My IT Setup

Here is an outlay of the Infrastructure / setup at home so you can see how my posts relate to the environment I have at home! At work it’s a very different kettle of fish!

Networking

  • BT Fibre 54Mbps connection into:
  • TP-Link Archer VR900 VDSL Modem
  • Western Digital My Net N750 Gigabit Router running OpenWRT Barrier Breaker

Server

  • HP Microserver N40L
  • 8GB DDR3 Memory
  • 4TB Western Digital Drive
  • 1TB Seagate Drive
  • 1TB Western Digital Drive
  • 2TB Drive
  • FreeNAS
  • CrashPlan+ Backup

This little guy which is hidden away in a cupboard, provides the storage for all our data across the house. Its runs FreeNAS, which I decided to go with as has simple yet powerful capabilities, and provides functionality such as Apple file shares so I can Time Machine to it, and use native OS X protocols.

Initially importing the data was a little painful because of permissions, but once I had figured these out (good old chmod) all is well! The Media centre server is connected to this guy as a windows share, and all video recordings, Media Browser data etc is located here. I wish I could run Plex on this box, but the processor does not have the grunt to transcode any HD content.

Media / Main Machine

  • Medion X6815 Laptop
    • i7-2630QM QC Processor
    • 8GB RAM
    • Toshiba 120GB SSD
    • VMware Workstation
    • Windows 10

This is our main Media Centre PC / virtualisation machine. It’s mostly a front end for Plex, and also acts as a transcoding machines for other devices around the house.

It also runs a small number of VMs for various home automation / projects around the house!

Entertainment

Living Room

  • LG 55″ UHD Smart TV
  • Denon AVR-X2200W Amplifier
  • Tannoy SFX 5.1 Speaker set
  • Humax HDR-1010S Freesat box

Cave

  • Celcus 32″ 3D TV
  • Denon AVR-X2000 receiver for spare room, with 2 x Tannoy Mercury V1 speakers, and some Pioneer SSL-100 speakers.
  • XBox 360 Slim
  • Wii U Premium
  • Roku Stick

Home Automation

  • Telldus Tellstick.NET (433Mhz setup)
  • Various switches / dimmers across house
    • From HomeEasy, Nexa, Conrad
  • Home Assistant
  • Homebridge (for Siri Integration)
  • Zoneminder (CCTV solution)

Other Hardware

  • MacBook Pro Retina 13″ (Late 2013) with 8GB RAM and 256GB SSD
  • iPhone 6S Plus
  • Apple Watch 1.0
  • Raspberry Pi with Wi-Fi adapter
  • Lenovo Miix 2 8″ tablet (Baytrail, 2GB RAM, 64GB SSD)

I expect more will come along here, perhaps with some detail on some of the tools I use between these devices!

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