Bashrag

Dad already has a VPN set up even just for HomeAssistant (it can't be accessed from the internet without connecting to the VPN first) - expanding that system shouldn't be too hard. Is there a specific way to do this? Or is it as simple as something like "set up network drive" in Windows? I've never done this myself which is why I ask. Are there any that are typically highly recommended? I will ask him to have a look at this, but I don't think it will be an issue. They have a pretty chonky internet connection in both places.

Mods, I'm not sure if this is the right section to post this in! My parents have a small Windows home-server running HomeAssistant in both their flats. I would like to get them to set up an off-site backup for the videos that the cameras record (i.e. videos from Flat A are backed up in Flat B and vice versa) so that if either of the flats get broken into and the cameras/computers get stolen, the videos are backed up in the other flat. Since I live abroad, I cannot help them physically, but I trust my dad to be able to figure things out - he did set the entire server & HomeAssistant stuff up on his own, after all. What I would like to ask of you wonderful folks here is resources - could you please link me to any kinds of reliable tutorials, videos, articles, guides, threads, whatever y'all know that might help them set this system up? Ideally, a non SAAS solution would be best, even if it involves significantly more tinkering and DIY (worst case scenario, the IT folks at his office might be able to assist him). If old hardware can be reused, that's even better! Since the cameras record 24x7, I don't want to suggest a cloud solution and ideally, I would prefer if those cameras never touched the open internet at all. Thanks for your help!

Thanks! Both good leads that I can start reading up on. As for budget, somewhere around €500 is doable but it's flexible. Multiple people will pitch in.

Hi everyone, I am looking for recommendations for a good graphic / drawing tablet as a gift for my SO. She previously had a Wacom which she stopped using and eventually gave away - not having a display on the thing was a deal-breaker. She's been out of the market for several years now and has been doing much more "analog" art, but wants to get back into digital stuff again. She wants to get a good, large (at least A4, ideally A3), colour-accurate, and responsive tablet that she won't need to upgrade for the forseeable future. She doesn't really use a tablet in her day to day so this device will be exclusively used for art. Thing is, I am not an artist at all (I can barely draw stick figures) so I have no idea where to even start looking, and what questions I should be asking. She has been out of the market so long, that she has no idea what the current status quo is. Budget isn't a huge concern, but we don't want to overspend for a logo. I've heard that Wacom is supposed to be good, but don't want to pay a premium just for the name; if a different brand delivers the same or better performance per Euro, I'm totally open to alternatives. We were thinking around the €500 mark, but it's quite flexible. Do you guys have any recommendations for specific devices, for research sources, reviews, comparisons, or any such? If it matters, we're in Europe (Austria). Thanks!

I've been using the ZTE H268N that my ISP (A1, Austria) has provided for the past few years and I want to upgrade to something nicer. This thing's settings are severely limited. I can't even assign static IPs to my devices. I've recently gotten into home automation and picked up a Hubitat and a have some other IoT things on the way. Not being able to assign static IPs to my Lifx bulbs and Kasa switches makes them glitch out when trying to control them via Hubitat (this is actually what's prompted me to think about upgrading). I've seen a bunch of LTT (and other) videos about using a "real" router, but pretty much none of these videos ever talk about how to go about setting one up with the kind of connection I have. I don't even know if something like what I have going on my ISP's router is available! I believe it's a DSL router, but I know little about networking so I'm not very sure. There's a cable going into the "DSL" port as well as into the "Phone 1" port. Both of these cables combine into this weird rectangular plug that goes into a wavy port (with the triangle) in the wall. My ISP isn't very forthcoming about which routers will work and doesn't want to be transparent about what I would need (figures, since they also offer "premium" routers with more features as a subscription model as well as their own "smart home" platform which is extremely shady as everything needs to flow through their VPN). Unfortunately, my choice of reliable ISPs is quite limited and all the ISPs I know of here have similar, if not the same, annoying models. We have two PCs and 2 hubs (the Hubitat and a Hue) that will need to be wired into the router. I have a D-Link GO-SW-5G switch lying about somewhere which I could use if required (but the last time I used it, my PC kept disconnecting from the internet). We have 2 cellphones, a tab, a laptop, 8 smart Bulbs and a smart plug that will all use WiFi. We may get some more WiFi smart devices in the future if at all there are no Zigbee/Z-wave alternatives. I don't currently have a NAS or anything of the sort but will likely build one in the next 2 to 4 years. At some point in the future, I might also look into putting together a Plex server. Is there anything else that's relevant that I should be mentionining? I don't know if there are any Austrians on here or if there's anyone who has experience with Austrian ISPs, but if anyone has any advice about what I should look out for and can help guide me through the upgrade process, that'd be awesome. I honestly don't even know where to start.

If Synergy needs to be installed, I assume it'd need admin rights. This would likely not be allowed by the company. From what I undererstand, you plug your monitors into a KVM Switch Output and all systems into the KVM input. Do you know if doing this affects G Sync compatability, since the G Sync Monitor isn't "directly" plugged into my GPU anymore? Cant access work files and programs otherwise. Can't remote into the laptop from a different system as that's completely restricted. That's the whole point. When it's crunching, I don't need to use the laptop and I'd rather chill on my desktop till it's done. However, with my current setup, I'd have to unplug my keyboard, power cable and speakers from my laptop, plug them into my desktop and then once my laptop's done, unplug from desktop and replug into laptop. Then when I start crunching again, I need to unplug, replug, unplug, replug... You get the idea. The whole point of the post was to say "I don't need to use my Laptop all the time and I'm sick of unplugging and replugging my peripherals, how do I make switching between the two easier?" I can't remote into the laptop. I already discussed this with IT and while they see the issue, their hands are tied by company policy and they cannot allow anyone to remote into company systems. I don't want to risk my job by trying to work around this and remoting into the system (installing anything that has a UAC popup isn't possible without IT since none of us have admin accounts anyway). This is why I asked if there's a better way to easily and repeatedly switch between gaming on my PC and working on my laptop.

I don't know what RDP means. Do you mean remoting into my PC via my laptop? That'd work about 60% of the time, but when I'm running analyses or something, my laptop is almost unusable for those couple of hours (it isn't a very powerful laptop to begin with, unfortunately)

We're doing a LOT of work-from-home, and COVID has resulted in a company-wide policy change which will allow us to work from home over half the week if we want to even after things are back to normal. Since I'd much rather work from home, I'm trying to figure out a way to optimise my setup. My personal rig has two monitors (LG 27GL850 & Samsung S24C650PL), a Logitech G110 Keyboard & a Logitech G604 Mouse. My work laptop is a Dell Latitude E7470 and I have an E Port II Docking Station that my company gave me. I use the same G110 for work and a G602 Mouse. My monitors are connected to my PC (LG via DisplayPort & Samsung via HDMI) as well as the docking station (LG via HDMI & Samsung via VGA). I switch the inputs depending on what I'm using (the Samsung switches inputs automatically but the LG doesn't - no big deal TBH). I plug my power cable, keyboard and speakers into whichever system I am using at the time. Since the mice are wireless, I have two mice on my table - doesn't really bother me. This results in a lot of unplugging and replugging every day. Since work often has a bunch of downtime through the day (either because I'm waiting on clients, waiting on colleagues, waiting for my laptop to finish analyses that sometimes take an hour or two and leave the machine bordeline unusable, have finished way ahead of time, etc.), it'd be amazing if I could leave my PC running and do other stuff and then easily switch back to my laptop when I need to. Is there any solution that might work for this sort of a use case? A major caveat is that I cannot install any software that needs admin rights on my work laptop.

I'm planning to get an ifixit kit too, but I'm in Austria. Do the LTT affiliate links work for the EU store, @CPotter? Would be cool if they have any promos running. Been eyeing the Manta kit but it's quite pricey!

Makes sense. I could do: Fast 1 TB boot & program drive (e.g. 970 Evo) Use current Crucial P1 as a scratch drive 2 TB SATA SSD for mid-term storage x TB HDD for archiving whenever my 2 TB SSD decides to fill up

I'll have to look into Optane. I don't know much about it. I'm on a Ryzen 3700X and X570 TaiChi - no idea if it supports Optane That's the plan, but I'm really conflicted between SSDs and HDDs.

I recently finished putting my PC together and have been using it for a while. I currently have a single, 1TB Crucial P1 SSD in the system but will certainly need more over time. This system will be used mostly for: Working with 360° photos and videos (filmed with an Insta360 One R, just in case this is relevant) Working with "regular" 4K and 1080p videos Working with Raw photos (shot with a Nikon D90, in case this is relevant) Playing games like Elder Scrolls Online and Overwatch Playing VR games like Beat Sabre (once I have my VR stuff) Streaming (if and when I manage to stop procrastinating) I'm thinking of adding anywhere between 1 and 4 TB of storage to the system. What would be your recommendations? I don't have a budget set for this as yet. At the moment, 1 TB is sufficient, but it will stop being so over the next several months, so I have time to save. However, I also don't want to get something that's ridiculously overpriced and doesn't make a lot of sense to buy. I'm thinking of adding a second 1 TB M.2 drive to the motherboard (since I have two free slots). Would the performance difference between a Crucial P1 and something much more expensive like a 970 Evo be noticeable? After that one slot is taken up, would it be a better idea to add SATA SSDs to expand storage further or should I look into HDDs? I know HDDs would prove to be cheaper but could be prone to mechanical failure - any other angles I should be considering?

Hm, thanks. I didn't consider this! This was what I was planning to do anyway. I asked mostly so I could automate the process to some extent and so I could tinker a bit This is actually a pretty fair point. I will be OCing my system and playing around with it so I can imagine that there may be some instability down the line. I would much rather not have a backup inside my PC. Thanks for bringing this up. This is more of a post-PC-building project, really. The backup is definitely a factor, but I really enjoy building and tinkering. I was originally thinking of a NAS, but I'm not a 100% certain about what I want to do with it. After reading through everything people have to say, though, I think I will go over to the NAS subforum and start doing some research in that direction. Thanks!

Heyo, My SO and I recently put our new PCs together. We both have space left over in our cases so I was thinking of utlising it to make a backup system. The idea is that I back my system up to her PC and she backs her system up to mine. If either PC fails, the other one has a backup. We're thinking of having this backup run either weekly or nightly. Additionally, I will do a nightly backup of both systems to an external drive which will live off-site. Now the questions: Does a system like this make sense and if yes, what would be a good, cost effective way to implement it? What sort of software and hardware would I need? Does RAIDing anything make sense? What else should I consider? Here are the PC specs: Her PC My PC Both of us currently have 1 TB SSDs. I will likely add a few more TB of storage as I will start working with 360° photos and videos in a few months. Those files will likely have their own backup system and might just get their own separate thread here (since I need advice about how to proceed with choosing storage for that kinda stuff as well).

Thanks! So I could just use this diagram for reference, correct? There are a few differences though: This chart shows the CPU power connector (MoBo end) having an 8 pin EPS + 4 Pin ATX connector. My BitFenix has just an 8 pin connector for the CPU. The GPU connector (GPU end) in the chart has an 8 pin PCIe + 6 Pin PCIe. My BitFenix has two 6+2 pin connectors on the GPU end. How do I handle these two cables? Do I just follow the Corsair Type 4 pinout when I make the cables? Would that work? This would be my preferred pinout actually, since my GPU has an 8 pin and 4 pin connector and the GPU has an 8 pin and 6 pin connector.