added over time!