Off topic computer question

Could be. I haven't tried running it in a long time.

 

It's always been free. It nags the hell out of you to upgrade to Premium, but you don't have to. Basically, Premium gets you a bit better support, automated scans and automated downloads and the like, I think.

 

I've had just about every firewall and AV software out there and now just use Defender and Malwarebytes. My dad bought their premium stuff under a lifetime license back when it was offered. They tried to get him to start paying at some point but he reminded them his key was lifetime so they honored it but limited how many PCs he could use it on. I got lucky when he sent me a copy of it (yup, a boxed disc) so I have a lifetime key as well.

Best supplement to Defender imo. I think AVG is also a good alternative to Defender and it's always been free too.

 

Windows 11 running updates with Defender for the usual laptops and gaming systems, Linux-based server running Plex and file access, would recommend similar if you've got the need, otherwise as others have pointed out, social engineering and not clicking on suspicious things is the way to go! ZFS / ztanks for the win on data integrity. Getting down to my last 5TB free space tho, maybe time to rebuild the array with bigger drives. I see 12TB drives are in the $200 range now, would be a nice step up from my 4TB drives, hmm.

 

Consider UnRaid, one stop shop for everything

 

Looked at it! Stuck with my current full distro for now, I use it for point-to-point SSL VPN tunneling, web serving and a few other things I'm unsure an UnRaid install would like what I've got customized as much.

 

UnRaid got tons of apps / dockers. Everything you listed, is there as an app / docker I have 2 setups 100TB plus I think between the 2.

 

That's some pretty bad-ass setup.
Back in my days of doing photo/video editing, my tower was fully stacked and I maxed out around 20TB (10 years ago).....
100TB would have blown my mind then, but now? I am thinking PB.....

 

All my raw photos go in there so we're talking about 30-50 Megs per picture? I travel a lot and I take a lot of pictures as a hobby so I need the space. I back everything unlimited to CrashPlan for $10/month which is not bad.

If you talking about bad-ass setup you haven't seen the rest yet. My entire network and CCTV is based on Unifi gear, really slick

 

OK. I hate you, I shouldn't be reading about Unraid during work......haha

 

But there is more LOL. Ok I will stop with the geek porn

 

KEEP. THEM. COMING.

 

Maybe later. I built my own automation system and run my own VoIp PBX.

 

Are you sure you retired? You could make some handsome money doing what you do now.

 

Naaah, is just a hobby. Everything is Linux based and is pretty much, set it and leave it. I am slowing down on my geeking as my son, the future computer engineer is taking over. My retirement will be staring at or sailing on blue water and traveling the world, and smoke some good stuff I would like to have nothing with electronics and computers anymore, just get back to a very simple and primitive life.

 

On a Windows system don't give the user accounts full administrator access. Set up a separate admin account. This prevents any changes made under the user accounts and gives a warning that the admin must be logged in to made these changes.

 

You sure you're not thinking of Avast?

 

@JohnWhicker, you prefer Unraid to just deploying everything with Compose and Traefik and keeping storage independent? On the surface it looks like Synology DSM. I like the fact that if I decide to offload container chores from my NAS to a separate server, it'll be a smooth transition.

The Unifi gear is slick. My BIL showed me his homelab setup this past weekend and it makes my Omada seem a lot less impressive. The 7 bay NVR was especially nice. My workaround was utilizing the second port on the NAS and running an isolated network for cameras.

 

UnRaid is really really slick. I run 2 of them. I used to have a beefy box running VmWare ESXI 8 but is now retired, collecting dust. I should sale it. The beauty of UnRaid is you can have different dockers / apps doing different stuff. The dockers / apps ecosystem is really impressive. They even have a docker for CrashPlan and it backup my entire NAS to the cloud and keeps it in sync. I am converting my NAS filesystems to ZFS right now which is more reliable but it needs more memory. This setup is kind another set it and leave it type of thing.

Yeah the Unifi is very very slick, but honestly is overkill I just like expensive toys I guess. Whats nice about the Unifi is that it really works and is very well integrated.

 

So, UnRaid, is just an interface/OS to control whatever else you need to control? I was reading the website yesterday but failed to gain the knowledge while doing all the stuff on my end....

 

UnRaid is a small Linux OS that runs off the USB stick in memory and is basically a NAS with virtual capabilities to run dockers / apps. Think of VmWare running various OS's. In this case the UnRaid runs containerized apps (dockers) which is very slick and not resource consuming. You can also run full OS within UnRaid just like the VmWare platform

 

Got it, license fee ain't cheap.....lol

 

They just changed the licensing model 2 days ago, those bastards. They went the subscription route so they can milk this cow. I HATE that. Lucky I have 3 licenses I purchased and used to be like $95 a pop which is better than $200+

But you can always use the cracked version LOL, some Russians I think they already cracked it.

 

Sounds exactly like DSM but intended for a more DIY/hardware customizable setup. However, I've been able to do everything you've mentioned on one NAS (of course a Syno box has a cost, too). Plenty of containers, everything reverse proxied with TLS certs, Plex, cloud backup, surveillance, and WAN services with Cloudflare tunnels. The only service I don't have on there was offloading the Wireguard server to the router. The obvious drawback is single point of failure.

 

Yea, I saw that and lifetime is like $249.... which isn't bad considering, but still a bixch consider how it used to be.... I will take $95 over $249 any day

 

Yes similar with Syno NAS but that system is pretty locked to their ecosystem and not beefy enough in terms of cpu and ram. UnRaid you can pretty much own and hack the OS the way you want and also build your own dockers for what you care. But the most important is that you can leverage off the shelf hardware so you can have some really beefy CPU and Ram so you have juice to run a lot of stuff. Here are my NAS boxes

 

Naah. If I'd been speaking of Avast I'd have said it nags the living SH*T out of you instead.