You definitely should try something with an actual desktop. It sounds like you’re wanting a headed server with virtualization capabilities. I’d personally run LXD or KVM and LXC if I needed a type 2 hypervisor and containers like what you’re saying. Luckily, a ton of distros support both of these at this point.

Btw, proxmox utilizes KVM and LXC on the backend. So the only difference is that you’re leveraging the tools directly. If you’re a CS student then learning the underlying tools is the best way to learn about a system and how it all interacts.

It looks like Quad9 supports DoH: quad9

After looking through it a little bit, it sounds like HIP is mainly used for verifying hosts’ identities. It sounds like you’ll still need firewall rules in order to create the scenario in your example, right?

Ohh, sorry I misread your comment. Yeah, 2.5G WAN is a little trickier unless you go with something enterprise grade it seems.

They do have the XG series. I actually have a SW-16-XG for the backplane on my server for my SAN. Local access 10G using SFP+ ports are definitely doable if you don’t need to cross any VLANs or do any routing.

I haven’t used one personally but the cheapest they have is the Flex-XG switch it seems, which seems pretty cheap for 10G.

I’d say they should work fine if you can disable the routing and have them act just like WiFi access points. Then connect the LAN ports to the Ubiquiti and you should be good. That said, I’m not familiar with those devices so take this as you will.

The only compatibility issues I was thinking about was PoE-related mainly but those look like they need their own power supplies. Ubiquiti used to push a nonstandard PoE spec with some of their APs but I don’t think that’s the case anymore.

I have an older version but I think they all work pretty much the same. It should work fine for you depending on the brand/voltage of the APs you have currently.

Everyone has some great recommendations. I didn’t see anything about Ubiquiti so I’ll throw it out there since I’ve had a good experience with them. The Dream Machine is for home/small office setups and is fairly inexpensive for what it does: https://store.ui.com/us/en/collections/unifi-dream-router.

Edit: it’s now the dream router. They changed the name it seems.

Yeah, I’d argue HA is more established as high availability than home assistant but that could be my networking side talking.