I have linux on one of my computers

If you need remote access to the home network, you’ll most likely run into issues with not having a public IP address.

The wireguard vpn of an AVM fritzbox router can deal with that, so can Tailscale

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I am going to buy a 2nd hand gaming PC (which is still incredibly expensive but faster than any PC I‘ve ever bought (relative to time of purchase)) and I want to install Linux on it.
I think I decided on Mint. I am going to play games on it so Steam and Proton are a must, EA seems to block Linux because of anti-cheat, but I haven‘t bought an EA-game for ages.
I also want to run AutoCAD, Fusion etc. on it. Do those work? Or do I need to swap to FreeCAD (does that work???). I know Estlcam is a bit of a pain, but I gotta see what I am to do about that, I guess the old PC will be allowed to stay for that.
I absolutely need to have Lightpack/Prismatik, without my background LEDs the eyes are strained so much more… But there seems to be a Linux version.
All of those fancy LEDs of the PC aren‘t probably going to work, but that‘s life.
Can I plug my old SSDs into Linux? I have a gaming SSD and gaming HDD that I‘d just want to plug in via Sata. I could also completely wipe them, it‘s just games…
Are there any other things I need to do when coming from windows? Anything that is going to trip me up?

I just decided I am probably running Windows on a separate SSD, because I still need Affinity Apps as well as Estlcam (though I could still use the old PC… Will figure that out later). That‘s life. I still want Linux to be my main system.

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I really rate using something like zerotier for, easy secure, serverless VPN access.

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Linux Mint and I are fighting. Steam works, my Dymo label printers as well after a few hours, the only thing that absolutely doesn’t want to work is Lutris…
I think you guys might be of more help than the official forum or discord. I am going to make a thread… :sweat_smile:

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Do you need lutris? I have moved over to using steam exclusively for running games.

Yes, for Blizzard and Ubisoft Games. I have a few games I bought on Ubisoft, besides that they need uplay even if started over steam… :expressionless_face:

Help please? :sweat_smile:

What kind do you want? Like remote desktop access? Or access to a webpage (like home assistant) or shell access (ssh)?

Personally, I don’t like tunneling through my router. I have used cloudflate’s vpn access, which runs a service in a docker container on my network. That can connect to my service (home assistant in this case) and connects to cloudflare. Then I configure cloudflare to let me in with a private key.

I would prefer it to set up something like logmein (I haven’t used that service in more than a decade, but it used to be awesome). Something where your machine tunnels out to a machine maintained by expensive sysadmins. If you’re trying to work on something for your job and wanting to remotely email yourself a file or something, then paying a small fee to outsource that is the way to go. They should have linux clients. I just don’t have that need anymore, so I’m not sure what a good choice is.

If you want ssh access, then I am sure you can use cloudflare, but you’ll need some expertise. I haven’t needed that myself, since I have worked from home for about a decade. When remotely accessing machines at work, we use a VPN to get on the network and then ssh or access whatever locally hosted web site we want. You can also set up VPN and an RDP client/server.

Still trying to figure out what sort of access I really need. It would be cool to be able to log in from anywhere and see my proxmox dashboard, but as of right now, I see no real need for it. If a connection is down I would not be able to get in anyway.

This has hit a bit of an analysis paralysis section. You can do so much, there are so many ways to do things, what do I want to learn, what should I keep my inexperienced fingers out of. For example pi-hole/adguard…or just change my dns to a cloudlfare or quad9 add blocked dns. Same same(?) with no updates or maintenance on my end.

Home assistant is a hell of a rabbit hole. I am trying to pick one cool thing to set up, plant moisture maybe, seems neat and comes with other sensors.

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Okay so I guess that is a perfect example. How would I safely access home assistant from RMRRF to check if my plants need water, :laughing:?

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Pick up cell phone.

Call home.

Ask human if plants need water.

:blush:

Everything else adds risk, it’s a rabbit hole of VPNs, DMZs, IOT isolation networks…. Etc

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pfft…

quit worrying about watering your own plants lol

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I’ve used those modules (or at least SparkFun and Adafruit soil moisture sensors). They last about a year then die of various causes from being outside in the soil year round.

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The easiest way is to pay nabu casa for home assistant cloud access. But it’s a but steep if you aren’t yet sold on HA. You can install HA app on your phone and connect to nabu casa, which will let you record sensors from your phone into your home assistant. Stuff like your current battery life, or wether you are at your home or office can be configured easily. Then either log that data or run some automations from it.

The next easiest, but free way is with wireguard vpn. VPNs are a little annoying in android, especially if you have android auto. But you can easily connect to the wg vpn, log in and check something, then log out. It is fragile and you can’t really log much to your HA from your phone because it is an intermittent connection.

I am using cloudflare tunneling with mTLS authentication. It is pretty complex, but I bet you have the right skills to do it. Cloudflare will block any access that doesn’t have your private mTLS certificate and it will encrypt all the external traffic. Internally, your traffic is unencrypted. This will let your phone connect 24/7 again and you can get your sensors restored. It’s also very quick to load the interface from the android app.

Here is a good looking tutorial. I set mine up a whike ago. So I don’t remember if this is exactly what I did. It can be done for any web interface, like your pronterface.

There are also cloudflare tunnel options like passwordless login. So you can configure just a couple of emails and anyone trying to log in will need a pin sent to a valid email. These only work in browsers. But it might be a good first step. I trust these things (more than I should, probably). Cloudflare knows what they are doing to keep these interfaces secure and the keys needed to open them are as secure as my phone (which also gets on my home network every day).

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I have been using wireguard and pivpn 24/7 on my android phone for a few years now because it connects to my pi with pi-hole and the only drawback is that I have to reconnect it once in the morning. That’s about all the hassle there is.

Still valid I guess, but far from oldskool. :sweat_smile:

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