Intel NUC, Linux, Pi-Hole, and NAS – Part 5: FTP

📅 November 12, 2019
What would a NAS be without FTP?

With an SSH server installed, we already have some NAS (Network Attached Storage) functionality. But NAS devices usually have more than one option/protocol available, so let’s add the ProFTP server to give the NUC some FTP abilities!

 

Intel NUC, Linux, Pi-Hole, and NAS – Part 4: Pi-Hole®

📅 November 11, 2019
“Let’s block ads!”

Pi-hole is a free, network-wide ad blocking solution for your network. You can set up Pi-hole to act as your primary DNS server so any device connected to your network must resolve DNS requests through Pi-hole before resolving DNS requests on the Internet.

The idea behind Pi-hole is to maintain block lists of known ad servers. If a URL is on a block list, then Pi-hole resolves that URL to 0.0.0.0, and a connection cannot be made. The result? No ad is shown.

Pi-hole was originally designed for the Raspberry Pi, but it will also run on practically any hardware running Linux. We will set up Pi-hole on the Intel NUC running Xubuntu 19.10, and then configure the DNS chain so all devices connected to the network — computers, cell phones, tablets, game consoles, smart TVs, mobile apps, whatever — automatically receive the Pi-hole as the primary DNS server through DHCP. Most ads will be blocked automatically without any client configuration.

Just connect and ads are blocked!

Intel NUC, Linux, Pi-Hole, and NAS – Part 3: SSH

📅 November 7, 2019
How do we talk to the NUC remotely over the LAN?

With link aggregation up and running on the NUC and Xubuntu 19.10, let’s install the OpenSSH server so we can administer the NUC remotely and securely.

 

 

Intel NUC, Linux, Pi-Hole, and NAS – Part 2: Link Aggregation

📅 November 5, 2019
Gimme a faster network!

So far, the NUC is set up and running Xubuntu 19.10. (Part One Here.) Before installing network services, such as FTP and SSH, let’s bond network ports together using a process called link aggregation to double the available throughput of most data transfers over the LAN.

Make sure Xubuntu is updated and has Internet connection, and prepare to learn something new!

Intel NUC, Linux, Pi-Hole, and NAS – Part 1: The Hardware and Xubuntu 19.10

📅 November 2, 2019
Have you heard of an Intel NUC?

A NUC (Next Unit of Computing) is a full-fledged computer system packed in a small — SMALL! — compact case that utilizes minimal power. Almost anything you can do with a desktop system you can also do with a NUC, and the performance is about equivalent to a desktop system depending upon the version of NUC you are using. It is great for a light-weight, miniature computer system, and it supports Linux!

I had the chance to play with a NUC and Xubuntu 19.10 lately, and this is the first of a multi-part series of articles that shows a few adventures I had with it.

The goal is to build a standalone Xubuntu 19.10 computer system running Pi-Hole, acting as a NAS (complete with FTP and SSH servers), and utilizing link aggregation (bonding) using two gigabit Ethernet ports to double the network throughput to 2Gbps instead of 1Gbps to test DLNA media server features.

This first part will focus on the hardware side of things, benchmarking NVMe and SSD performance with CrystalDiskMark in Windows 10, and then installing Xubuntu 19.10.

Ready? Let’s get started!