OPNsense gateway
An Intel N305 appliance with Intel X520/10GbE networking. It handles routing, network separation, WireGuard, Suricata, Zenarmor and FreeRADIUS.
THE LAB
Hardware and lab setup
I built BiXCore gradually, reusing existing computers where I could and adding network equipment when I had a specific problem to solve. These are the systems behind the projects on this site.
Network and security
Managed switching
A TP-Link Omada SG3210X-M2 and two Grandstream GWN7721 switches. I use them for VLANs, trunking, 802.1X experiments, LLDP and IPv6 troubleshooting.
Wi-Fi
Two UniFi U7 Pro XG access points, managed by a locally hosted controller. Enterprise Wi-Fi authentication is linked to the PKI and RADIUS setup.
Power and backup connectivity
An Eaton 3S UPS is connected to the firewall for power monitoring. I also have an LTE backup connection. Testing complete service recovery and failover is ongoing.
Servers and storage
Windows Server and PKI
Two Windows Server 2025 domain controllers provide Active Directory and DNS. The enterprise CA and NDES enrollment service run on one of them; that distinction matters when planning recovery.
NAS
A UGREEN NASync DXP4800 hosts Docker-based infrastructure services, including DNS filtering, reverse proxy, controller applications and monitoring.
Proxmox test host
A reused Intel Core i7-4790K desktop with 32 GB of RAM, Debian 13 and Proxmox VE 9.2. It shares the machine with Windows through UEFI dual boot.
Virtual machine storage and graphics
The Proxmox lab uses a single 2 TB ZFS disk following a storage migration. Intel HD 4600 passthrough is used for KDE graphics experiments. The disk is not redundant.
Test clients
Windows and Linux virtual machines are my main test clients for DHCP, NAT, port forwarding, VPNs and remote desktop. I also use real wired and Android Wi-Fi clients when a feature needs physical hardware to validate it.
This is the equipment relevant to the projects, rather than a complete list of every device in the house. The pages describe what each part was used for and link to the related tests.