CoriolisSTORM88

Here is my current setup:

• Nest Mesh Wifi router (not the pro model)
• 1x Nest Mesh Wifi Point (this device is in the hallway, midway between the router and mini)
• Brightspeed C4000LZ DSL Modem
• 1x Raspberry Pi 1 running Pihole
• Mac mini m2 running Pihole in Docker Container (this device is on the other side of the house from the router)

All this is in a 1500 ft2 home with solid wood construction, single floor at this time, but the option to finish out the attic, and it is on a crawl space. It soaks wifi signals up like nobody's business, which is why I initially went with the Nest mesh system.

I have had 2 instances where something happens with a power flash with my existing Nest mesh wifi system, and then I can't connect to anything, and the Home app won't connect either. It happened last night, and a few months back. The lack of a web interface to connect directly to the router and change DNS settings is ridiculous. Not being able to do WPA2/WPA3 at the same time stinks. After starting back up the pihole system on the Mini, (I think the flashes corrupted the Pi 1), a bunch of swearing and ranting, and FINALLY it came back up. Right now, so that everything just works, both Piholes are offline, and I am defaulting to Google DNS servers. Surely there is a better option.

I am wanting another mesh system, if possible, the option of wired backhaul, and a web interface for when I mess something up, or power flashes mess something up. I also am currently using the mini as a kind of DIY NAS (don't recommend), and am running various services on it. The ability to put a 2.5G wired connection would be a plus for it for large file transfers. Are there any suggestions, or am I overthinking something? I have been considering Ubiquiti hardware, as I am also wanting to divest myself from my Blink and Ring systems for cameras.

Good day to all of you, the time has come to retire my mid 2012 MBP as my main machine. For context, it is a 13" 2.9GHz i7 model, with 16 GB of RAM, 4 TB of storage from an HDD/SSD combo with a DataDoubler, and it's been an overall great machine. However, it is beginning to have trouble turning on more regularly. It will power off and go unresponsive until I open it up and pull the battery. This machine has been outstanding to me over the years, except for this problem. I am looking at a Macbook Air 15", or the 14" Macbook Pro. I can get a Macbook Air 15" with M3, 16 GB of RAM, a 512 GB SSD, and in Midnight for $1699 locally. Or I can get a Macbook Pro 14" with M3 Pro, 18 GB RAM, and a 512 GB SSD for $1799. I am concerned about the lock-in with memory on the new Macs. It is very much like an iPad in that I have to buy everything exactly like I want it, and that's it. Is 16 GB or 18 GB of RAM enough to last me several years? I know Apple says that RAM on their new devices isn't the same as normal RAM, but I struggle with that assertion. Use cases are various Office apps, a ton of Excel work, Photoshop, some video editing with iMovie, media conversion with Handbrake, maybe some Parallels Windows 11 work since there are some apps that still are Windows only. And I may have to use QEMU for this task, we'll have to see. I'm no stranger to virtualization.

Next, a similar question, I am looking at using an M2 Mini as a backup NAS/TimeMachine target with external disks (replacing my ancient TimeCapsule), an iPhoto (Photos) backup target, iTunes/videos/music host, migrate some Docker containers from Raspberry Pis, Android backup target, and an AirMessage host so that I can talk to family easier on Android. The only Mac Minis I can find locally are 8GB RAM. Similar to above, this bothers me. Is 8GB enough for what's gonna be a machine thrown in a closet and let to run all these tasks? I had an Intel mini (early 2009?) doing similar tasks years ago, but a power surge got it and i never replaced it.

Thank you for your time.

Good afternoon all, I have half-assed my backups for 15 years, and it is not sustainable, and I need your help! I have the following setup: 1x Raspberry Pi 4 with a WD USB3 MyBook 4TB as a NAS target using OpenMediaVault. This works well enough, but is not in my mind a long term viable solution. 1x Apple Airport TimeCapsule A1355 2TB

I also have a smattering of other drives collected from over the years in MyBooks, all USB 2.0 drives, a 2TB mirror edition (2x 1TB drives in RAID 0 or RAID1), 1TB, and 500GB. This does not include the random 750 GBs, 500 GB and old 250 GB drives that I’ve taken out of my Macs and PCs over the years as I’ve upgraded them. I’ve got files scattered everywhere on them, plus on my MacBook and several other PCs and Macs around the house.

I need some help consolidating this into a single solution with priority to my photos and family home videos for data integrity. Then to a lesser extent, maybe PC backups and file storage.

Currently all of my photos are backed up to Google Photos or Amazon photos. With the fact that neither google or amazon is to be trusted with my photos, I’m ok with dumping them. Web based backup solutions are iffy, it takes forever for a backup to complete, as I am on a 60megabit download, with about a 5megabit upload connection. According to some things I’ve seen advertised nearby, fiber is being ran throughout the area, but it may be a year or two before it comes to my neighborhood.

For other hardware I have laying about, I have a 1st gen i7 980x system that is idle nowadays and is full of low capacity drives by today’s standards, a 2008 MacBook, the above mentioned 2012 MacBook Pro, an Atom n450 netbook, and an AMD Ryzen 5700g based prebuilt. None of them really seem to be something that would be useful as a ZFS based NAS or anything. But is a ZFS NAS or BTRFS system something that I need, or would my needs be better met by something else?

I have also looked at an OWC Mercurydisk M-Disc compatible burner for photo and video backup.

What are some options to look into? Preference would be on not breaking the bank and not necessarily set and forget it, but something I haven’t got to fight with to keep running.