Somewhat related, I’m so annoyed that my USB 3.0 SATA adapter doesn’t pass S.M.A.R.T. data. Didn’t even think to check for such a deficiency. Just another thing to watch out for when buying these adapters.

I mostly just want to log connections and IPs to have a record of things.

I just use Firefox Sync. Works on all those platforms.

Yea, I didn’t like that they are going to drop support in the next version or whatever. Not sure if it’s their intended replacement, but Wireguard is installed by default in TrueNAS Bluefin. I recently switched to that, and I find the performance is way better than OpenVPN.

What are you using to monitor wireguard?

You’d set your firewall rules to only accept requests from the cloudflare datacenter IPs for those port forwards. So, the ports would be otherwise blocked to anyone else trying to access them directly.

I have one of these mini PCs arriving soon. A little more money than I wanted to spend and no idea if this brand is any good. But it checks a lot of boxes for a backup server project I’m working on - eMMC for boot, microsd slot, M.2 2280 NVME socket, and a 2.5" SATA connection. They have some other variants as well that don’t cost as much.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B6P4MDWN

I originally got a used Dell Optiplex Micro from eBay for this. They come with a 2.5" SATA connection. But I learned the hard way that not all models come with M.2.

If any other device on your network, such as your phone, exclusively uses pihole for DNS, they won’t be able to resolve web addresses when your computer is off - effectively cutting off internet access. Pihole should really be running 24/7 to avoid complications.

Simplest solution is often the best. To add to this, Thunderbird has what are called Local folders. If you have your other email accounts added, you can simply drag and drop everything into the Local folder to move them off the cloud and into local storage. No email server required. Definitely a good idea to take backups if storing important stuff locally though.