Hello members, I’m interested in “learning at the feet of a master” on a paid basis to better understand, monitor and harden my home network. This isn’t to say I won’t put in the time to learn myself. I will. However, “I don’t know what I don’t know” and “leveraging the talent of a subject matter expert” accelerates learning. Having real-time back-and-forth interests me. That’s why I am asking for recommendations of someone who can:
Discuss my network setup and my ISP’s service (Spectrum)
Guide me on better hardware choices (I rent a router from my ISP)
Guide me on a quality network monitoring tool so I may see what is connecting to the network, bandwidth pulled, and such
Discuss and implement best practices for security and pricvacy.
I do not have high threat concerns. I’m located in Florida USA. It’s more that I’m curious to implement best practices for my situation and consultant is a wise choice. So, if your best buddy asked the same question, to whom would you direct him/her? (And I may post on Upwork where I’ve hired for years, yet I thought a referral from this community would be a better choice). Thoughts?
I don’t have any specific ‘master’ to recommend, but I do recommend joining the Techlore Matrix Space (#techlore:techlore.net) (also accessible on Discord) so you can ask questions and get live responses.
Here are some networking products that I recommend. Warning: my biases are on full display.
Most ARRIS SURFboard cable modems (without WiFi nonsense) are well-regarded. If your service is cable broadband and you are allowed to use your own modem, get a good ARRIS SURFboard modem compatible with your service.
Consider using OPNsense — a FOSS, business-grade, self-hostable router software.
If you don’t want to use OPNsense, use a well-regarded Mikrotik, Ubiquiti EdgeRouter, or other business-grade router (please don’t purchase cheap consumer ‘wireless router’ crap).
Use a well-regarded TP-Link Omada, Mikrotik, or Ubiquiti UniFi access point (or multiple if needed). Most of these will easily outperform even the most expensive (overpriced) consumer ‘wireless router’ crap.
If nothing else (i.e. you are going to use consumer ‘wireless router’ crap), use aftermarket firmware like FreshTomato or OpenWrt.
Consulting is something we are planning on trialing this summer as a company, we are still working things out but if that’s something you’d be interested in send me a DM
) so you can ask questions and get live responses.