Hello, I’m getting into self hosting and looking to setup a small home lab to play around with different technologies. I’m considering setting up a DMZ to keep my lab hardware separate from the rest of the network and other users. What is some of the minimal hardware required to do this on a small budget? Also what are some of the necessary security measures I should understand. One of my first projects would be to setup a small Linux box that I can ssh into remotely. Thanks.

EDIT After much reading today and great guidance from this community this is basically what i ended up doing… Got a dell optiplex on ebay for about 55 bucks and a dual intel network card on amazon with a managed switch. If i can bridge my current router as an access point, i should be on my way! This community rocks! Lemmy is awesome!

  • eleitl@lemmy.worldEnglish
    5·
    1 year ago

    EdgeRouter is proprietary but minimal. You can also look at Opnsense running on a used thin client off ebay.

  • notfromhere@lemmy.oneEnglish
    2·
    1 year ago

    You can physically isolate by running multiple independent switches, you could run different subnets on the same switches or you could VLAN separate but that would require a managed switch or setting up your topology that something tags the traffic with the proper vid before running on the unmanaged switches. All have their pros and cons but i would strongly recommend getting a managed switch (managed firewalls/routers/switches depending on features/port count can all fill that need) and doing VLAN separation if you don’t have a lot of equipment you’re starting out with.

    • wiggles@programming.devOPEnglish
      2·
      1 year ago

      Thanks for the advice! I ended up getting a managed switch on amazon and an older dell computer to set up OPNsense. Can’t wait to get started!

  • Awwab@kbin.social
    2·
    1 year ago

    One of my first projects would be to setup a small Linux box that I can ssh into remotely.

    Why not just take the next step and setup tailscale? That way you can learn and also not have to worry about setting up a full security stack and everything for your DMZ.
    Tailscale will let you create a virtual local network so that you don’t have to expose anything to the internet.