Finally got my home lab organized and mounted on a board! 🔧

Current setup includes:

🧠 NeuroCore – computing/AI node - Jetson Orin Nano

🛠️ Workbench – development & testing system - Dell optiplex - Ubuntu server

🔐 NetShield – network/security node - Nanopi r6s - OpenWRT

🌐 TP-Link Gigabit Switch – network connectivity

📡 TP-Link Router – Wi-Fi/network gateway

💾 DataVault – storage/server node - cm3588 - open media vault

🇮🇳 Built and assembled as part of my DVS Inno Hub – Embedded System • IoT • AI lab

Also includes services like Immich, Navidrom, Wireguard, LM studio, AdguardHome....,

It’s still a work in progress, but the goal is to build a compact home lab for networking, cybersecurity, embedded systems, IoT, AI, and self-hosted services.

Would love to hear suggestions from the homelab community on what I should add or improve next! 🚀

#HomeLab #HomelabNetworking #SelfHosted #CyberSecurity #Networking #IoT #AI #EmbeddedSystems #Linux #Server #TechDIY

I'm trying to figure out how to financially protect my home lab against the two risks I'm most concerned about:

1. Voltage surge / electrical event frying the equipment
   
2. Lightning strike frying or damaging the equipment

I'm not looking for advice on UPS/SPDs/electrical protection right now. I've already looked into that side. Building already has lightning arresters and all, and installing a type 2 SPD isn't feasible due to very high costs and headache. So, I'm specifically researching insurance as the financial backstop.

My setup is roughly:

• Custom-built AM4 desktop with a discrete GPU (7900 XT) -- This is around 1-2 months old, bought and assembled fully in the last 1 month. Devices below are older.
• Raspberry Pi 4 4 GB
• Radxa Dragon Q6A 12 GB
• Lenovo M910Q Mini PC
• Multiple HDDs and SSDs (2 HDDs + 5 SSDs)
• 2 UPS units

Total replacement value is roughly ₹1.8-2 lakhs.

The server is self-assembled from individually purchased components, and I have invoices for the components and other devices as well.

What I'm trying to find out

If you're in India and have actually insured your homelab/home server equipment:

1. Which insurer and policy did you use? Was it home contents/householder insurance, electronic equipment insurance, or something else?
2. What equipment did they accept? In particular, was a custom-built server with GPU and individual components (HDDs/SSDs, RAM, motherboard, etc.) covered? What about Raspberry Pi/SBCs, UPSs and mini PCs?
3. Were electrical events actually covered? Specifically, a voltage/power surge that fries equipment without causing a fire, and lightning-induced electrical damage.
4. How did you document/value the equipment? Did you need individual itemisation, invoices, photographs, etc.? Was settlement based on replacement value or depreciation?
5. Most importantly, has anyone actually made a lightning/surge claim, or dealt with an insurer regarding this type of damage? I'd really like to hear what happened and whether there were any exclusions or surprises.

TL;DR

I'm looking to insure my homelab against voltage surges and lightning, and I'm trying to find out what actually works in India, and seeking inputs from the community to take a decision.

I'm currently researching home contents/electronic equipment insurance, but I don't want to rely solely on an insurance salesperson saying "yes sir, everything is covered." 😂

Actual experiences and claim stories would be especially valuable.

Hey everyone!

I've been lurking in this subreddit for a while, and I finally feel ready to jump into the homelab hobby and start building something of my own. 😄

That said, with the current hardware prices, I'm a bit confused about the best way to get started.

I have a few questions:

1. Would a prebuilt mini PC (such as those from ElectroniksIndia, Sudobox, etc.) be a better choice for a homelab, or would a refurbished mini PC offer better value?
2. My primary use case will be data and photo storage. Given the current high prices of external HDDs, what approach would you recommend to keep costs reasonable without compromising too much on storage capacity or reliability?

Thanks for taking the time to read this and share your insights. I really appreciate any advice! 💯

Just taking my baby steps into homelabbing

I’m starting this mainly out of curiosity since i have zero IT or DevOps background but I wanted to learn by actually building something with a lot of help from AI along the way.

I picked up a Lenovo ThinkCentre M70q with 512/16 configuration
My initial plan is to start simple with things like AdGuard , Photo & file cloud storage , Music streaming few other useful self-hosted services as I learn.
For the OS I was thinking of going with Debian Linux mainly based on AI recommendations.

For someone with no IT Linux or development background is Debian a good way to start a homelab?
Or would you recommend starting with something simpler? Would love to hear advice from people who started from zero. 🙏

Currently using Fable + CrowdSec in my homelab, and both work well. I’m looking for a lightweight all-in-one IDS + IPS solution that runs in Docker and doesn’t consume too many resources.
Any recommendations or setups you guys use?

Planning a small 24/7 production homelab in Viman Nagar, Pune, and looking for feedback on the architecture before I install it.
Compute will be two Mac minis: an M6 32GB/1TB for public-facing research/API/database workloads, and an M4 16GB/256GB for separate local/private workloads. Expected continuous load is roughly 100–150W.
Network:
Primary fibre -> TP-Link ER605 WAN1
TP-Link TL-M100 4G -> ER605 WAN2
ER605 -> both Macs + ONT + existing Wi-Fi
Power:
Grid -> existing Exide inverter-backed supply -> UTL Gamma Plus 1kVA/12V + Luminous 120Ah tubular battery -> Foxin 1000VA/600W line-interactive UPS -> homelab
The Foxin is mainly there as the final fast-transfer/AVR layer. During longer outages, heavy jobs would stop first, then one Mac sleeps, then graceful shutdown at low reserve.
I originally planned a 250W solar panel but am thinking of leaving the Gamma solar-ready and adding solar later only if real-world runtime justifies it.
Physical setup will be a custom open wall-mounted steel rack in the bedroom, roughly 1650 x 650 x 450mm, with networking on top, Macs below, UPS, inverter and the 120Ah battery at the bottom. Battery gets a reinforced cradle and tray. AC and Ethernet routed separately. No 24/7 AC planned.
Main questions:
Is Exide -> Gamma -> Foxin unnecessarily complicated?
Any issue with mounting a 120Ah tubular battery on a properly engineered wall-mounted steel frame?
Would you bother with solar from day one in Pune, or add it later?
Anything obvious I’m missing before installation?

Hey everyone,

Testing the waters here with a couple of units. I currently have 2 units of the Jio JIDU6J01 routers available.

(Specific models can also be requested) not in this testing batch

Condition: working condition

Firmware Option: Can ship with OpenWrt pre-installed or kept on stock firmware whatever you prefer.

Support: support included if you have any trouble.

Price: ₹1,600 + shipping (per unit).

Main stock hasn't arrived yet and is expected soon, but I wanted to test interest with these 2 units first. If the response here is good, I will bring in a larger batch.

Drop a comment below or shoot me a DM if you're interested. First come, first served.

This is my second post regarding asking help about unlocking ODU AIRFIBER. It has a sim slot and the sim also works in this device but the company locked the APN by default so that nobody can use the physical sim in this.

I basically want to use the internet, because I live in a very very weak network (my village).

I have uploaded many images on Google drive so that you can find UART or anything else. ( LINK IN PINNED COMMENT)

It has a Qualcomm SDX62 chipset for the network.

Also I tried to view files on the webpage login. I found 4-5 files.

I don't have that much technical knowledge. Help me guys, I really appreciate your knowledge and time.

With the buzz around OpenWRT flashed Jio Routers, which models have an actual UBS 3.0 port on the back?

So I will post more here . But I am new in the world of home lab and am very interested . So I have used a old laptop and have fixed it that was a journey . So it now have a hdd worth 1tb . It's acting as a nas and I can tailscale from anywhere through samba . I am currently looking into docker and what I should more run and all . But where do I add more storag man . I have a couple almost dead hdd . And 1 new shiny hdd . But dac in India are all imported man . At that price I should just buy a nas with better cpu . What are your suggestions?

If anyone is wondering what's that white box, it's a auto charger that exposes an encrypted API on a nodemcu, which is used by my monitor script on the termux to turn the charger on and off, based on set battery percentage thresholds.

Been slowly putting this setup together and it has somehow turned into a mix of a work desk, gaming setup, and homelab.

The main machine is currently running Omarchy and handles most of my personal development, homelab management, and gaming.

Main PC

• AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D
• NVIDIA RTX 5070 Ti
• MSI MAG X870E Tomahawk WiFi
• 64GB Patriot Viper Venom RGB DDR5-6000 CL30
• Crucial T500 2TB Gen4 NVMe
• Corsair Nautilus 360 RS ARGB AIO
• MSI MAG A850GL PCIe 5.0 850W 80+ Gold PSU
• MSI MAG PANO 100R PZ case

Displays / work / gaming setup

• LG 32" 4K 60Hz as the main display — company provided, so I have no idea what the exact model is 😅
• BenQ 27" 1080p 75Hz in portrait mode
• 2023 MacBook Pro with M2 Pro — company machine
• AULA F75 Max keyboard
• Logitech MX Master 3S for Mac
• iPad Pro 11" 2021
• GameSir Cyclone 2 controller
• Soundcore Q20i headphones

And then there is the little cluster sitting on the right.

Homelab

• 3× refurbished Dell OptiPlex 3070 Micro
• Intel Core i5-8500T in each
• 8GB DDR4 each
• 256GB SATA SSD each
• 1GbE networking

Naturally, I couldn't just call them node-1, node-2 and node-3:

• Optimus
• Bumblebee
• Ratchet

Together they form a 3-node bare-metal Talos Linux Kubernetes cluster called cybertron. Networking is currently handled by a Tenda AC10. Nothing fancy, but for three 1GbE nodes and a management workstation it has been good enough so far.

TL;DR: A homelab gets more interesting when other people can actually use it.

I have been homelabbing for about a year now, and my biggest takeaway is that maybe we should optimize less for adding services and more for adding users.

Most architectures people post here make complete sense. Clusters, dashboards, NASes, networking, all of it is fun and you learn a lot.

But I want to advocate for building at least one capability that someone other than you can use.
For me, that happened with documents, photos and a few family services. Once my parents could use something I hosted without knowing anything about my infrastructure, the homelab started feeling less like a hobby and more like household infrastructure.

The closest analogy I have is the old Godrej almirah. Important stuff lives there, the family knows where it is, and you expect it to last forever lol.

There is also an engineering benefit. Real users force you to care about onboarding, authentication, reliability, backups and recovery.

You do not need a startup idea either. Build something useful, make it frictionless, and let your family use it.

Make the hardware earn its keep through users, not just CPU utilization.

Note: I used AI to edit grammar and tone. The thoughts and opinions are completely mine.

Just wanted to give a massive shoutout to @the_diy_daddy for being an absolute legend.

I've been struggling to figure things out on my own for a while, and his tutorials have helped me learn alot. But what really blew me away is that he actually took the time to hop on remote access with me to help troubleshoot and sort out my setup.

You don't run into people willing to go that extra mile very often. If you haven't checked out their channel yet, definitely give them some support. Absolute good guy all around.

I'm getting Dell 5050
Intel i5
8 GB Ram
256 GB SSD

At Rs 10,000

Should I go ahead with this deal ?

I'm trying to negotiate for 7050. Please suggest

Can anybody was able to do this?

Any suggestions for such places where we can get next to free electronic stuff that have a chance at being useful for home labbers? I've seen many videos of American youtubers showcasing such places, wondering if any one found such places in Mumbai.

I bought AX53U and want to make it the one to acquire PPPoE. My ISP is Excitel and the router they gave is GX Titanium T21 Pro. I have used the superadmin credentials to enable gateway and bridge modes and then tried switching the protocol on Asus router to PPPoE but it was failing. I am out of clue on how to fix it.

After I got the WRT1200AC as a gift, https://www.reddit.com/r/homelabindia/comments/1ud78i5/wasnt_expecting_this_got_a_linksys_wrt1200ac_from/

It has ran beautifully than the default crappy TP-Link Archer C5 V4 I got from connection. I have learnt a lot of Openwrt and have setup USB share and eSATA SSD among other things. Noticed a WRT3200ACM on local FB mktplace and got it for 6k. Since new Wifi 6 routers are available at the same price but with weaker CPU and less ROM and only single USB port so not sure if this is a good deal. Will be using both at two different locations.

Anyone else using LAN Sheriff? This thing is seriously cool and honestly a little unsettling once you see what's actually talking on your homelab network 😅

https://github.com/291-Group/LAN-Sheriff