How many layers to this onion?

[ChiknNutz]

I started off on this journey simply looking to update my aging Windows Home Server. I started off my uninstalling WHS and installing Fedora 21 and then Amahi. While Amahi seemed to work okay, I kinda found it to be a bit rudimentary. Perhaps I didn't give it a fair shake, but just wasn't overly impressed. I then decided to give FreeNAS a try after reading a bunch of reviews. I originally planned to use the bulk of my existing kit (circa 2007), but upgraded the RAM to the motherboard's max of 8GB of ECC RAM. Well as it turned out, most of that hardware was simply incompatible. Although I had a Xeon processor, it turns out that it didn't even support ECC RAM, even though I had been successfully using the server for the past 8 years w/o incident. Well the short of it is, I am now $1200 poorer but have this shiny new FreeNAS box to play with.

So now I am looking into what torrents are about and how to go about all that in order to use Sickbeard and Plex, etc. Looks like in order to do that whole thing right, you need to sign up for a VPN. So I looked into that and it seems the proper way to do that is to use a DD-WRT router. Well I have an older Linksys WRT54G that I've already flashed over to DD-WRT, but as you probably know, it is only capable of 100Mbps. All I've read so far about FreeNAS is you should be using Gigabit network stuff.

Just seems like the more I dig, the more I uncover and find that this doesn't work and this is incompatible and then that needs to be upgraded. Sheesh, where does it end?!

 

[pirateghost]

Why would you need a different router or a VPN?

You need to think about a SWITCH, behind your router.

 

[ChiknNutz]

Based on what I've gleaned so far in regards to staying anonymous when downloading torrents. It's either that or sign up for a Usenet account, right? I looked into a couple VPN providers and they all suggest a DD-WRT capable router. My current modem/router is provided by the DSL company (that's all I can get where I am, outside of satellite internet) and is an Actiontec F2250. Yes, I could get a switch but that doesn't help the VPN needing a DD-WRT router. I am all ears if there are other options to this.

 

[pirateghost]

But with PIA, you can use the jail as the client. You don't need to funnel all network traffic through the VPN. Just the torrent traffic.

 

[ChiknNutz]

Can you point me to some more info on Private Internet Access? How is this much different than VPN? It seems like it is essentially the same thing, but I am sure you will correct me on that ;-)

 

[pirateghost]

PIA is a VPN provider. It is how most people set up their torrent boxes.

 

[ChiknNutz]

When I said VPN, that is what I meant (i.e. ExpressVPN, HideMyAss, IPVanish, VyperVPN, etc.)

 

[pirateghost]

When I said VPN, that is what I meant (i.e. ExpressVPN, HideMyAss, IPVanish, VyperVPN, etc.)

I know. Most people use PIA for their torrent jail though. I don't see any value in that. Usenet is well worth the $10/month

 

[ChiknNutz]

One thing I read about Usenet is that it is perhaps not as "current" as what torrents are, simply due to the user base. Never having used either, I cannot speak to the validity of that. Again, looking for feedback on either.

 

[pirateghost]

I find that argument invalid. A lot of stuff on torrents originates from Usenet servers.

 

[solarisguy]

OTA television is live (you cannot get more up-to-date than that!) and mostly free, and you can record free stuff too. (The topic is out-of-scope for this forum, though.)

 

[cyberjock]

Just seems like the more I dig, the more I uncover and find that this doesn't work and this is incompatible and then that needs to be upgraded. Sheesh, where does it end?!

Don't confuse what will run slow with what is incompatible and needs upgraded.

Take your choice of 100Mb LAN as an example. For probably 99% of users here, having a 10/100 device on their network is like committing murder. Most will not be happy, will actively avoid the situation, and will complain very loudly if they only got 12MB/sec. Would my mom be happy with 12MB/sec? Absolutely. Will you be happy with 100Mb speeds? That depends on if 12MB/sec is good enough for you.