I have been looking into setting up a secure home 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).

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 binus 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?

  • fubarx@lemmy.world
    2·
    21 hours ago

    Only 6 takers on the KS with a long way to reach funding level. My guess is they’ll have to relaunch while focusing on end-user benefits and software instead of hardware specs.

    The Qualcomm IPQ9574 is a pretty high-end WiFi 7 platform. If someone already has a decent router, it’s a bit of a waste. The main processor is the Rockchip RK3588 module which already has dual NPUs. Adding another AI coprocessor means the system drivers have to be tweaked properly to use the right coprocessor. That’s why I think it’s important to see how they’ve implemented the software.

    The RK3588 is a couple years old. Rockchip already announced the RK3688 but my past experience with them was they first released mobile versions and it took a while (1-2 years) before they made dev boards and server BSPs available. The 3688 also has a much better, faster NPU w 20 TOPs – not as beefy as the Metis with 214 TOPs – but OK for basic local inference.

    All the communication slots are good for remote office or High Availability – a bit wasted IMO for home use, unless you need LoRaWAN, satellite, or multiple 5G lines.

    If you badly want to use a 3588, BananaPi makes a pro board at a fraction of the price. Otherwise, for basic home server use, an old Intel laptop or headless desktop, reflashed with Debian or Ubuntu will do.

    Again, I really like the hardware mix they have. It’s great for a small office or a research lab, but IMO a bit overkill for home use.