I have been looking into setting up a secure home/small business server and hardening my local network and I came across this kickstarter which is currently floundering, likely because it’s campaign page is way too technical without enough fluff for the uninformed out there (like myself to some extent). For reference I work in small industry and have some interest in implementing more IOT.
That said, from what I can tell it seems like a really great device for my use case actually, combining a multiband WiFi 7 gateway with a built in NAS and upgradeable compute modules. As a bonus it is a German company so I’m a bit less worried about back doors that with some of the Chinese generic manufacturers out there.
What I can’t sus out is how secure this actually is, how technical my background needs to be to get it set up effectively, and whether the price is good for the hardware. Any help?
It is likely floundering because anyone with more than beginner networking/security knowledge know that having everything combined is a very very bad idea.
Having it all in one means that when someone gets access to it, they get access to everything.
You are much better off having separate devices for:
- Router/firewall
- NAS device
- WiFi Access Point
- Server
- Switch
And you should be using VLAN’s to only allow devices access to what they need.
And as a plus having everything separated means if one device breaks or you need to upgrade, you only have to replace that one part instead on replacing the all in one device costing 50 times more.
on the flip side, a wifi 7 access point, firewall, NAS, server, and network switch in this performance range are going to cost a bit more by my reckoning. I do see your point about repairability and reliability, one power supply for all of it could be problematic.
As far as security, couldn’t most of what you mentioned be effectively achieved in software if implemented correctly? Looking at the company website, that seems to be their primary focus area.
I’d rather just build a separate router/firewall with opnsense and a separate NAS than put everything on one device and attach it to the Internet.
