On Wed, 2026-04-08 at 21:43 -0700, David Christensen wrote: > On 4/8/26 00:20, Roy wrote: > > I’d like to set up a homelab with a LAN and a DMZ. I have a PC with > > three network interfaces. The idea is to separate the DMZ so I can > > publish a demo website. This is not for professional use, just for > > tinkering as a hobby. > > > > If anyone has experience with firewall/router setups, would you > > recommend using Debian for the firewall/router PC as well, or using > > OpenBSD for the firewall/router and Debian as a KVM host for > > services? > > Alternatively, should I just use Debian for the firewall/router > > with > > nftables? > > > > I’m asking because I have the impression that Linux has accumulated > > a > > lot of overhead and is no longer as suitable for personal > > tinkering, > > but is more geared toward enterprise use. > > > Building a gateway/router/firewall using a PC, multiple NIC's, and a > general-purpose FOSS OS distribution is possible. Been there, done > that. Similarly so with purpose-built distributions (IPCop). > > > I came to the realization that I just want to *use* the network, not > become a networking expert and build everything from scratch. > Especially when each and every device had its own web GUI and I had > to > synchronize settings across all devices manually. > > > Then I discovered Ubiquiti Networks UniFi. The products are Linux on > the inside, if and when you ned that. The killer feature of UniFi is > that you control everything using one web GUI in the cloud -- > routers, > switches, Wi-Fi access points, cameras, etc.. And, everything just > works. > > > If you want to experiment with a web server on the public Internet, > get > a VPS. Professional hosting companies take care of networking > (including security), VM installation, VM backup, etc., so you can > focus > on your services. > > > David
Hi David, Your points are valid and very relatable, I’ve been down that same road of delegating things to services and “the cloud”. That said, my personal idea of Linux (and more broadly, free and open-source software) is about having control over my own data. This isn’t meant to be a service or a mission-critical setup. It’s more about having something I can tinker with whenever I feel like it, exploring and experimenting at my own pace.
