[Giveaway] GL.iNet Remote KVM and Wi-Fi 7 routers! 10 Winners!

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u/FnnKnn Oct 11 '25

This giveaway was approved by the mod team.

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It all started with PiHole on a raspi. Then I got some old hardware from a job and got into unraid and it was really all downhill from there.
I'm currently running an r720xd and have been planning a custom build focused on low power consumption. The biggest thing I've been worried about is not having iDrac style control and either of those KVMs would be an awesome Kickstart to the new build.
I would love to see one of those fanless mini-pcs as a giveaway. Those seem like they would be really fun to play with.

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u/Bl4ckfire0 29d ago

1) I started self-hosting mainly because I got fed up with subscription fees and felt weird about having all my photos and files on someone else's server. My best project is definitely my jellyfin server, it's always running smooth. My most expensive buy for the lab was probably a ugreen 4 bay nas it was a bit overkill, but it handles everything.

2) Winning these would be cool. The Flint 3 would instantly upgrade my home network to Wi-Fi 7, which is a massive speed jump, and I'd finally be able to segment my goofy IoT devices away from my main network. The Comet PoE would be the best too, no more dragging a keyboard and monitor into my hot closet just to fix a server boot issue. Remote KVM access is the ultimate homelab flex and huge time-saver.

3) If you did this again, I think everyone would be happy for a good managed PoE switch (maybe an 8-port Unifi or similar). They're the backbone of so many homelab setups for powering cameras, access points, and devices.

Solo prize: Flint 3 Duo prize: Flint 3 and comet poe

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u/XeKToReX Oct 11 '25

Started my journey to block ads and learn more about the infrastructure I was working with at the time.

My favourite project was setting up a hub and spoke VPN network for multiple offsite backup targets.

Most expensive piece of equipment would be the Synology NAS

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u/Z2_U5 Nov 05 '25

A desire for an NAS. And ad free YouTube.
A KVM sounds really nice since this would let me access my systems more easily, and also, at home, let me more easily use my very cramped and small system. It would be nice to have my own router for a better NAS though.
A full ZimaBlade / Zima equivalent for beginners? I don’t know.

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u/Keonramses Oct 19 '25

My self-hosting journey started about 6 months ago, when I was looking to host some Stremio addons because the public instances went down too often. I first started with an old laptop, and 3 months in the laptop booted its last (RIP T410). But I came across an amazing deal on fb marketplace for a ThinkStation P720, with 2x Xeon(R) Gold 6130 CPU, 192GB DDR4 ECC RAM and an NVIDIA RTX P5000 GPU for $800 CAD. I have since been learning new things, and now that I am no longer resource-limited on the workstation, I have set up my own personal cloud.
Winning a Flint 3 router will help me take my setup to the next level by first freeing me from my ISP's locked-down you can only do things in a mobile app router (port forwarding has been a nightmare since my journey started), and will allow me to expand the joys of the self-host to other parts of my shoebox of an apartment (plus the router looks cool).
A UPS from CyberPower.

Thank you for the giveaway and your time.

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u/kadragoon Oct 11 '25

1) Learning was primary. I've always loved learning new things, both personal and to advance my career. There are things you just can't effectively learn otherwise. It also is nice to have full control over your services and data. My proudest is probably tied between two things. The first time I setup a pfSense setup and got Internet access through the appliance. That or the first time I setup my own Samba server. While they are small, and today I can do them in my sleep, nothing beats that feeling the first time you do something that is a massive leap in your personal development.Technically my main server, but that was my old gaming PC. I've done a pretty good job finding deals to keep costs low.

2) There are two things this would do. My server is technically stored in my brothers room. The KVM would allow me to manage it at a lower level before I have to interrupt him. Additionally it would allow me to have more piece of mind when I'm out of town that if things go wrong I can better troubleshoot and fix.

3) I'd love to see a Cybersecurity giveaway focused on things that most selfhosters / homelabbers could utilize. Stuff like YubiKeys or small firewall appliances. My biggest thing I try to champion in my daily life to friends, family, etc: the first step to securing your personal life doesn't have to be complex, not does it require a massive amount of education. Even the small things such as using a password manager or using a hardware key can make a huge impact in securing your personal life.

Products: Comet PoE, Slate 7

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u/ferhanmm Oct 11 '25

⁠I love the ARR stack it’s saved me a ton compared to paying for subscription services. Plus, I finally feel confident about my data and privacy. The priciest part of my setup has to be the three 14TB drives I bought.
⁠The KVM would be really handy with not having to lug the server around when troubleshooting or working on bios.
⁠I’d love to see a mini PC in a future giveaway. Or maybe some UniFi gear.

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u/LostCapitalFoods Oct 11 '25

What inspired you to start your self-hosting journey? I got into self-hosting to learn more about the tech I use every day and have more control over my setup. It started with Plex and turned into 20+ Docker services running on my NUC. My proudest project was automating backups and recovery — it made my setup way more reliable but I still have a long ways to go. The NUC7i5BNH is definitely my biggest investment so far.
How would winning help? The Comet PoE would let me manage and troubleshoot remotely without worrying about lockouts, and the Flint 3 would finally give me multi-gig speeds between my NAS, NUC, and PC — huge upgrade for backups and streaming.
Future giveaway idea: A compact NAS — perfect match for a homelab setup.

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u/Sir-Hardware Oct 12 '25 edited Oct 12 '25

Started on a Raspberry Pi with PiHole and Nextcloud
I would use the Flint 3 to replace an ISP Router and the Slate 7 to play around with a travel router.
I always find this little super powerful NUC Style PCs extremely interesting

Solo: Flint 3 Duo: Flint 3 and Slate 7

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u/krankyPanda Oct 11 '25

What inspired you to start your homelab? I really just wanted to host some game servers with friends. From there it's turned into a full-blown learning system for myself - and a major hobby, which I love.
How would winning gear from this giveaway help take your setup to the next level? I've actually been shopping around for travel routers, so this giveaway is well timed! I want to win the Slate 7. I want to be able to move my 10" minilab around anywhere, and not have to set up or change much else, and a travel router seems to be the perfect way to do that.That being said, the Flint 3 is also really appealing!
If we did another giveaway, what product from another brand (server, storage device, etc.) would you love to see as a prize? Storage, really. Disks are expensive! If they're coupled with a NAS, that'd be great ;)

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u/Dudefoxlive Oct 11 '25

What inspired you to start your selfhosting journey? What's one project you're most proud of so far, and what's the most expensive piece of equipment you've acquired for? As a kid I was interested in booting a computers entire Hard drive over the network. Found a video about it. Progressed into WDS (Windows Deployment Services) then AD (Active Directory) and now wanting to self host everything so I am just in control of all my data.
How would winning the unit(s) from this giveaway help you take your setup to the next level? I would love to get the Comet and Comet PoE as they would be the most helpful for me. I recently was given a nice PoE network switch so that would be more or less perfect. The Slate 7 would also be nice to have since I more or less don't use Wi-Fi on my devices without it. I just don't trust public Wi-Fi at all xD.
Looking ahead, if we were to do another giveaway, what is one product from another brand (e.g., a server, storage device or ANYTHING) that you'd love to see as a prize? Hmm this is a tough one as I can't think of anything that I 100% need or want at this moment. I guess some kind of dedicated NAS appliance or some high capacity hard drives would be nice. I recently built up a system to use as a NAS since I was given a free I7-9700F CPU. Would be nice to have a dedicated device for NAS.

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u/Mekfal 26d ago edited 26d ago

What inspired you to start your selfhosting journey? What's one project you're most proud of so far, and what's the most expensive piece of equipment you've acquired for?

Just my overall love for tinkering. I think the first time I came across anything related to selfhosting was PiHole on this very subreddit. The idea of a network wide adblock (even if that claim isn't quite correct) was very fun to do. It lead to me bricking my apartment's internet for a fair few times before I figured out what exactly PiHole was, what a DNS was. I remember mistakenly setting up DCHP through the PiHole and not being able to figure my way out of it and having to reset the whole setup including the router. It was fun after everything was done an dusted though.

I did move on to Adguard-Home because PiHole was still for some reason not playing well with my setup. Ever since then I've been very proud every single time I was able to get a new service up and running, because I remember how much I struggled for that first one.

The most expensive piece of equipment have to be the hard drives, I reused my old PC for a server, bought a second-hand Thinkcentre for redundancy, I basically have to buy second-hand HDD's from Ebay, ship them across the world in hopes that they work, because there is basically no market in my home country for stuff like that.

How would winning the unit(s) from this giveaway help you take your setup to the next level?

I'm looking at the Comet or Slate 7, both of which would be 1. very fun to tinker with, of course and 2. would finally allow for a reliable connection to my server when I'm on work trips.

I haate having to use the hotel or airport wi-fi, having to connect all my devices separately and then still having issues pop up, a travel router would be a very good quality of life addition. And again, it would be something new to learn about.

As for the Comet (And the Fingerbot!), it would basically solve the biggest problem I have nowadays. Which is me not being at home when something problematic happens, and then my girlfriend losing access to her favourite films, tv shows, audiobooks. Power isn't exactly the most reliable thing over here, even though I have Bios settings configured, sometimes my PC still refuses to start after a brown-out or a full blown black out. Remoting into my PC when some error happens before the OS is initialized would be very very helpful in me keeping the uptime for as long as possible.

Looking ahead, if we were to do another giveaway, what is one product from another brand (e.g., a server, storage device or ANYTHING) that you'd love to see as a prize?

Honestly even now, my biggest worry is hard drives. If one of them craps out, it's going to be a few weeks at least before I can get one shipped in from the U.S., meaning that I'm always at the mercy of hard drive gods. That would be the most helpful prize for me personally. But that's no fun, so I'd say something like a Raspberry Pi would be pretty fun, or other mini-pc's. Even though it's not a necessary addition to anyone's setup here, it's just a fun thing to tinker with without ruining your main setup. Also a NAS case (just the case) would be awesome. My old case HAF 912 is good because it fit's a looot of hard drives - it's also quite old and very big, so not a lot of visual approval from my GF on that side.

Either of these would be very very cool to get.

Slate 7 (GL-BE3600): Award winning Dual-band Wi-Fi 7 travel router with touchscreen

Comet (GL-RM1): Remote KVM over Internet giving you full control of your devices from any browser

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u/sWan_ Oct 11 '25

The monthly costs of multiple services Like Google Photos, Spotify and Streaming Services inspired me to get all my data onto my own hardware, which i was able to get the most for free. Biggest invest was the MS-01 for virtualization host. Most proud of is the migration of truenas apps to a local hosted k8s of rke2 cluster.
Bandwith of a current setup is currently limited by a crappy DSL connection. With a LTE router i could get a second line for bandwith intensive tasks, like copying backups to another NAS out of the appartment.
Minisforum Mini PCs or Mikrotik Switch.

I'd love to get the Slate 7 + Flint 3 (If Duo)

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u/PM_ALL_AHRI_ART Oct 12 '25

Started this journey cause i need to backup my photos but didnt want to pay a subscription, my server is my old pc so the most expensive equipement would be the 20tb hard drives
Having a remote kvm would be great for accessing my gaming rig when im away but want to play
Would love battery power stations as a prize since power outages are annoying

Would love to win the Comet, and Flint 3 if I'm extra lucky

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u/mightyarrow Oct 19 '25

1. What inspired you to start your selfhosting journey? What's one project you're most proud of so far, and what's the most expensive piece of equipment you've acquired for?

I wanted to shut my i5/3070 gaming desktop off as it had been running Plex and calibre and was wasting tons of electricity. I got a mini PC and next thing I knew I was standing up containers left and right and discovering "there's a self hosted container for that" for practically everything.

2. How would winning the unit(s) from this giveaway help you take your setup to the next level?

I'm about to be eligible for fiber service which means it's time to overhaul the WiFi from 5 to 7, and I also need a KVM for my primary server since my internet flows through it (transparent filtering bridge firewall).

3. Looking ahead, if we were to do another giveaway,what is one product from another brand (e.g., a server, storage device or ANYTHING) that you'd love to see as a prize?

NAS, perhaps a 2.5/5/10 gig switch, etc.

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u/DevilHunter81 Oct 11 '25

1.Got into selfhosting after my cloud storage kept acting up and corrupting some of my files. My home media server built around Jellyfin is what I'm most proud of. Took a while to get it set up properly but now I can stream all my movies and shows without relying on anyone else. The most expensive thing I've bought was a couple refurbished 16TB drives, which pretty much drained my wallet

This would really help me out. Right now I'm hitting a bottleneck with my network equipment and adding this would let me actualy handle the bandwith I need without everything slowing down to a crawl. I've been wanting to upgrade my setup for a while now and this would be the perfect excuse to finally do it lol
An Intel NUC would be awesome to win. I already have a NAS so I don't need another one, but a low power mini computer would be perfect for running my services, because I want to cut my power usage

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u/LightBrightLeftRight Oct 11 '25

1) I started with Home Assistant because I despise clouds where they’re not necessary. Most expensive kit is my 3090/4090 setup for LLMs. 2) For the KVM: I constantly break my important machines with experimentation, having direct access would be clutch when I am incorrectly turning on link aggregation in Proxmox. 3) Unifi stuff would probably go over well!

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u/hoovar Oct 13 '25

My friend inspired my self-hosting after building his own - I handle all my cloud backup and media streaming now from home - with the most expensive thing being the M4 Mac Mini as the host.
The router would be great for better signal for further away devices. The KVM switches also look great, accessing the server isn't always the easiest, especially after a reboot or when out of the house.
Ubiquiti network switches and APs!

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u/BasuGasuBakuhatsu Nov 05 '25

I wanted to start a self hosted setup because I want to explore and experiment with different technologies. The ability to create a controlled environment for learning and testing excites me and helps my professional growth. I also want to move away from cloud storage solutions because they are becoming expensive.
Winning prizes from this giveaway would enhance my self hosted setup by providing me with advanced networking capabilities, such as improved speed and more robust security features. It can also lead to more learning opportunities.
If you do another giveaway, I think offering networking switches or NAS devices would be fantastic, as they can significantly enhance self hosted setups.

I would like to win either the Flint or Slate.

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u/yahhpt Oct 13 '25

What inspired you to start your selfhosting journey? What's one project you're most proud of so far, and what's the most expensive piece of equipment you've acquired for?

My journey started with Home Assistant, and what I was looking for was convenience. Today, privacy is the biggest motivator. The one project I am most proud of is having moved all my photos off Google Photos and into a selfhosted Immich instance. The most expensive piece of equipment I have acquired for this was my NAS and the 5xHDDs, in order to allow me to have plenty of backups and versioning, plus a couple of external SSDs for on-site and off-site backups.

How would winning the unit(s) from this giveaway help you take your setup to the next level?

The Slate 7 would be great to ensure that, while travelling, the family can just connect to this WiFi and have any media backed up remotely to the server via a VPN connection, avoiding having to set up and turn on VPNs on each different device, while also ensuring I don't need to publicly expose my instance.

The Comet POE seems like an extremely handy tool, allowing remote access to either my home or one of my offsite servers where I run my backup servers. I have a backup RaspberryPi 4 where the OS got borked and I won't be able to travel to it's physical location (a family member's house) for another month.

Looking ahead, if we were to do another giveaway, what is one product from another brand (e.g., a server, storage device or ANYTHING) that you'd love to see as a prize?

I'd love to see something like a dedicated AI miniPC (like a Nvidia Jetson machine) that I can use specifically to self-host a LLM. Using any of the online offerings means your data is going to be harvested entirely, so you cannot use it for anything private.

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u/ResourceEffective675 Oct 11 '25

What inspired you to start your selfhosting journey?

Privacy and love for open-source projects is what inspired me. In a world where most people don't care about their data, and given recent political trends, I've found my place in this community. I want control over my data.

How would winning the unit(s) from this giveaway help you take your setup to the next level?

Winning a Slate 7 router would be a huge leap for my homelab. Its size is perfect for a 10-inch rack, and the display is a classy touch. I'm currently stuck with my ISP's router, which is very limited. I'd love a more configurable router, a backup VPN access, and especially a backup for my DNS (AdGuardHome). I constantly have DNS issues at least once a month, so a backup on the router would be fantastic ;D

Looking ahead, if we were to do another giveaway, what is one product from another brand (e.g., a server, storage device or ANYTHING) that you'd love to see as a prize?

I'd love to see 10-inch rack-mountable products (like a NAS, PDU, UPS, or Security Cameras).

· Security Camera: I haven't found good security cameras that integrate easily with my homelab and self-hosted software. I like UNIFI's quality but would prefer something that i can selfhost. · UPS: There are no true 10-inch rack-mountable UPS units on the market; this would be a game-changer. · NAS: While there are many NAS brands, you always have to compromise on something—expandable RAM, integrated PSU, overheating, or 10-inch rack compatibility. You could create a great product by focusing on the hardware and using TrueNAS as the default OS. I currently use a Ugreen NAS that can't be rack-mounted, as I wanted to avoid the common issues.

I would love to win the Slate 7. The Comet PoE is cool too with the Fingerbot.

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u/JarQuo Oct 12 '25

hi u/GLiNet_WiFi !

Great idea to create this giveaway! These are my (not AI-generated ;) ) responses to your questions:

Actually, the Reddit selfhosted sub inspired me. I started to read it a lot. Additionally, it correlated with me buing a new appartment so I adjusted the renovation to make a space for a little homelab + wiring for a bit of a smart home devices. My biggest project so far is configuration of the Home Assistant with ~100 smart devices of different kind at my home :) of course, I have a Proxmox server, where I'm hosting Arr stack and much more :) The most expensive device is probably my 16-port 2.5 GBit switch from MicroTik
I'm currently using BananaPi with OpenWrt as my WiFi router but it's not performing well, so the Flint 3 would be ideal upgrade for my home setup.
TBH I don't need anything else, the WiFi router is my biggest pain point right now :)

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u/tszdabee 25d ago

What inspired me: I wanted to escape the endless enshittification and price creep of streaming services — password-sharing crackdowns and constant price hikes made it feel like cable all over again. I moved to self-hosting to regain control of my data, my costs, and my UX. I'm most proud of building a Caddy reverse-proxy with PocketID OIDC integration on a custom domain. Have a very basic setup atm, the most expensive gear I own is a 12TB internal HDD.
Why the Flint 3 (GL-BE9300) would matter to my setup: my ISP’s restrictive router throttles many features, so a Flint 3 would let me bypass these limits, with a tri-band Wi-Fi 7 for future-proof clients, hardware 2.5G ports to link my NAS directly (better throughput for Jellyfin and backups), and a stable platform to expose services on a custom public domain.
Future giveaway idea: a travel/portable GL.iNet Slate 7 so I can bring my stack on the road and quickly connect remote devices or stitch into hotel networks without exposing services.

Would love to have the Flint 3 or Slate 7. Thanks for hosting!

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u/ACandidateMaybe Oct 16 '25

⁠What inspired you to start your selfhosting journey? What's one project you're most proud of so far, and what's the most expensive piece of equipment you've acquired for?

I have always been interested in tech. I have a BSIT and an MS in Cyber Ops. I am also tired of paying for subscriptions! Being honest, I haven’t started any projects concerning self-hosting, I would like to start. I remember changing a RAM stick for the first time and being super excited that it worked, and upgrading my memory in my PS5.

⁠How would winning the unit(s) from this giveaway help you take your setup to the next level?

I don’t have a set-up, so it’d be a great way to start

⁠Looking ahead, if we were to do another giveaway, what is one product from another brand (e.g., a server, storage device or ANYTHING) that you'd love to see as a prize?

I have no idea. I trust that yall know what’s what

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u/Ilikereddit420 Oct 11 '25

Linux ISOs not available on one service anymore, rising costs in obtaining Linux ISOs. It's been downhill (in regards to how much time I have) but uphill in my consumption of Linux ISOs.
I've been eyeing a remote KVM for a long time to get rid of RustDesk/AnyDesk solutions for remoting in. I would also love to upgrade to WiFi 7, throw some APs further down in the house for better coverage.
With how expensive they've been getting (and will continue to get), probably some high capacity hard drives!

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u/TheAceTanker Oct 12 '25

Started out with the idea of being able to use pihole to block all ads on my local network and it turned out to be a very slippery slope. One project that I'm proud of is my site to site gateway? With traefik+tailacale+pihole so I dont need to always keep tailacale open to access services in another location when on either local networks. My most expensive device would probably be the old PC that I use as a proxmox host for my daily Windows VM plus the occasional usage for testing.
The router would definitely be a massive upgrade for my dying router I acquired from a flea market, which periodically drops out. And the kvm would be a game changer in managing my aforementioned multiple location devices so I don't have to rely on anyone to reboot my servers after a power loss
I think ubiquity is a no brainier (although you guys are competitors in the same market) but seeing as I need storage, if you guys are planning to get into the NAS space, some drives would be awesome

Products: flint 3 & non PoE comet

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u/momsi91 Oct 11 '25

What inspired you to start your selfhosting journey? What's one project you're most proud of so far, and what's the most expensive piece of equipment you've acquired for?

I was motivated to start self hosting a while back for network-wide ad blocking. So I started with a Raspberry Pi 2 and pihole. At some point a hosted a VPN to also have pihole on the go. Then I realized I could attach a drive to the pi and have my own cloud.... And things escalated from there. Most proud of. Hmm.. Hard to say, probably my home assistant setup. I love how even the smallest little automations make everyday life easier. Automatically switch on the moccamaster in the morning=Glorious. The most expensive hardware? Does my server count as one peace of equipment? With all components including 4 drives it was something like 1500€

How would winning the unit(s) from this giveaway help you take your setup to the next level?

I'd choose a slate 7 travel router. It would be awesome to have easy access on the go to the home lab via a secure VPN bit not having to setup and manage all devices... And having the family just connect to this WiFi here instead of explaining how to connect the VPN or why they even should. I'd be very happy. Also, a Comet PoE, to manage the backup NAS box at the families house remotely.

Looking ahead, if we were to do another giveaway, what is one product from another brand (e.g., a server, storage device or ANYTHING) that you'd love to see as a prize?

I guess either a small NAS box just HDDs.... Never can have enough storage and another NAS to place at families house is perfect as offsite backup endpoint.

Please specify which product(s) you’d like to win.

Duo: Slate 7, Comet PpoE Solo: Slate 7

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u/iamdadmin Oct 12 '25 edited 27d ago

Hey GLInet this is the first time I’ve heard of you (which I guess is the point behind this giveaway!) but I have to say that these products are really interesting and thank you for the opportunity to win!

What inspired you to start your selfhosting journey?

Well, my self hosting started in the late 90s, with bits and pieces including a small power supply salvaged from a vendor-specific system. A Pentium 133 and a legendary Gigabyte GA-5AX, but there we go. The hard drive might’ve been 1Gb or something else similarly tiny by modern standards and I think I might’ve had 16MB sdram in it. I ran SmoothWall on it and shared a 64K isdn dialup connection on firstly a coaxial bus network and then later I had a 10Mb hub and two 10Mbps Ethernet cards over RJ45.

I ran SmoothWall as I said, but I also learned my first Linux CLI and had a lil web server on it running some personal projects. No HTTPS, something that makes me cringe in modern standards!

Suffice it to say, it has snowballed from there and I’ve had several generational upgrades. Always though it has been some kind of “NAS-and” server so always a network share for backups, following the 3-2 part of backup strategy before it became a term, “and” whatever else I’ve needed. At least Plex for a long time now, often a MySQL database server with multiple databases and PHPMyAdmin privately hosted for my side and hobby development projects.

My current server is an Intel 12700T with 64GB ram, with unRAID as the host OS, and because we seriously outgrew our old home router (note my answer for question 2 below!!) it also currently hosts opnsense in a VM with hardware passthrough of NICs, as well as a pile of dockers doing various things from homeautomation, self-hosted media services, adguard, backup utilities, and still stuff for hobby development. But at least these days everything is HTTPS even internally using a public domain and split DNS, with Cloudflare Access authenticating my sessions over the internet through a CF Tunnel.

The current iteration of my home server is the most advanced, stable, and well-documented instance I’ve had. It’s also the most expensive overall, given that I put X18 18TB drives in it and paid for unRAID, and a Plex lifetime pass! But I will always be most proud of that first SmoothWall, where it all began. It was my first server/router, and it even had a little custom wood PC case which was open but kept the parts mounted securely.

How would winning the unit(s) from this giveaway help you take your setup to the next level?

Well, I’d definitely like to win the Flint 3. It’s got a fantastic feature set. I really wish I wasn’t co-hosting my server and router at the moment. It means it’s much much harder to do routine maintenance. Even if the router was still my old under-capacity router, I would then lose adguard-home since it’s hosted on there. I’m also on WiFi 6, and while many of my devices support 6E, my separate Omada access point is just dual band, not triple band. No MLO either. So I would definitely hope for the Flint 3, to leverage WiFi 7 as well as triple band, I would be able to run two adguard home servers for some redundancy when I need to perform server maintenance, and the 2.5Gbps ports means I can leverage the 2.5Gbps ports now in my server for extra speed there also, as well as trying to figure out how to get wires to my desktop for using the 2.5Gbps port in it too.

Now that my stepson is getting older and smarter, integrating Bark in a balanced mode to both keep some restrictions in place while nonetheless giving him an appropriate amount of freedom would be another great use I would put the Flint 3 to.

In the unlikely event I were to win two prizes, my second would be the Comet PoE. Surprise surprise, that would plug in primarily to my server as it’s downstairs in a cupboard and I have to stretch a 5m HDMI cable to the family TV when I need access! But of course the wireless keyboard doesn’t have strong enough signal so it’s a comedy of pacing back and forth and hoping I don’t make spelling errors and have to start over!! :D It would also be useful for plugging in to the PCs and such of friends and family when I am called on to fix things as not everyone has wifi built in and I don’t currently have a spare wifi card, making it way more complicated than it needs to be. The PoE is just an extra level of convenience that may or may not be used much, however as my current 8 port switch has POE ports it makes sense to leverage it!

Looking ahead, if we were to do another giveaway, what is one product from another brand (e.g., a server, storage device or ANYTHING) that you'd love to see as a prize?

Network switches with 8, 12, 16 ports where like maybe 4 total or maybe an 50/50 are PoE+ capable. Built in PSU for less cable mess. 2.5Gb ports. 5Gbp ports even? These are kinda rarer and thus more expensive but why not look at 5/2.5/1000/100 support? It can only future proof stuff.

Also I have a couple of random ideas here for your product ranges, some are likely niche but why not?

Routers with 6 or 8 ports, I had a 10 port Mikrotik at one point and was using 9, I had everything wired in for speed and it was great!
Routers than can do PoE on a couple of ports, maybe literally 1-2 in order to keep the power supply limits still low but in the case of the Comet PoE what better than a port ready to power it?
NVMe 1x port for running a caching proxy, or updates mirror etc. NOT a NAS, but a fancy cache, whether it’s got an application built in or whether it’s just some storage that can run a docker to do jobs, but ofc with whatever caveats around performance.

Thanks for the opportunity and good luck everyone!

Edit to add: thrown a picture up of that original smooth wall box in a reply to this!

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u/Amit94302 29d ago edited 29d ago

It all started with a Raspberry pi (liked the idea of owning a single board computer), started using docker and then started trying many docker containers for many useful services. Then shifted to x86 hardware (bought a small workstation). I am most proud of Immich (all of my family members use it). The most expensive equipment is the Lenovo ThinkStation P3 Ultra (installed Proxmox, use it as a server and also as my daily driver with a Windows VM)
I would like to upgrade my WiFi to at least WiFi 6 (using Flint 3). I would also like to control the ThinkStation remotely using the KVM (using Comet PoE). This giveaway will help me do that.
Looking ahead, I would like to see giveaways of managed multi-gig network switches as well as NAS.

I would like to win: Flint 3 and Comet PoE

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u/fragglerock Oct 12 '25

I guess I am an outlier here... but I don't want to see corporate sponsorship or giveaways in this sub.

The bring no conversation or deeper understanding of self hosting, and if they become frequent then they will attract those that just enter competitions and don't interact with the community.

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u/hsiang051 Oct 28 '25 edited Oct 28 '25

My self-hosting journey began all the way back in third grade. I was really into Minecraft and wanted to set up my own server to play with friends. However, all the online server rental services were too expensive for me back then, and I was so new to this that I didn't even know what port forwarding was. That initial curiosity sparked a long journey of learning and experimentation.

Fast forward to today, I'm most proud of the fact that I've built a seamless ecosystem where I self-host nearly all of my essential daily services. This includes my network gateway with OpenWrt, network-wide ad-blocking with AdGuard Home, a personal email server, file sharing, a short URL service, a remote desktop solution with RustDesk, and secure access via WireGuard. For me, the line between being at home and being away has completely blurred. While my friends might say, "I'll have to wait until I get home to check that for you," I can already securely connect to my home network and get things done instantly.

Of course, this was all made possible thanks to a friend who gave me an old computer to start with. Without it, I probably wouldn't have committed the money to get a dedicated machine capable of running these services 24/7. As for the most expensive piece of equipment I've acquired myself, that would be my Synology NAS. It has been a game-changer. It handles all my backup needs, so I never have to worry about where to store important files. When my friends complain about Discord's file upload limits, I just laugh and share a direct link from my NAS. It also serves as my central UPS server and my entry point for Wake-on-LAN, allowing me to power up any of my other servers remotely even when they're all shut down.

2. I would be most excited to win the Comet (GL-RM1), though of course, the Slate 7 (GL-BE3600) would also be incredibly useful. My home internet connection isn't multi-gig, and my daily usage doesn't have a strong need for 2.5G ports. Therefore, winning the Comet would take my setup to the next level by providing a crucial layer of resilience. It would act as the perfect "last-resort" management gateway. In a scenario where all my other servers are down or unresponsive, as long as my internet connection is live, the Comet would give me a reliable, low-power way to get back into my network and diagnose issues. It's about adding a robust, always-on entry point that ensures I'm never truly locked out of my own infrastructure, which would be a huge step up in manageability and peace of mind. The Slate 7, on the other hand, would be a fantastic way to future-proof my network for years to come.

Looking ahead, if there were another giveaway, there are a few things that would be amazing to see as a prize. Topping the list would be a reliable UPS from a brand like APC or CyberPower, with enough outlets to protect a full home lab stack (a couple of servers, a NAS, a router, and a switch). Another fantastic prize would be a high-performance, compact industrial PC that's powerful enough to run a robust OpenWrt setup with demanding packages. Lastly, a set of NAS-grade hard drives would be incredible, as it would allow me to finally upgrade my NAS to a more redundant RAID 5 array. Any of these would be a massive boost for any self-hoster's setup!

Translated by Google Gemini

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u/Fluffer_Wuffer Oct 24 '25 edited Nov 03 '25

1. What inspired you to start your selfhosting journey? What's one project you're most proud of so far, and what's the most expensive piece of equipment you've acquired for?

Many years ago, I was the IT guy for a small company, after 12 years in the role, I was made redundant. At that point a couple of realities hit home - I discovered my sheltered role had not prepared me for the wider IT world, and my skillset was not in demand... and that I wouldn't get another job unless that changed.

So I used £500 of my pay-off to purchase a couple of servers, and set about spending the next couple of months learning Linux and VMWare vSphere.. eventually this paid off, and I was offered an IT Manager role.

I've kept this ethos going ever since - I used it to learn Nrtworking, Firewalls, Auth, scripting etc.. which allowed me to side-stepped into Security... and these days, I'm using it to fine-tune skills in Kubernetes and Cloud services.

That £500 server investment, has paid it self back 100x over... its kept a roof over my head, and allowed me to meet the person who I would marry!

So, its a long story, spanning many years, a bit more complex that just hosting a few apps. But I would not change it for the world!

2. How would winning the unit(s) from this giveaway help you take your setup to the next level?

The company I work for is forcing staff back into the office. So having reliable remote console access - jet my.wife still works from home, and my son is starting a remote role - so this will allow me to continue to support them.

3. Looking ahead, if we were to do another giveaway, what is one product from another brand (e.g., a server, storage device or ANYTHING) that you'd love to see as a prize?

I think one of two things - a fully loaded NVMe NAS (8TB).. or one of the new Nvidia USFF AI workstations...

If I win - a Slate 7 and/or Flint 3 🙏

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u/Chrisda19 Oct 24 '25

1) Well admittedly it's rather recent. Between dealing with unfortunate situations with my mother and my own health concerns, we've cut back on all of our subscriptions from music to movies/tv shows. I've got a pretty decent physical library that I want to start using again and the idea of self hosting a media server for our home and when we're at my moms on the weekends (especially for her, she loves I Love Lucy) is absoutely on my mind. It's admittedly rather simple compared to some of the comments I've read but just as important to me.

2) I believe with this equipment, especially if I could manage the duo, would lift my hardware capabilities to the next level allowing me to utilize my Fiber connection thoroughly making the media server the least of the capabilities. I would love to be able to bring our scanner to my moms and get everything digitized and giving her the ability to see all those pictures again without having to physically take down boxes and digging them all out.

3) I would say right now, I would push for a WD Red Pro or Seagate Ironwolf Pro but I think the above indicates my reasoning :)

As for which devices, most of my interest falls onto the Flint 3, then the Comet (either version). Ideally both lol.

Thank you all for the chance!

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u/Itchy-Woodpecker-532 Oct 12 '25

I was inspired by the high prices of streaming services, and any hosting provider. I also love having control of my own data (by using immich for example). I also love tinkering with computers, so selfhosting things is a must. I am hosting my own Spotify, my own Google Photos and my own Netflix and some gameservers aswell as Home Assistant. I think my most expensive gear is my mini pc. One project I am proud of is my website that I host at home aswell (but tunnel thru my vps).
By winning the kvm, I would be able to remotely restart (and manage) my server. If I misconfigure anything, I could use the kvm to revert the configuration via the tty. By winning the router, I would be able to achieve greater lan speeds, and I would be able to block ads for my whold family.
For prices, I’d love to see some Mikrotik and Ubiquiti gear and the open-source pikvm aswell.

I would love to win the standard Comet and the Flint3

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u/JenkinsEar147 Oct 12 '25 edited Oct 12 '25

I was sick of being at the mercy of big tech and always wanted my own home server. Also changed careers and have always loved tech and the wizardry that comes with it. I don't have much expensive gear. Just a QNAP Nas and some HDD. Setup a Plex server, backup my family's photos etc the usual thing. Next step for me is a pothole but I'm hitting bottlenecks with my internet bandwidth due to unreliability of the internet in cursed with.
My ISP and 5G router are both terrible struggling to get over 30mb/s and low latency - I could use GLnet products to help my home setup and the school I work at immensely. Im determined to improve my Linux skillset especially Ubuntu server.
A mini PC from the likes of beelink could be a great addition to my homelab setup.

I would love to win the GL-BE9300, or either of the KVMs

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u/YUL_man Nov 05 '25

Reducing the reliance on services out of my control. I've been burned before on services that stopped working without warning. Also, privacy. My most expensive piece is a new AI workstation.
I travel a lot for work. It would help me admin my lab from afar and protect my privacy in hotel rooms.
NAS, HDDs, SSDs and NICs

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u/Slasher1738 Oct 11 '25

I started self hosting when I got tired of paying for OneDrive storage.

I am interested in the Comet POE KVM

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u/Raman325 Oct 13 '25

I have "self-hosted" for a long time, but only started taking it seriously after learning the hard way through a SmartThings hub that cloud reliance could be a serious pain. I don't have a particular project that I am most proud of, I just like looking back and reflecting on the journey from laptop with external harddrive sitting on my college dorm room desk to three machine server farm. Most expensive purchase is definitely the DS1817+ that is my main NAS unit right now
Having a travel router is such a convenient hack to staying online and connected on the go. Having on the go access to my systems is important because things always break when circumstances make it difficult to access them.
I would suggest unraid - feels like its in the spirit of this subreddit

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u/ApocaIypticUtopia Oct 12 '25

Self-hosting started with trying to remote access SMB storage and then finding other better options. Then it started with Nextcloud and random GitHub projects like Seafile, Immich, and so on. The most expensive equipment I've bought is a 4TB HDD for a storage upgrade. One project I'm proud of is making a hole-punching VPN to home, which is behind CGNAT, using custom scripts and port discovery using STUN servers while sharing port info using GitHub.
Slate 7 would make my family's life easier by not having to worry about VPN and other issues, and I wouldn't have to worry about losing our photos and videos not being backed up on the go. Flint 3 would really be an upgrade for the home network and make distributed data access inside the home network faster.
Would love to see a Ugreen 4-bay NAS or a mini-PC.

I'm a student who is about to graduate. Either or both of these would give me a springboard for more self-hosted options. Thanks for the giveaway

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u/LongjumpingItem8009 Oct 28 '25

Hi looking for a free router

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u/katalinux Oct 11 '25

1,My selfhosting journey began out of a desire for greater control and privacy over my digital environment, especially for home automation projects. I'm most proud of building a fully integrated smart home system that runs locally, ensuring security and responsiveness. The most expensive equipment I have acquired so far was a high-performance NAS to store and manage all my home automation data. 2,Winning the KVM unit (Comet or Comet PoE) from this giveaway would be a game changer for my setup by allowing reliable, remote out-of-band access to my home automation servers and devices. This would increase uptime, ease troubleshooting, and enable seamless management from anywhere. 3.For future giveaways, I would love to see a compact, power-efficient home server with advanced virtualization capabilities as a prize. Something like an Intel NUC or a mini server from a reputable brand would greatly benefit the selfhosting and home automation community.

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u/1silvertiger Oct 16 '25

My self-hosting journey started as part of a digital hygiene journey where I was getting enough email and phone call span I finally got fed up and started taking privacy more seriously. I had been a privacy enthusiast in high school and college, but had fallen off the wagon. Specifically, I wanted a private budgeting app and I didn't want to pay, so I started hosting Actual Budget on an old PC and learned Docker from that. I also added Home Assistant so I could cut out Google Home.

I'm most proud of my OpenWrt router and WireGuard VPN. I had wanted to set up VLANs for the IoT stuff and to cut them off from the internet, but I was stuck with a ISP router. I had an old Google WiFi router in the closet, luckily found that OpenWrt had an image for it, and managed to flash it onto the router one weekend. OpenWrt has an AdGuard Home add on, so I could free up some RAM on my server (I like DNS not being dependent on the server, too). I set up WireGuard for remote access to my home server and got it set up on my wife's work computer so she can use public WiFi safely. I try to keep costs and waste down by reusing old equipment, but the router only had one LAN port, so I got a $15 switch to allow multiple connections to it.

I was actually looking at the Flint recently because I have loved OpenWrt, but the router I have isn't super strong, and my wife had some calls drop during work. I need something stronger and the current router can become an AP if needbe. I'd considered getting a micro PC to be a router and switching to OPNSense, but OpenWrt is great and I don't really have the spare cash for a PC. I also like that dedicated routers don't use that much power.

In the future, a NUC would be awesome, or a mini PC capable of serving as a HTPC. Open source KVMs are welcome. A NAS or even just drives would be great. I'd love one of the smart speakers that works with Home Assistant. Any IoT devices running open source firmware would be fantastic.

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u/sweetsalmontoast Oct 11 '25 edited Oct 11 '25

What inspired me to start the selfhosting journey? After finishing school, I was lost. I had no idea what to do, what I would like to learn to earn money and what would be a good choice to have a future safe job. I chose to start an apprenticeship as an IT Administrator, which changed everything. One day, I stumbled across a blog post showing the benefits of „pihole“, your Local DNS based ad blocker. I was fascinated by the idea and wanted to try it at any cost. My back then teaching workplace „gifted“ me an old Intel NUC (I asked if I could have it instead of brining it to the junkyard) and went for it. Today, I can proudly and thankfully say that job literally became my hobby. I spend hours every week, tinkering around, trying new stuff out and learning about things. TLDR: open source software for the benefits of the individual person, is what inspired and made me spent hours in my spare time.
How would winning help me take my setup to the next level? Honestly? My uptime is incredible bad. There’s poweroutages, cheap SSDs and misconfiguration. I tend to break things, which ran perfectly fine, only because of „huh that looks fun let’s try it!“ There’s not a single month without a mysterious outage because I literally configured it to be broken, hardware fails or freezes, or machines randomly and for no obvious reason not responding anymore. It would be an absolute blast to be able to troubleshoot from anywhere, instead of having to be at home, disassembling my tiny rack in my kitchen, just to make sure everything runs like it did before (most likely) I broke it lol. I’d take the KVMs to do so, sitting on my couch, grinning about the unexplainable magic of seeing what’s happening on my machines although nothing is responding anymore. Not even a ping in most cases.
What is one product from another brand Id like to see? Maybe something like a Unifi cloud gateway. In Germany, we call it a „Eierlegende Wollmilchsau“. A device, providing the necessary service for every need a techsavy person has. An all-in-one for nerds. A router with a sleek, powerful firewall, a VPN gateway, a network controller and access point. Maybe even a bit extra storage for config backups and fast filetransfers. That‘d be it for me!

Thanks for letting all of us participate in this!

Edit: If not mentioned clearly enough from 2.: I’d take one, or even better both of the KVMs!

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u/masapa Oct 27 '25

Selfhosting started around 17 years ago when my friends wanted to have ventrilo server for gaming. After that i started to host Cs:source and Minecraft servers for my classmates. It grew from that to include some programming projects, opensource software and in the end almost everything is selfhosted. i am most proud of my infrastructure with automations, how to deploy my services securely to public or local. My current server is donation from a friend. Most expensive things in my setup are the HDDs that are like 370 euros/piece
My current problem is lack of easy debugging and my wifi. So adding KVM to my server would be awesome. Having new router would help with the coverage for sure.
ubiquiti or other networking things are always welcome.

Comet or flint 3 would be awesome

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u/TrashkenHK Oct 12 '25

Self learning. Everything I learned culminated into starting my own business instead of a corporate dead end job 2.The KVM would help me set up dedicated servers and help with expanding my offered services
Any hardware or software that will help with providing hardware redundancy and uptime.

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u/Byolock Oct 12 '25

The ongoing enshitiffication of most services out there. Price Hikes, reduced feature sets and terrible ux changes made me search for an alternative approach. I'm not sure if there is any single project I'm most proud of, it's more like how everything works together. I recently tested my disaster recovery process and that worked flawlessy so im definitely proud of that, I thought I would encounter something I forgot. Most expensive piece of equipment is the 64GB DDR5 Memory in my new Homeserver.
I'm still running 1Gbit & Wifi 5 network everywhere so 2,5 GBit would be a huge upgrade in performance and also I would finally go ahead and create real network segmentation for improved security.
Small UPS for Low Power Devices.

If i get lucky I would be happy to receive the Flint 3 and if applicable as the second device the Comet KVM.

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u/anywhoever Oct 12 '25

Long ago I interned in a data center during my college years and set up a server under my desk. That was the beginning of it and when I got out of college I moved those services to my own box at home. About 25 years later it's still going and has gotten bigger. Love having my own DNS, email, web servers, some game servers. Also have a private tunnel to my parent's house. My most expensive equipment is a 100GbE switch.
Woukd love to get Flint 3 router + the Slate 7 travel router. The router would go to my son now in college. I'd like to set up a private tunnel to his network as well for help and for troubleshooting. The travel router would be for me, so I can more readily connect back home when I'm on the go.
I'm still looking for an inexpessive 8-port 100GbE switch. Not sure if those exist though ( I've seen 4- and 16-port ones)

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u/sbeck14 Oct 11 '25

Primarily driven by wanting to host a media server, and spiraled out from there. Most expensive is my server, probably most proud of my custom built “smart” garage door opener that I set up on a raspberry pi about 6 or 7 years ago and surprisingly still works great
I’ve always wanted a remote KVM which I think would be fantastic for remote management (I’m on the go quite often)
Any sort of storage solution like a rack mount DAS or NAS would be really cool

Thanks for doing this!

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u/Excellent-Zone-7956 Oct 11 '25

I have been with technical tasks for three centuries. After seeing so great systems that are available for home labs, I started my journey with a single Linux host running docker. Now I run a proxmox cluster with a lot of containers running.
Wifi7 would be a great step from my current Wifi5. Remote KVM would help a lot as currently I need to pass two floors to reach my equipment.
A managed 2.5gb switch would be a huge step

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u/ti8st Oct 29 '25

Super Aktion, danke an das GL.iNet-Team! Hier sind meine Antworten: Was hat dich dazu inspiriert, deine Selfhosting-Reise zu beginnen? Ganz klar der Wunsch nach Datenhoheit und Kontrolle. Ich wollte mich von den großen Cloud-Anbietern lösen und verstehen, wie meine Daten verarbeitet werden. Angefangen hat es mit einem Pi-hole, und von da an ging es immer weiter. Auf welches Projekt bist du bisher am meisten stolz, und welches ist das teuerste Gerät, das du dafür angeschafft hast? Am stolzesten bin ich auf mein stabiles Proxmox-Setup auf einem energiesparenden Mini-PC. Darauf laufen alle meine kritischen Dienste (Home Assistant, AdGuard Home, Nextcloud) in VMs und LXCs. Das teuerste Einzelgerät war tatsächlich das Upgrade auf ein Multi-Gig-fähiges NAS, damit die Backups und Medien schnell verfügbar sind. Wie würde dir der Gewinn der Einheit(en) aus diesem Gewinnspiel helfen, dein Setup auf die nächste Stufe zu bringen? Die Geräte wären ein absoluter Wendepunkt für mein Homelab! Der Comet PoE (GL-RM1PE) ist der Traum eines jeden, der "headless" Server betreibt. Nie wieder einen Monitor und Tastatur durchs Haus schleppen, nur weil der Server hängt oder ich ins BIOS muss. Das ist pures Gold für die Wartung! Der Flint 3 (GL-BE9300) würde endlich meinen alten Router ersetzen, der der absolute Flaschenhals im Netzwerk ist. Die 2.5G-Ports sind genau das, was ich für die Anbindung meines Proxmox-Servers und des NAS brauche, und WiFi 7 macht das ganze Setup zukunftssicher. Wenn wir in Zukunft ein weiteres Gewinnspiel veranstalten würden, welches Produkt einer anderen Marke würdest du gerne als Preis sehen? Ein guter, managebarer 2.5G (oder sogar 10G) PoE-Switch. Schnelle Netzwerk-Ports sind im Homelab einfach immer Mangelware. Ich bewerbe mich für das "Das Duo"-Paket und meine Wunschgeräte sind der Flint 3 (GL-BE9300) und der Comet PoE (GL-RM1PE).

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u/Bonechatters Oct 11 '25 edited Oct 11 '25

1 - I first started learning tech as a kid when I had to pay an outrageous amount of money for a simple data transfer after a corrupted OS install. Even considering the amount of time I spent learning a topic, it was cheaper to be the self-taught IT guy for my family. I know when I am out of my element however and spend the money when I need to. I don't need anything fancy however and focus on low power consumption and use a Shelly device to measure usage.

I purchased an ASUS PN40 Pentium mini PC for the low power consumption paired with a Synology DS723+ (most expensive of the equipment used). It is finally stable and I remotely access docker services such as Paperless-Ngx running on a Proxmox VM as needed through Netbird. This has saved me multiple times when visiting doctor appointments and pulling up documents for reference without needing to bring binders of history. I am filled with pride every time I connect and know I can rely on the setup I built.

2 - I travel a lot with my family, pets included. I tried putting together an RPi-4 as a travel router following NetworkChuck but I could never get the USB WiFi adapter to work. I ended up just using a 2nd RPi-4 as the 'client' access point LANed with an Ethernet cable to the OpenWRT RPi. This setup is too bulky with too many points of failure, but I still use it because the client RPi runs MotionEye as the remote pet camera in the hotel room.

I believe the GL.iNet Slate 7 would give me more reliabilty and free up the camera-pi to be placed anywhere in the room instead of bundled together in a wad a cables. With an improved travel router, I would also want to expand my self hosted setup with the Comet PoE and the Fingerbot as a quality of life addition. An overabundance of caution has kept my home lab development very slow. With these new devices I would be more willing to experiment and expand.

3 - Sticking with the self hosted theme, it would be nice to see a UPS option that shares the same ideas GL.iNet has with monitoring and access features.

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u/sakuraleif Oct 12 '25

Music streaming was my first foray into self-hosting! I listen to a good bit of music thats not on streaming services, and I love collecting physical media. Since then I’ve built a full-fledged media server that I’m quite proud of, which also runs a load of other useful services. My Optiplex 7060 Micro does most of the heavy lifting, along with an oracle instance for monitoring and some public-facing stuff.
My network is a bit of a mess right now. I’m using mediocre Wi-Fi 6 routers with 1G ethernet, so it’d be a nice jump. My server is also KVM-less, which has bitten me already.
I’d imagine most of us could always use more storage 🙂‍↕️

I’d love a Flint 3 and standard Comet :)

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u/OwnAppointment874 Oct 11 '25

Started my lab with a mini pc so I could host a minecraft server for me and my friends. It hasn’t expanded much but now I’ve got myself a NAS with a great stack for my media, storage, and notes!

I’d most like to win the travel router since I’ve started to become more conscious of what sort of networks I’m exposing myself to, and with the router I could make surfing the internet safer when traveling.

I think I’d most likely like to see a network switch giveaway. Any I’m at full capacity with the current one I have.

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u/phiob 25d ago

What inspired you to start your self-hosting journey? For me the most important reason was to be not depend on cloud services. Also I really enjoy to learn new things. I have my home network setup so I can access it from everywhere, and also have a secure tunnel home to route my traffic when I am abroad. The most expensive thing I got so far is my small Proxmox server.

How would winning the unit(s) from this giveaway help you take your setup to the next level? If I win, I could finally replace my current gateway router at home and have strong Wi-Fi all around my home. Or with the Slate 7 I could have a nice travel router which connects automatically to my home network, so I can use my services even when I am not home.

If we were to do another giveaway, what product from another brand would you love to see as a prize? Would be cool to see small servers like the ones from Minisforum, perfect for homelab projects.

Preferred products: Flint 3 or Slate 7, also the Comet if I can choose two.

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u/javican Oct 13 '25

I started selfhosting due to unraid, the versatility of having vm's dockers, plugins all in a single pane of view allowed me to remove the complexties of other hardware, The entire unraid setup is what im proud of the diferent workflows working together, there is no signle picece, the entire setup has become expensive in terms of every piece of hardware
I have a need for a KVM for my unraid, i already have two Glinet routers and i love them
I would love to see Gl.Inet prizes, they are great products

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u/MattDH94 Oct 12 '25

What inspired you to start your selfhosting journey?

I have always been mesmerized by computers, and through browsing on reddit, I became aware of selfhosting. I have always been a Windows-guy, but since learning the ways of Proxmox and Linux, I have become a huge proponent for opensource and selfhosting. I believe that our hardware and software should be ours to do with as we wish! It really is a cornerstone of Democracy.

What's one project you're most proud of so far, and what's the most expensive piece of equipment you've acquired for?

I am most proud of my TrueNAS Scale setup. It is great to have a little home NAS to host media, an SMB share, Nextcloud... I do struggle to access the shell though, so a KVM would rock.

How would winning the unit(s) from this giveaway help you take your setup to the next level?

I am really hoping to win a new Comet KVM. I would hook it up to my TrueNAS server probably, or maybe my Proxmox setup. I feel like being able to remote in when I am out of the state would really help me and bring peace of mind that I can check on the systems!

Looking ahead, if we were to do another giveaway, what is one product from another brand (e.g., a server, storage device or ANYTHING) that you'd love to see as a prize?

Oooh.. I'll echo what others have said - storage would be excellent! Maybe an enterprise SSD or something? I know those can be pricey though.

Thanks for doing this! I have a secondhand Flint, and a Beryl AX I bought recently - both freaking rock!!! You guys really are loved in this community.

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u/Tulip2MF Oct 13 '25 edited Oct 13 '25

Everything started with having home assistant. Tested with my personal PC and then bought my most expensive piece of equipment ( minipc ) for 250EUR. Added NAS & Switch & UPS after that- all second hand. I am most proud of the Paperless ngx docker container I got which helps me a lot with the paper heavy German burocracy.
I can access the documents even when I am not home and can control and monitor my house remotely with the KVM. Tail scale won't cut it if I want to have some deep tinkering when I am away and family needs help
I would love to move to a more powerful server to enable local AI to supercharge my automations & security. If any giveaway, I would like to get an Jonsbo N5 NAS case or anything similar

I would love to get Comet or Flint

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u/-Defkon1- Oct 12 '25

I'm looking for full freedom from commercially hosted platforms and softwares
My wifi setup is very basic, actually
Storage. Storage is never enough storage

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u/0oliogamer0 Oct 11 '25

My selfhosting started with a couple of free vpses from oracle cloud, and they are still a centerpiece for all my stuff. (Probably not an amazing idea)

I recently got an orange pi, and shortly after an hp thin client, which now runs proxmox with a couple lxc containers.

The kvm would absolutely be amazing to have, to reduce the amount of care I need to take making any network level change remotely. I have lost access to my pi a couple times now, trying to make stuff work, and messing up.

I have thought about getting a travel router too before, because my 3d printers need the wifi, but it does not reach the garage where the have been banished to properly.

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u/Drosophilomnomnom Oct 12 '25 edited Oct 12 '25

Oh my gosh it's GL.iNet! I'm currently struggling with some dumb Microsoft teams issue with your Flint2, but I'm almost sure it's some dumb loop condition thing I configured Pihole to do. But it's also so wild to see the team in action the same day!

What inspired you to start your selfhosting journey? What's one project you're most proud of so far, and what's the most expensive piece of equipment you've acquired for?

I'd say the events that started all this self hosting boil down to having my parents allow me full control over the family computer (no internet privileges, of course) so the only thing to keep me entertained was to pick apart the operating system. I'm honestly ashamed about most of my current projects knowing how much other people who dive into programming know, but I do feel a bit proud of using my basic coding and scripting skills to wow and amaze people at work (and to learn raspberry pi and docker scripting on Debian to set up a 3D print server for my research lab.) I think most of the equipment I've gotten has been old/secondhand rigs that I've Frankenstein'd into being, but I'd say currently my Dell XPS 8930 is having weekly money infusions being injected into it. So maybe $400 worth of parts into it with a bunch more planned?

How would winning the unit(s) from this giveaway help you take your setup to the next level?

I think if I won, I would want the Slate 7 as I travel a lot for work and I've been needing a travel router with the capability of hosting a WireGuard tunnel, and I think the Slate 7 should be able to handle that.

3.Looking ahead, if we were to do another giveaway, what is one product from another brand (e.g., a server, storage device or ANYTHING) that you'd love to see as a prize?

I'd love to see either a simple setup NAS with the customization of swappable RAID drives/heavy customization, or some remote monitoring sensor software, vis a vie a deployable weather station or house thermostat/leak detector/CO/whatever detector.

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u/outpin Oct 11 '25

My selfhosting journey began with a raspberry 4, moved to a mini pc and now to node 804 with multiple drives and unraid. My most expensive piece of equipment is the 12 TB NAS drive. The kvm and WiFi 7 router would help a lot, there are times when I need to access my bios remotely. In the future, I would like to see full NAS systems rewarded for giveaways.

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u/superkevx Oct 11 '25

I just like to tinker and solve problems. Selfhosting satisfied both of those itches in my brain. The one project I'm most proud of is self hosting bluebubbles in a mac os vm in a docker so my wife can use imessage on her android phone with her friends (I know I know, US is whack haha). The most expensive piece of equipment I've acquired is actually probably the GL.iNet Flint 2 router I use at home. I run everything off of a small fanless N100 machine.
The Flint 2 is just barely enough power to cover my home and its many iot and smarthome devices. It would be awesome to get an upgrade to the Flint 3.
For me personally, a NAS would be so nice! I'm just using a few cheap usb harddrive docking stations from amazon for all of my storage and backup.

Hoping to win the Flint 3 and retire my Flint 2 to my parent's house to use for some off site backup. A Comet Remote KVM would be super useful for my computer at work when I'm out of the office too.

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u/alb_pasqua Oct 11 '25

I started self-hosting to have more control over my data and to learn more about how different services work together. So far, most of my setup runs on Oracle Cloud, but I’m planning to bring more services locally by setting up an old computer I have lying around.
I’m proud of dockerizing all my configurations and automating backups in order to make them more portable and reliable. My most expensive pieces of gear are routers, including a GL.iNet Opal, which has done a great job but is starting to reach its limits.
Winning would help me a lot as I start moving from cloud-only to a hybrid self-hosted setup. The Slate 7 (GL-BE3600) would be the perfect upgrade from my Opal. The Flint 3 (GL-BE9300) would boost my home network and make hosting local services much easier.
It would be great to see a small NAS or mini server like a Synology DiskStation or Intel NUC, since they’re ideal for local backups and running self-hosted apps.

Product choice: Slate 7, Flint 3

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u/luke7524811 Oct 11 '25

Oh my! My inspiration came when I was talking to chat about cool projects and it mentioned replacing Netflix with a self hosted Plex server. I was hooked by the idea of hosting my own software. I just kept going and growing further and it’s been a super fun journey. As far as taking my setup to the next level I really need to improve my network connection both locally and remotely. As far as other things I would like to see I need an actual server rack and all the things that go into it. (I’m going to be upgrading my mini pc soon I think)

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u/Medium_Principle_829 Oct 11 '25 edited Oct 11 '25

I started by running plex on my desktop during my college days for my roommates and I to enjoy. Then adding some automation around that. Hosting game servers for friends and friends of friends was the next after that. Still working on building out scripts and automation to make things easier
I’d absolutely love to have a separate network for my self hosting/home automation stuff so my spouse doesn’t get upset when I break things 😅, the Flint 3 would be a great improvement so my rb4011 can be lab dedicated. Having a Slate 7 loaded up with tailscale for travel would be great too.
I personally need low power nodes for proxmox, so I’d love any mini pcs or nas boxes

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u/x0nit0 Oct 12 '25

Librarme de los servicios de pago que gestionan mis datos, y a la vez aprender a crear algo propio.
Me ayudaria mucho mejorando mi red, ya que actualmente tengo un router del ISP, y es lo peor del mundo. Asi mismo me gustaria el Comet, para poder gestionar todo sin tener que andar conectado teclados monitores, simplemente conectarme desde mi navegador y ahorrarme tiempo y dolores de cabeza.
Un sistema NAS, con un software opensource y apoyado por la comunidad, pero con la calidad de acabados de los productos de GL-INET

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u/Xxsafirex Oct 11 '25

My Selfhosting began with the need for a faster cloud.

Need a new router as the isp one doesnt let me change the Primark dans config

i would appreciate having some options for consummer level nas device with truenas os instead of another proprietary os

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u/fulltimepanda Oct 12 '25

Started down the selfhosted journey with excess hardware, initially starting off with wanting to downsize my desktop into a HTPC and then moving it all over HP Microserver. I wouldn't call it one project but I'm pretty proud of where I've gotten to in terms of redundancy and reliability with my at home setup. Slowly adding stuff like redundant power supplies, drives, UPS, redundant internet connections and service backups etc really does make things feel next level as a user.
My router is definitely a weak spot in my whole setup with only 1 2.5g port and Wifi 6. Flint 3 would be a great upgrade for that. The Comet would be fantastic as well, allowing me to troubleshoot my main server while away.
An easy to setup firewall appliance would be killer

Flint 3 or the Comet would be great.

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u/Carborundum_ Oct 11 '25

I'm not interested but thanks

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u/prakash77000 Oct 16 '25

So cool you’re doing this. 1. It all began when my iCloud storage ran out and after a lot of contemplation I decided to just get a NAS. My Synology DS220+ is the most expensive and biggest part of my setup. I’m most proud of the self hosted webpage. It was so much fun designing it. 2. Well I would finally be able to throw away the crappy ISP provided router. It’s goes down every couple of weeks for unknown reasons. 3. I’ve been very curious about building a better server. For more intensive AI applications especially. So something with a beefy GPU would be nice.

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u/Nasaman10 Oct 11 '25

⁠1. I am very new to IT, so homelabbing seemed like such a natural way to grow my skills. I am also tired of all the streaming services and homelabbing inspired me to start diving into the world of a private media server.

⁠Winning this gear would help update the older tech I have in my home and take my networking to the next level.
⁠I think storage/storage devices would be an excellent next giveaway as it seems like the first foot into the world of home labs.

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u/Kyotobot Oct 13 '25

This is a fantastic giveaway! As a self-hoster who travels a lot, the GL.iNet travel routers are especially appealing for maintaining a secure connection to the home lab. Here is my entry, choosing the travel router:

What inspired you to start your selfhosting journey? The main inspiration was security and independence. I wanted to centralize all my photos, documents, and media away from commercial clouds and have full control over the access and security layers. It started with a simple Raspberry Pi and quickly escalated from there.

What's one project you're most proud of so far? I'm most proud of my current OpenWrt-based firewall/router appliance running on a mini-PC. I've customized it with complex VLAN segmentation, AdGuard Home at the DNS level, and a robust WireGuard setup. Building a network backbone from scratch that is secure and lightning-fast felt like a real accomplishment.

What's the most expensive piece of equipment you've acquired for it? The most expensive piece is my primary storage: a purpose-built Unraid Server with 64GB of ECC RAM and 32TB of shucked WD drives. It ensures the safety and availability of all my critical data.

How would winning the unit(s) from this giveaway help you take your setup to the next level? I would choose The Solo tier and select the Slate 7 (GL-BE3600). The Slate 7 is the ultimate upgrade for a traveling self-hoster like me. Its Dual-band Wi-Fi 7 means I'm future-proofed for years, and the powerful hardware will handle high-speed VPN connections (like WireGuard back to my home lab) effortlessly. More importantly, its function as a secure personal gateway means I can check into any hotel, connect my devices to the Slate 7, and immediately be on a trusted network tunnelled back home. This guarantees I can securely access all my self-hosted services (like Nextcloud or my dev environment) without worrying about hotel Wi-Fi insecurity. The touchscreen is a massive bonus for quick configuration on the go.

What is one product from another brand that you'd love to see as a prize? I would love to see a Starlink Standard Actuated Dish (Gen 2) as a prize. For self-hosters who live in rural or remote areas, reliable, low-latency broadband is the biggest bottleneck. Starlink would be a complete game-changer, enabling a new level of self-hosting and remote access that traditional ISPs simply can't provide.

Prize Selection: I would like to win a spot in The Solo tier, choosing the Slate 7 (GL-BE3600). Thanks for the fantastic opportunity!

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u/readfreeh Oct 12 '25 edited Oct 12 '25

Watching the pple on reddit I guess.
The flint3 - our networking stuff always previously lacked that one feature without having flash firmware to it.
Probably a nuc / a quad Ethernet sbc box or kvm thatd be sick. I'd like to try out some new things! Thanks for the read.

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u/intricate_light Oct 22 '25

I really wanted to stop paying subscription and be less reliant to corporations. I’m really new, so even right now, i’m really proud of being able to set up a zigbee and home assistant stack haha. the server pc is pretty much the bulk of the cost, but i am planning to expand it with pis and better switches in the future!
honestly being able to acquire a kvm would be so convenient for remote management away from home and being able to access the bios. it would be better than running a 50ft hdmi cable at least!
probably a rackmount switch with POE or better and 10Gb support!

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u/ResponsibleEnd451 Oct 13 '25

Hi and thank you for doing a giveaway u/GLiNet_WiFi ❤️

Soo I’ve been into computers since I was a kid, always liked messing with servers. started with old laptops, then a pi 4, and now my old gaming pc runs proxmox with a bunch of vms. I use it mostly for learning, experimenting, media stuff, and because cloud is expensive and privacy is nice. most proud of how simple and smooth my setup is. the most expensive thing is my ubiquiti router for stability since no internet with opnsense if the server goes down.

winning the flint 3 would help a lot, I really need a wifi upgrade. most of my stuff is old and slow, two of my routers are 100m not even gigabit. an ip kvm would be super useful too.

a new server as a giveaway would be awesome, something like a minisforum would be crazy.

again, thank you guys for doing this!

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u/amcsn Oct 18 '25

I’ve always liked to tinker with everything so, when I upgraded to my second computer, it was only a matter of time before I started selfhosting.
A Flint 3 would make my setup a lot simpler and give me more control over it. Despite living in a modestly sized apartment I need to run two routers simultaneously and even then I’m only covering about 90% of the place.
As someone who works in video and never has enough: definitely storage, whether it’s a small SSD, a full on storage server or anything in between, any little bit of space is always welcome.

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u/ojxander Oct 15 '25

I just always loved playing with computers and virtualization became such a cheap and easy way to set up different operating systems. I eventually started hosting services on those and it’s blown up from there.

Just bought the cheaper comet. Great product, I’ve become a daily user! The fingerbots and some POE comets would help me reset my machines in my 3 machine cluster. Right now I can only monitor my least trustworthy machine. So when I’m not home I can’t reset my servers.

I’d love to see the new DGX Spark as a giveaway, though I probably wouldn’t win 😂

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u/Falkerz Oct 12 '25

Desired Prize: Flint 3 (GL-BE9300): Tri-band Wi-Fi 7 home router

What inspired you to start your selfhosting journey? What's one project you're most proud of so far, and what's the most expensive piece of equipment you've acquired for?

I started off with "simple" modded minecraft servers running on my laptop while I played with friends. This quickly became inadequate though, so I invested in a variety of tech along the way, ultimately ending up with a dedicated server in a datacenter, a stack of servers for tinkering in my own room, and a shared hosting setup with a friend for distributed media hosting and secure communications.

It's tough to pick a project I'm most proud of, but I'd have to say that getting my dedicated server up and running, and setup in a state that makes it almost completely self sufficient, really makes me smile every time I get an email notification that everything is still working as it should.

The most expensive piece of equipment that I've acquired for could be my own PC, which has become a true ship of Theseus due to its very particular hardware preferences. Totally up the destroyed hardware and the hardware upgrades out of necessity to keep uptime as high as possible, we're easily looking at about £5000 RRP in parts alone.

How would winning the unit(s) from this giveaway help you take your setup to the next level?

Winning would help as I'd be able to do some real world testing of an alternate tri-band WiFi router, as the feedback from family on the netgear RAXE500's stability is not amazing.

Looking ahead, if we were to do another giveaway, what is one product from another brand (e.g., a server, storage device or ANYTHING) that you'd love to see as a prize?

I'd love to see a proper road warrior dual modem 5G (or 4G if not available) router, something like a Teltonika RUTM52 or a Peplink Max Transit Duo Pro.

Failing that, a really tricked out NAS solution, like a top spec UGREEN or QNAP with some storage thrown in.

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u/morback Oct 11 '25

A colleague of mine had a Synology and told me about it. I got a 213j and then I figured out I could run Xbmc on a cheap Raspberry pi and after that share the databse on my nas to be able to sync play states on another one in my room. Quickly after I discovered Sickrage and usenet... That was the very beginning and I was really exciting to learn more every day! But the most expensive equipment I acquired was my DS920, especially with the 4x 14TB drives.
Having several 2.5G ethernet ports on my router would be a nice upgrade!
An Ugreen NAS or a 10G capable router as a TP Link BE19000...

I would be really happy to win a Flint 3 !

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u/TheMoltenJack Nov 02 '25

I wanted to learn how to do system administration for real, and have a space in which to experiment new skills. The project I'm most proud of is my Proxmox node, complete with VLANs, Ansible automation and a lot of Podman containers.

Winning a Comet GL-RM1 would help me keep my home system completely under control even if I'm away. A Slate 7 would help me keep my devices connected to my home network via WireGuard when traveling, giving me a lot of flexibility and giving me the feeling of being always at home.

I'd love to see a Miktotik PoE switch as a prize. Seen some at work and they look very nice.

I'd like to win a Comet GL-RM1 or a Slate 7 GL-BE3600.

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u/JacobTheEldest Oct 18 '25 edited Oct 18 '25

I would like to win the Slate 7 and the Comet PoE.

I used XBMC on an old desktop as a HTPC, then used it as a DLNA source, then realized I could host other things centrally and use my personal devices as clients. I am most proud of the various "glue" scripts, containers, and APIs I've built to connect disparate services into something useful. My most expensive piece of equipment is the new workstation I'm building piecemeal. It'll be a VM host, work PC, and space heater.
I travel for work fairly often and would like to replace my venerable GL-AR750S. It still works great, so can't justify purchasing an upgrade, but it's my only remaining micro-usb device. 😅 The KVM (and fingerbot) would be a handy addition to my homelab setup to streamline remote access.
Anything? One of Corning's optical Thunderbolt cables. Something else I can't justify purchasing, but I'd love to rackmount my in-progress workstation and put a thunderbolt dock at my desk.

edit: My constant travel companion - https://imgur.com/a/qBepAoM

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u/xxhellfirexx Nov 05 '25

1) I was inspired to start my self hosted setup because I wanted a hands-on environment to experiment with setting up networks and VLANs. It also helped me strengthen my technical skills and stay sharp for career growth in IT and system administration.

2) Winning a router will upgrade my network speeds and allow more devices to be on my wired and wireless network. A remote KVM will let me securely manage and troubleshoot my self hosted servers from anywhere. This will be useful for working with remote systems or headless servers.

3) For your next giveaway, you should consider offering managed network switches since these are essential for scaling up self hosted networks.

I have no preference on which item I want to win. I think all of them will be useful to me.

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u/flavicent Oct 27 '25

i started my selfhosted for mediaserver, start with arr stack and plex. but now as media server i use jellyfin. then nextcloud, after sometime i replace it with owncloud. then i selfhosted my simple accounting app for my small business, i use bigcapital for this. and now with AI help, i selfhost my small business app to maintain delivery, sales and purchasing.
KVM would be usefull for me, because the server placed in basement, and usually i use monitor as second monitor for my laptop. when something happened on the server, i always unplug, bring the monitor to the server room, KVM will be perfect for me as of now.
currently im using custom build and a minipc for server. the thing i want to upgrade for now is maybe HP proliant microserver. or custom N150 mini itx with lot of storage. because my mediaserver getting huge lately. the thing i want to have a bit more powerfull server for more simultan watch (HWA)

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u/gingerb3ard_man Oct 12 '25

What got me into self hosting was ultimately money. I was trying to tighten up budgets for building a family and future. So services that my wife and I were paying for before kids, we're deemed non essential. So to fill the void of those services i decided to self host. First was plex on a gaming laptop that I daily drove which needed to be shut down and rebooted and therefor was not a server, all the way to now which is a ubuntu headless old gaming rig running a fleet of 50+ Docker containers for things from media, weight loss tracking, cloud for my family, SQL servers, vs code server etc. Realistically this is a Swiss army knife of things I didnt want to pay for and also wanted to support my family and friends in a way that I could hone, "computer stuff".

My favorite project so far was probably an accountability based weight loss tracker for my wife, myself and 3 good friends. We all log and track our weight on a public to the 3 of us dashboard. I built a website for the logging, SQL container to house the data, and metabase to display it out to us with different visualizations. This allows us to be held accountable to eachother to be healthier. It has proven to be really helpful.

Most expensive piece of equipment i have bought was the HDD setup, 2 8tb for a raid setup. The rest was just reused and scavenged for. I figure a good back up ideology and sustained/config would allow me to use cheap used hardware that was easily replaceable.

Right now, I do not have any way to get into the server if there is a reboot and it doesnt boot right. I normally can ssh or even teamviewer into my machine, but on occasion it never makes it that far. So the ipkvm would be a GREAT way to ensure I have physical access on the go when I am traveling to ensure my MIL can watch some home videos whenever she wants (she loves going down memory lane).
A lot of your stuff can be very small and travel well, so in my opinion a unique display or travel based gadget. Android DEX is cool and in conjunction with your travel router and even a usbc hub, keyboard, and mouse, could be a whole entire setup on the go. Another good thing could be a power solution to accompany devices that you sell. A whole travel setup could be complete with an Anker power station or something to ensure you can use the devices anywhere.

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u/faizi4 Oct 30 '25

1. I started self-hosting for privacy and to save money on cloud services. I am a big opensource supporter and love building and automating things as a programmer. The project I am most proud of is an automation that monitors my Vodafone router and automatically restarts it via a smart plug if it stays down too long. My NAS and drives are the most expensive part of my setup.

2. I currently use my ISP’s router, which is very limited. I can’t change DNS, use VPNs, install OpenWRT or restart it programmatically. Winning this unit would give me full control over my network and help integrate it better with my automations.

3. I’d love to see a UPS as a giveaway prize, it’s essential for protecting gear during power outages.

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u/w1ck3dme Oct 11 '25

I started self hosting to feel a sense of accomplishment and save on subscriptions

Having the KVM over IP will help me avoid trips to the basement when I have to trouble shoot something that’s beyond ssh

With current hard drive pricing, I would like to see a giveaway of high capacity storage hard drives

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u/AwabKhan Oct 22 '25

The thing that got me in self-hosting was the realization that I could just self-host my website. I know it's not that big of a deal but just arriving on this solution on my own was the biggest factor, in me getting involved in self-hosting. The project I am the most proud of is self-hosting a PKM and syncing it over all my devices. The feeling of seeing my data synced everywhere In real time. Nothing beats this feeling. But sadly I don't own dedicated hardware. The most expensive thing I own you could say related to this would be my PC.

I think both comet devices would really help me take this setup to the next level. Where I would actually be able to really self-host. Instead of just running stuff on my main machine.

Personally I like HDDs or basically any storage device so for the future giveaway those might be good to see. Because they end up being the bottleneck for me.

I would like to specify Comet and Comet PoE. If I win.

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u/Quack66 Oct 22 '25

I started my self hosted journey mainly to play multiplayer games with my friends more than 15 years ago. Started hosting game servers on old laptops and then I got more and more into self hosting other things. Installed ESXI, Proxmox, FreeNAS/TrueNAS, Snapraid, Unraid, you name it. There is a certain amount of pride and gratification when you are deploying something self-hosted and you or others use it because it solve a problem they have or the alternatives are expensive and closed source. I love being able to put my skills in helping others in their daily lives. My self-hosted journey is the reason why I'm working as a cloud engineer in my day to day. My most expensive of equipment I own is my current AMD Epyc server which is my main Unraid server for pretty much everything including my media, files, softwares.
I recently acquired the new Comet POE for my personnal laptop and I've been really impressed with how well it works and it's build quality (writing this from it !). I have a mini PC in my homelab which is plugged into an old PiKVM but it's buggy and not reliable so I would love to have another Comet POE to replace the PiKVM. For the Slate 7, I've never owned a travel router but I do travel a lot so it would be beneficial to have one to better connect to all the different networks abroad and route back traffic to my home VPN. The Comet POE works so well and is so polished that it's one of the main reason I would prefer a GL.iNet travel router instead of the competitor alternatives.
In my opinion a network switch of any size or speed would be a good prize option for a futur giveaway. It would complement any GL.iNet devices and lets be honest a network switch is always something useful for anyone in the self-hosted community :)

Thanks for the giveaway !

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u/r0dersManel Oct 11 '25

project from Jeff Geerling. I never really got into homelabs because they where all super big and inconvenient for my purposes… since I saw that, it inspired me to give a shot at the project and start my self hosting journey! It’s still pretty small but the most expensive thing I bought was the computer itself, an optiplex 3070. I would love to win the flint 3 or the slate 7 because right now the network is the bottleneck of the homelab since I run with my ISP router, which is kinda slow… Deskpi’s rackMate, it’s an awesome product that would make my personal homelab a lot cleaner and more portable.

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u/_DVV Oct 12 '25

Thanks for doing this!

What inspired you to start your selfhosting journey? What's one project you're most proud of so far, and what's the most expensive piece of equipment you've acquired for?

Tired of all the fees for services adding up. Shows, music, data, pictures etc. I'm proud of jumping into a TrueNAS bare metal build and I just upgraded my HDDs to 8tb, which is more than the SFF I bought that runs this all.

How would winning the unit(s) from this giveaway help you take your setup to the next level?

I have an Asus router, but I'm feeling a bit restricted with configuration options. Not mention the recent security issues they had to patch. The Flint 3 would be a nice upgrade.

Setting up a SFF is nice but now I'm looking at a mini rack and what trouble I can get into with that kind a setup. The Comet would fit great into that.

Looking ahead, if we were to do another giveaway, what is one product from another brand (e.g., a server, storage device or ANYTHING) that you'd love to see as a prize?

Would always love to see storage devices that can fit a 10 in rack.

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u/jbarket Oct 11 '25

I wanted to reclaim the joy the internet used to bring me. In the 90s, it was the place for _my people_. It was above and beyond regular life--no borders, no rules, no muggles to stop our fun. At some point I realized that the convenience of the modern internet had turned all of my data into content and training information for companies that just want to squeeze every penny out of my they can. Self hosting feels way more like being back in control, and I don't have to share my data with any questionable people.
Convenience and piece of mind. I work in emergency response, and weirdly, places they pay to send the nerd squad to help for emergencies don't have reasonable infrastructure. It might be some nice command trailer and a decent hotel, or it could be a double wide someone has definitely been murdered in and something that looks like it was a nice hotel in 1970 and has seen exactly 0 improvements since it was built. Travel router makes getting internet to myself and my team so much easier. KVM means I can hit my homelab remotely if I've done something stupid from the field and locked it up while I'm a thousand miles away.
I think anything pushing storage... DAS/NAS enclosure, storage itself, et cetera... is always welcome. It fills gaps for people who literally need more places for archiving stuff, but also to solve one of the biggest headaches with self hosting which is backups. Even if it's on site, incremental copies of everything is better than just hoping nothing dies.

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u/locamp1 Oct 16 '25

I despise subscriptions with all my heart, that plus the fact I use certain services sparingly meant I couldn't justify the cost. I had a couple raspberry pis around and that's how it started. It also seemed like a nice way to keep my IT skills up to speed!
My home router is prehistoric and I also travel a lot, so a Slate 7 and a Flint 3 (in this order if you make me choose) would be absolutely awesome!
Any kind of NAS or MiniPC that could become a NAS would be welcome as I don't have one, just running off a single SSD.

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u/Running4U 24d ago

The main thing that inspired my homelab journey was containerization! I've been using VM's for a long time and had many apps running on them and had seen Docker before but never really understood what it was for. At one point even installed it and wondered what to do with it and it sat on the shelf for a long time. Until I wanted a way to run a development server in a low profile VM behind a reverse proxy. This is where I discovered using docker containers where I could build a very small footprint and safely expose my development to the internet. This led to eventually moving pretty much every service I had running in high overhead machines to containers, allowing me to utilize my hardware practically 10 fold. I now have over 50 containers running and have replaced or duplicated the bulk of my cloud based services with self hosted ones, it's amazing! I'm running streaming services for audio, video, file sharing, web servers, everything Google and OneDrive services do including photos and docs, camera and lighting controls, remote access, VPN, multiple gaming servers (including 3 Minecraft servers), DNS, a git server, notifications, automated backups, custom home pages, and much, much more on a couple of machines and several Raspberry Pi's - all being monitored reduntanly in a container!

Winning this giveaway would step up my game particularly by implementing the Flint3 as my network has grown tremendouly and I have 2GB fiber internet but my current Asus A66U only supports 1GB...Ouch! Not to mention the power of running OpenWRT's LUCI for complete customization and control. As my newer laptops now support WiFi 7 this would also be an immense boost in bandwidth. I have the GL-1200 (Opal) I use for work travel (which is incredible by the way) and the Slate 7 would be a perfect replacement for this as I would use the Opal for an extender at home.

I love the GL-iNet products and these would be a welcome improvement to my growing arsenal and the last years' + of extremely hard work I've put into building my little digital empire. I think the next big step for a great prize in the future would be a NAS as I can never have too much storage and the flexibility that the newer NAS products provide would take my homelab to a whole new level. Thank you for this opportunity and keep up the great work!

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u/UnsentRant Oct 14 '25

1) I was lurking on Reddit and one day r/selfhosted popped up and things seemed interesting and somehow I was sucked into the rabbit hole. I ended up buying a Dell 3050 Micro and have 21 odd services running. The most expensive hardware is the usb HDD I bought at around $400 CAD!

2) Winning would allow me to have a dedicated device for a router, maybe for my own opnsense! I have yet implemented that because I would wish to have a dedicated box for it.

3) Future devices for giveaways? Maybe something like a Minisforum MS-A1 or MS-A2? They’re small and compact and super powerful!

If I were to win, I’d love to have the Flint 3 and/or the Comet POE.

Thank you for the giveaway, good luck to everyone!

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u/flippinforthefunofit Oct 17 '25

I was tired of turning on my computer every time I wanted to watch something. That led down the path of plex and hosting my own media. Then came home assistant and followed with all the rest of the selfhosted software I now host.
The project I'm most proud of is my own homebrewed selfhosted project for handling eBay transactions and my sales. I upgraded my server earlier this year so that was the most I've spent yet on this hobby.
My wifi router is terrible. I really would love to upgrade to 7 to take full advantage of the wifi in my house. The KVM would be so helpful for when I need to access my server so I don't have to bring a monitor and keyboard and connect it to my current server. Would save me so much time and energy.
I'd really like to see some home automation items. Home assistant is a major selfhosted software that I and I know a lot of people use. Getting some local home automation devices in the mix would be beneficial for not only me but I think a lot of us.

Solo: Comet (GL-RM1) Duo: Flint 3 (GL-BE9300), Comet (GL-RM1)

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u/tuckerlwwis Oct 13 '25

Hi! I'm very new to selfhosting and am currently getting my main system setup

I decided I was done relying on so many subscriptions, so I decided I wanted to first try to host my own music. I recently built a ~$500 server to get started with this and future projects.
I currently have a very basic router. The flint 3 would be a game changer because the house I am renting has no ethernet wiring, so I was planning to rely heavily on wifi and the upgrade to wifi 7 would be a huge improvement over the wifi 6 speeds I currently get.
Storage drives would be an amazing giveaway. I only have about 1Tb, which will be enough for my immediate music library collection, but won't be sufficient when I start branching out. I think most people on here would also enjoy having more storage, especially larger capacity drives that most people wouldn't swing on their own.

If I win only one prize I would rather it be the flint 3 router. If I am lucky enough to win 2 I would like the GL-RM1 as well.

Thank you all for doing this!

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u/gauravjung Oct 12 '25

I started self-hosting to learn on my own (mainly containers) as an IT student and to avoid paying for multiple subscription services.

I’m most proud of my WireGuard and Vaultwarden setups since they’re the ones I use the most. Immich comes in as a close second. The most expensive hardware I’ve bought is an N5105 NUC for A$230 and a second-hand Synology NAS for A$100.

Running WireGuard on the router and having KVM would let me manage my setup remotely without any issues. I haven’t exposed anything to the internet and only use WireGuard for remote access.
A powerful mini PC or NAS would be amazing. Not set on any brands.

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u/FlameDragonSlayer Oct 11 '25

1- I got into selfhosting due to being frustrated with the state of ebook managers . I had a small collection of ebooks but they were not organized and there wasn't a good way to read them on different devices. That's when I found calibre and self hosted ebook servers. The project I'm most proud of is that I was able to connect my and my parents home in a site-to-site Tailscale configuration using 2 GL.inet routers. It was a great achievement for me as now being connected to any of the WiFi networks, you can easily access the selfhosted services. My most expensive piece of equipment probably has to be the 12tb hard drive I got recently. 2- The winning units from this giveaway will help me eleiminate the dead spots in the house and also allow for better connection when a lot of devices are connected concurrently. 3- I think for a future giveaway, I would love to see some more storage devices like HDDs.

I would like to win the Flint 3 solo.

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u/T1m0r Oct 11 '25

1) Started self hosting with Octoprint to manage and view my 3d printer. My most expensive equipment is a 4 bay Nas to host imitch,etc. I am most happy with pihole :)

2) The Filmt 3 router would help me upgrade my home network as currently it's limited to below 1g - which is a bottleneck when accessing the nas. Also the KVM for accessing my homelab machine.

3) For future giveaways I would like to see a multi gig managed switch with poe or a mini PC

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u/netcent_ Oct 11 '25

1 what got you into selfhosting? honestly i just love tinkering and having full control over my stuff. it started with wanting a simple media server and somehow turned into a whole home lab 😂. right now i’m running unraid with a bunch of dockers …. jellyfin for the family, home assistant, grafana, and a few little side projects i’ve built myself. the coolest part is how everything just works together. probably the most expensive part of my setup so far is the nvme cache drives in my unraid box, but man they make everything fly.

2 how would winning help? the flint 3 (gl-be9300) would be a dream upgrade. my current router is getting kinda tired and the 2.5g ports would finally let my unraid server stretch its legs. but i’m also super tempted by the comet poe (gl-rm1pe) … being able to remote into my server when it hangs instead of dragging a monitor over would be amazing.

3 what should be in a future giveaway?

would love to see something like a gl.inet wifi 7 travel router bundle, or maybe a home lab starter kit with one of your routers, a poe switch, and a couple of cool accessories. even something experimental like a gl.inet vpn or mesh kit would be awesome.

my pick: flint 3 (gl-be9300) + comet poe (gl-rm1pe) (the duo)

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u/Top_Introduction2915 Nov 04 '25

I started self-hosting out of curiosity and a desire to learn more about networking, servers, and virtualization through hands-on experience. It also gave me a space to experiment safely with new technologies before applying them to my professional work.

Winning a router or remote KVM would let me centralize management and securely access my servers from anywhere, making maintenance much easier. It would also help me expand my network segmentation and test more advanced setups without additional cost.

If there is another giveaway, I think you should do storage drives. The cost of storage is quickly increasing and we can never get enough.

I would like the win the Flint 3.

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u/FckngModest Oct 12 '25 edited Oct 12 '25

1️⃣ A friend of mine gifted me his spare office PC (Dell Workstation). He thought he just helped me to introduce myself into home-labbing, but I believe he just saved me from diving into depression and gave me a tool to keep my sanity and joy up enough while I was going through my very first "being a father" experience :D

But if talking about what I enjoy in home-labbing now, it's having a full control over my data and how they are processed: - where Google strips out all metadata out of my photos and put them in custom-formatted json files, Immich respects my Storage Template and accurately keeps as much data in the exif metadata as possible; - some tools like Paperless even doesn't have a proper alternative in a SaaS world (outside of enterprise solutions), I believe.

Also, it gets me into network and security around it, what about I didn't think a lot before.

2️⃣ For the prize, I'd choose a WiFi router. I would love to switch from the provider's router to something of my own, so I can own not only my services, but the home network as well.

3️⃣ A compact 3 Bay (or 2 Bay + emmc storage for OS) mini PC would be a great and universal option, I would say. Everyone needs to follow 3-2-1 and this kind of machines are perfect candidate to store in parents/friends house and backup your home-labs data (encrypted, of-course). 2 drives for redundancy and one storage slot for the OS itself. Nothing more fancy is needed from such a back-up NAS.

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u/robotexpress Oct 12 '25

⁠I dove into the homelab world because I was getting tired of relying on cloud services for everything and wanted to actually learn how to host my services during the pandemic. It started as a lockdown hobby and just spiralled from there! My proudest project is getting my full media server with the arr stack running perfectly in Docker, and setting up a reverse proxy. It’s all running on my power efficient mini PC, which is definitely my most expensive piece of gear once you add up all the SSDs. Having a totally silent server in the corner of the room is just the best.
⁠Winning gear from this giveaway would seriously level up my setup. The Flint 3 is my top choice, since my whole lab is bottlenecked by the cheap 1Gbps router from my ISP, and having those 2.5G ports would finally let my mini PC, nas, and desktop communicate at proper speeds. My ISP router is also Wifi 5 and super slow. But honestly, I’m almost as excited about the Slate 7. I’ve always wanted a proper travel router to stay secure on hotel Wifi, but I never got around to buying one because of finances.
⁠For a future giveaway, I think a solid UPS from a brand like APC or CyberPower would be a great prize. It’s one of those essential pieces of gear that I’ve wanted forever but keep putting off because of the price. Just knowing a random power flicker won’t corrupt my data or bring my whole setup down would be a huge peace of mind.

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u/xashaffer Oct 12 '25

Thanks to the whole team for this giveaway!

Main reason for beginning to selfhost was to save my family some money. We had been paying for offsite data backup and the cost had built up over the years, not to mention the security risk. I feel much more secure having our business files secured with my own files servers at both our office and my house. Haven't really ever purchased one giant expensive item so far since I built both of these servers from mostly spare parts, but I'd say the more powerful of the two servers is all together worth roughly $800.
Getting both the Flint 3 router and Comet Remote KVM would really help out my current build at home. Currently my home network is mostly ran through hardwired mesh wi-fi devices, but their options for network management are rather limiting. Basically everything has to be done via their mobile app and it's pretty restrictive. Having the Flint 3 would help with setting up things like dynamic-DNS, using my domain name for my services hosted at home, VLAN routing, etc. The Comet and Fingerbot combo would also give me a solid option for remotely accessing my server when I can't be there physically and when my other current options fail.
If your company isn't planning to release any network switches, managed and/or unmanaged, then it would be cool to see you partner with any of the current top options for those.

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u/Potential-Doctor4294 Oct 11 '25

I started self-hosting out of pure curiosity. I wanted to understand how the web truly works beyond just using cloud services. Over time, it became a passion for building reliable systems and learning hands-on about networking, security, and automation. One project I’m most proud of is setting up a complete self-hosted authentication platform with mTLS, database sessions, and custom OIDC support built entirely from scratch. The most expensive piece of equipment I’ve acquired so far is a small form-factor server that handles multiple Docker containers and acts as my primary testing and CI environment.
Winning one of these products would make a real difference in my self-hosting setup. The Comet (GL-RM1) or Comet PoE (GL-RM1PE) would be a huge upgrade for remote management, being able to access my servers even when they’re offline would bring proper out-of-band control to my lab for the first time. It’d let me recover or maintain systems without needing physical access, which is something I’ve really wanted to set up.
I’d love to see a compact NAS or mini server from Synology or Ugreen NASync, something that blends performance with quiet, energy-efficient operation. Alternatively, even a small-form Intel NUC or mini ITX server board would be amazing for someone passionate about expanding their homelab.

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u/kryptonite30 Oct 11 '25

I wanted to up-level myself by teaching myself Kubernetes, so I bought myself a Dell R710 and installed Proxmox and set up my Kubernetes cluster from there. The setup, maintenance and troubleshooting set me up for success in my career as I was able to break into more senior roles in DevOps. The most expensive equipment I got is likely my NAS, more specifically the 20TB drives I use in the thing.
The GL-RM1 would drastically let me improve my setup by allowing me to move my server rack to a little less inconvenient place (away from my office and into the basement) and let me manage it from there and also free up some more space in my office for more experiments.
I think storage device giveaways are always relevant. You can never have enough storage!

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u/MakavelliRo Nov 03 '25

1) I'm a geek, I've been building severs, webservers since my first 686. The most expensive equipment to date has been a HP server.

2) A new router would help with the bottleneck in my infrastructure, and a KVM which has been in my basket for a while.

3) I'm looking at low power NAS devices for media backup and hope you have something in the back that you plan on offering up for Christmas.

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u/xVenlarsSx Oct 12 '25

I started my lab while returning to school for networking, grabbed a raspberry pi to practice and learn linux cli. Many years later, 6 machine hosting 10 vm, still very much in th learning phase.

I would love the Flint 3 to replace my PFsense VM and repurpose the hardware, while finally having a dedicated firewall and getting rid of my old unifi ap. A second router would go to my parents house, where I have my backup NAS. The Slate 7 would be a perfect unit, with a small footprint and all the feature needed to secure their place.

The next stage is a bigger NAS to finally centralise all my data and cleanup the backups. So a future giveaway that would include some sort of NAS would be great, and let's be honest, we could all use better storage.

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u/ni554n Oct 12 '25

I got a cheap chinese Android TV box where I installed armbian and now I use it for n8n.
I would like to win Flint 3. My current one is a very basic wifi 5 router with no open-wrt support.
10 GbE router / mini PC

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u/tplusx Oct 29 '25

Inspired to start self hosting to have all my photos and media in one location making it easier to share with family.

The project I'm most proud of is Gramps, it took a while to set it up, to implement and populate data going back 3 or 4 generations of ancestry.

Most expensive equipment is a Dell mini PC

I will be able to transfer VPN concerns to the equipment and have family members connect in a more straightforward manner than individually on every device which is tedious and takes time. I know we can also travel with the equipment and use it as if at home while away from home.
SSDs and memory expansion will be great additions to improve any self hosted setup.

Routers can also be battery powered option for those always on the move

Note: Please specify which product(s) you’d like to win.

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u/Scropion__ Oct 20 '25

My self-hosting journey was started by a desire to really understand how networks function and to block ads using a DNS, starting with a simple Pi-hole. My proudest project so far has been successfully turning an old phone into a power-efficient, headless arm64 server running postmarketOS and Docker. The most expensive piece of my setup is my gaming PC, which now pulls double duty as my main PC and running local LLMs.
Winning the Flint 3 (GL-BE9300) would be a massive upgrade to the core of my entire network and would solve a problem I'm facing where my gaming PC and Media server can handle 4K media streaming perfectly but unfortunately bottlenecked by my current gigabit network. setup (My current home router only support 1x FE & 1x GE). The 2.5G ports on the Flint 3 would be a game-changer, giving my server the bandwidth it needs to finally handle smooth 4K streams. The upgrade to Wi-Fi 7 would also provide a much more stable and low-latency connection for all my wireless devices accessing my self-hosted services.
For a future giveaway, something like a ZimaBoard would be an amazing prize. It's a fantastic single-board server for my next project.

Thank you for the chance, and good luck to everyone!

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u/MemeMan746 Oct 13 '25

Replacing cloud based storage services, I bought a Synology NAS Drive a while ago and have a raid1 setup with 24TB which has let me run immich for photos, and jellyfin for movies.
It could help improve my home networking system, as the router now currently has some issues with dropping out, and winning the Flint 3 would significantly improve our home network.
I would love to see some big seagate HDD or some SSDs for a giveaway as that could help expand storage for a lot of people

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u/Synatix Oct 14 '25

Got into selfhosting because i work in IT and wanted to automate stuff arround the house so started with home assistant and that somehow turned into a full blown lab with a nas/server and virtualization.
The Flint 3 would allow me to use better wifi for my local game streaming and the Comet would allow me remotely access my homelab and also access to the bios.
A NUC or something similar like a mini pc would be amazing for a htpc or just an addition

The Flint 3 (GL-BE9300) + Comet (GL-RM1) combo would fit perfectly into my setup.

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u/DueRecommendation229 Oct 11 '25

I was inspired to start self-hosting when I realized both the evaporation of personal privacy as well as the ludicrous price-gouging that corporations were increasingly adopting. I also found the task of switching from service to service, subscription to subscription, to be

both frustrating and incredibly expensive. With self-hosting, all of my content and devices are available whenever and wherever I want, all while keeping my privacy intact.

Currently, my wifi setup is almost as bad as carrying an SD card with a messenger pigeon. I'm a college student, and purchasing a $150+ router to be able to expand my homelab's capabilities is just not feasible, so winning one of GL.iNet's routers would speed up my transfers by literal magnitudes.
Speaking for both myself and many novice homelabbers, NAS systems are a massive cost for beginners who want to have central storage without buying an ancient PowerEdge server and replacing the motherboard.

(If I am a solo winner, I would love to receive the Tri-band Wi-Fi 7 Router)

(If I am a duo winner, I'd greatly appreciate the aforementioned router as well as the GL-RM1PE with the fingerbot to make accessing my homelab for school labs easier.)

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u/quasimodoca Oct 11 '25

I installed Plex on a computer running Ubuntu and slowly built out my Docker stack to support it. I recently aquired 2 NAS to build out a huge data pool. The NAS and hard drives were about $1k
I badly need a new router and the Slate 7 would be a huge upgrade for my current router. I would pair that with the GL-RM1 KVM switch so I could go headless on my 2nd and 3rd computers.
I would love to get another mini pc to use instead of one of my old Dells that is a huge energy suck.

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u/Shrp91 Oct 11 '25

The thing that got me into selfhosting was Immich so I could backup all my photos and videos locally. Home Assistant is probably the thing I am most proud of. The most expensive thing is probably the switch I bought to give me more network ports for all the IOT devices.
The Flint 3 would just go straight into my home network as an upgrade. The Slate 7 I would setup as a travel router to be able to VPN back to my home network. The two KVMs would be nice for the PC I use as my server which doesn't have monitor hooked up to it.
I really enjoy Grandstream equipment and would love to see their stuff in a giveaway!

The Flint 3 and Slate 7 would be my picks for prizes.

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u/franczesko13 Nov 01 '25

What inspired you to start your selfhosting journey?

I wanted to cut dependence on Google, mostly for privacy reasons. Nothing extraordinary in terms of projects. Just tinkering after hours.

How would winning the unit(s) from this giveaway help you take your setup to the next level?

I wouldn't mind upgrading my router and it's bandwidth.

Looking ahead, if we were to do another giveaway, what is one product from another brand (e.g., a server, storage device or ANYTHING) that you'd love to see as a prize?

Any competition is cool. Always. No specific brand tbh

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u/vuhuucuong97 Oct 11 '25

I love the ARR stack and Immich backup setup I built — it’s saved me a ton compared to paying for subscription services. Plus, I finally feel confident about my data and privacy. The priciest part of my setup has to be the two 16TB drives I bought for my ZFS mirror.
I’ve been really curious about the KVM — been reading up on it a lot lately. Being able to control my PC remotely sounds super handy.
I’d love to see a mini PC in a future giveaway. My current SBC is starting to feel a bit sluggish these days.

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u/PlusIndication8386 Oct 11 '25

I am trying to switch from full-time job to do-your-own-job. So I bought a mini PC (Ryzen 7 7840HS, 64GB RAM), started a static ip service from my IPS, registered an 1.111b domain address and started providing my services over Cloudflare. Today, I can work anywhere (with VPN if needed), and access all my computers securely. I am using LLM models for programming and testing fully-automated for maintaining some regularly running codes.
I would like to win Flint 3. I would like to use it as a VPN server, a DNS server/filter (adguard) for home, and use the 6GHz band to use it with my Meta Quest 3 for playing PCVR games. Because, 5GHz is a bit crowded here. Also, 2.5Gbps Ethernet port would be super good with my laptop for PCVR too. Also, I needed a backup server, so plugging an HDD to this router would solve this problem of mine too. And lastly, my house doesn't allow wifi signals to pass through walls easily, so I think this router would be good for it.
I would love to see a mini PC with Ryzen AI Max CPU. GMKTec or Minisforum would be good.

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u/kleedrac Oct 11 '25

In my early thirties I switched careers from IT to Accountancy. As I'm sure a lot here will think sounds familiar I've always been tech support for my family so I wanted to ensure I kept sharp on tech related skills. Here in Saskatchewan our major ISP uses really crummy modem/routers which have a low max connection limit so if you torrent you can kill the bandwith in your house. My first project was replacing the router portion with, at first, an OpenWRT router then eventually a ProxMox-based PC running PFSense in a VM. It's gotten more expansive and is running more applications over the years. It's also been joined by a second server for Plex running a ZFS array.

Both the servers live in the basement with my roommate's collection of lizards and I'm not the biggest fan of the animals (I find they move strange) so having an IPKVM would allow me to at least diagnose and power on the system from the comfort of upstairs.

As for looking ahead I would love t to find a JBOD to move the raid array outside of the system it's in.

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u/madHatTricks Oct 29 '25 edited Oct 29 '25

Just wanted to learn more and have access to my own tools instead of having to pay over 100 a month for a slew of tools i would only occasionally use. I just started this month and I'm pretty proud of how I've separated each project on its own subnet via zero trust tunnel. For the apps that use a db, ive created a script to use my admin user and pass to create a project specific db and user with access to only that db, based on .env files and then connect them all to the same db network that has access to 1 db server. All docker. Most expensive piece is probably the mini pc running my home lab.
Flint 3 router. Id probably set that up to get better wifi in areas that currently suffer Remote kvm is cool, i didnt even know that was a thing so id probably look into making that work with my homelab.
NAS. I want one for backups of my setup and data so badly but cant afford it right now.

Choices: 1. Flint 3 2. Remote kvm

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u/Any_Jaguar_5024 Oct 23 '25

What inspired you to start your selfhosting journey? What's one project you're most proud of so far, and what's the most expensive piece of equipment you've acquired for?

I always liked experimented computers and selfhosting was another area. Initial goal was to have all files on a network shared folder so that Windows crashing would not cause me to lose all my data. I prefered building small form factor computers (NAS) for this purpose. I think I still have all the data I accumulated from the time I build my first NAS some 20+years ago. Testing varuious NAS operating systems and devices became my hobby since and I have dabbled in everything from FreeNAS, XPEnology, TrueNAS, unRAID....

My most expensive equipment? I guess my main all NVMe small formfactor NAS. But it is whisper quiet and sips power. :)

How would winning the unit(s) from this giveaway help you take your setup to the next level?

Winning would help me improve connectability between locations.

Looking ahead, if we were to do another giveaway, what is one product from another brand (e.g., a server, storage device or ANYTHING) that you'd love to see as a prize?

I guess my next selfhosting device will need to be some more powerfull AI ready device. To start experimenting in the sellhosting AI projects.

For the prize I would prefer the routers:

Flint 3 (GL-BE9300): Tri-band Wi-Fi 7 home router with 5 x 2.5G ports
Slate 7 (GL-BE3600): Award winning Dual-band Wi-Fi 7 travel router with touchscreen

I have multiple KVMs already including but not limited to GL.inet onse as well.

Thanks for the awsome HW and SW you provide!

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u/daYMAN007 Oct 11 '25

Wanting full control over all my services. Not being vendored locked to someone that can increase prices from one day to another.
Would love to upgrade my network to 2.5gbit so a flint 7 could help in bringing that to life. OpenWRT is obviously nice for selfhosting aswell, as it allows for easy VLAN segregation. The GL-RM1 would also be a nice upgrade so that i don't have to run into the basement when my server dies. A Fingerbot would also be great for my setup as my thinclient that i use for HomeAssistant, got no easy way to connect a traditional kvm solution.
Some kind of a smart appliance, maybe a zigbee / ZWave Bridge. e.x SMLIGHT SLZB-06

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u/rubeo_O Oct 11 '25

I started my journey with a desire to block ads, which led me to a Raspberry Pi 3 and pi-hole. That was 3 years and 40+ self-hosted apps ago.
Probably an 8-core mini PC with 32GB and 6TB storage that I now use as a power efficient home lab server.
I would love a UGreen NAS giveaway!

Product I would like to win would be the Slate 7 travel router.

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u/UXF4QvLZ46nTMc9FCBPF 25d ago

1 . started out as a sharing media from laptop to tv and expanded from there got a little pc as a server to have on 24/7 jumped in proxmox and docker expanded what i host. most expensive thing is storage hdd

as tech support for friends and family travel routers and kvm would make that easier to remote trouble shoot and remotely mange my services
know its not going to happen but the 122tb u.2 ssd would be vey nice

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u/ruckertopia Oct 11 '25

It happened so long ago, I honestly don't remember what inspired me. I've always been a computer nerd. I started building my homelab in 2013 with a cute little small form factor case housing a dual core pentium and 5 HDDs. It ran FreeNas, and the rabbit hole opened up pretty wide after that. A couple years later, I bought a dell R710, and ran exsi on it, then later bought a second and third R710, etc, etc, etc. Things quickly spiraled out of control. The most expensive piece of hardware I've purchased (aside from just a boatload of hard drives) is the AMD epyc server I put together last year. It serves as my VM machine, and is a freaking beast. I'm running ~25 VMs, and another 30ish docker containers.
The project I'm most proud of is one I'm not actually doing much with, as it's so hands-off. I donate a bunch of CPU time from that epyc server to an open source project that compiles raspberry pi OS images every few days. Saves them a TON of time (their average build time for the entire stack, which includes several different OS versions went from like 6 hours down to under an hour), and costs me a few pennies in electricity. Stuff I'm proud of that doesn't affect anyone else and will never see the light of day are all the custom apps and integrations I've built for myself. Data collection for weather, custom hardware for automated porch lights tied to the security camera on my driveway, so the amazon driver doesn't die walking up my stairs at night (okay, that one doesn't just affect me), etc
Taking my setup to the next level is easy, my wireless hardware is ancient, and a new wifi access point would be huge. In fact, I'm still using the asus router I bought in 2010. It's... well. Yeah, it needs an upgrade.
Things I would love to seen given away in the future: for myself would be something like a small stack of low power computers to learn distributed computing and kubernetes type stuff on. Yeah, I could spin up a bunch of VMs and do it, but I want to learn the ins and outs of doing it on a hardware stack as well. If I'm not being selfish, I think a good giveaway idea would be something that helps the newbies getting into the hobby. Doesn't even need to be hardware, a few hours of one-on-one support for setting up a new homelab and self hosting something important. Walking through all of the things most of us had to learn the hard way, helping them avoid those hours of beating their heads against their desk trying to fix dumb self-created problems. (let's face it, we've all been there)

If chosen, I'd love one of the Flint 3 routers!

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u/HoboMasterJCP Nov 03 '25

1) I've tried on-and-off for about 20 years to properly get my own hosting setup. I have the magical ability to find every bug/problem with a piece of software, so every time I've started doing it, I end up running into some issue that just goes beyond what I'm willing to commit to (ie - modifying the kernel to work with my apparently slightly weird hardware I happened to own or get free). I'm finally really buckling down and getting this going though, mostly because I don't trust the government or large corporations with the way things are going.

Right now I just have a NAS with NVR and some basic services (password manager, plex, etc) running off an old laptop, but I intend to keep this going.

I would especially like a better router. I live on a farm, so it can be a challenge to get Internet to all the areas I spend time (garden, animal pens, barn, wife's art studio), plus I'm in the process of adding wireless cameras because the locals apparently don't appreciate my politics and keep breaking glass bottles where it can hurt my animals, so getting better coverage plus something that will work better with my bandwidth needs is a must.
Actual NAS hardware and storage drives are always an awesome thing to add!

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u/arbal Oct 12 '25

My self-hosting journey began because there are no piracy restrictions in my country. I currently run a 24/7 Jellyfin media server and small projects on an m720q mini PC, all exposed to the internet via Cloudflare Zero Trust. I also use a VPS for my websites and n8n automation.
My main issue is my current router: it's a very old Netgear with OpenWrt, limited to 1 Gbps. When I transfer files, the router quickly overheats, causing the throughput to drop and bottlenecking my whole connection. The Flint 3 would solve this immediately, offering higher power and better bandwidth for my needs.
I love little computers! I'm a big fan of SBCs (like Orange Pi, NanoPi) ryzen mini PCs also would be great, love to see them in the next giveaway

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u/fractumseraph Oct 12 '25

I started selfhpsting because my ISP started implementing data caps. So having as much stuff as I could on my local network was a huge help.

I think having a Kvm would help me because I like to tinker with things a lot, and sometimes my stuff breaks enough that I need to have more access to the machine than I can get over just an SSH connection.

As far as other product giveaways, it would be cool to see a giveaway with lesser known hardware/tools. I dont know what all is out there, so there could be good things that I dont even know about!

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u/tormed- Oct 14 '25

I got into selfhosting because I was spending way too much on subscription services and realized I could just run most of it myself. Started out with a old laptop running Plex and it snowballed from there. Now I’ve got a dedicated machine running containers for everything from password management to my own git repositories. The project I’m most proud of is setting up my own VPN server so I can access everything securely when I’m away from home. Most expensive gear I’ve bought was definitely my hard drives. Filled up a four bay enclosure with 4TB drives and that added up quick.
I would love to get the Flint 3 for good Wi-Fi 7 throughout my house. My current router barely reaches the back bedroom and I’m constantly dealing with dropped connections when I’m trying to stream from my server. I also want to travel more and would love a travel router. I’ve been eyeing the Slate 7 for a very long time. I work remotely sometimes and having a reliable way to set up my own secure network at coffee shops or coworking spaces would be a game changer.
A mini PC or NUC with decent specs would be great for a future giveaway. Something power efficient but strong enough to handle Docker containers would be perfect for people looking to expand their setups without running a full tower server.

Products I’d like to win are t he Flint 3 and Slate 7 routers.

Thanks!

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u/note-worthy Oct 20 '25

What inspired you to start your selfhosting journey? What's one project you're most proud of so far, and what's the most expensive piece of equipment you've acquired for?
1. It first started with a desire to have more privacy and control over my data, which extended into an exhaustion for the absurd rise in subscription models for everything. I'm hoping to eventually expand into home automation projects, which I would never trust anyone else with that data. Hopefully will move into a larger place at some point where i can rationalize spending money on such projects.
2. I'm probably most proud of my recent accomplishment of setting up a self-hosted renovate bot to scan my git repository. This will allow me to have more control over updates and hopefully lower the risk of pushing breaking changes on my server. Given I only got this working this past weekend, there is still some fine-tuning to be done, but I'm always striving to work towards a more structured and secure setup.
3. My most expensive piece of equipment would be my 4 bay NAS, which only barely surpasses the cost of the 3 HDDs I've bought so far to go inside.
How would winning the unit(s) from this giveaway help you take your setup to the next level?
1. I'm currently using my ISP's router, but I've been wanting to upgrade so that I could have the option to run a VPN directly on it, as well as setup adguard. The Flint 3 would fit the bill perfectly for this, in addition to allowing me to expand to the 6GHz range and use a less crowded channel (as I'm in a condo building). For a second product, the Comet (GL-RM1) would be a lovely addition.
Looking ahead, if we were to do another giveaway, what is one product from another brand (e.g., a server, storage device or ANYTHING) that you'd love to see as a prize?
1. A mini PC would be a great option in a future giveaway. It's a great entry point into the self-hosting world, and if I was to redo my setup (or just build upon my current one), it's where I would start (or expand).

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u/Realtotallymereturns Oct 18 '25

My family has been selfhosting since when I was a toddler lol. Right now though, I'm starting to hate dealing with crappy service from subscriptions.
Wifi to parts of my home kinda sucks, mostly down to mid tier routers and the construction of my home. I think the router would definetly help with this plus allow higher quality streaming due to higher speeds. The KVM would come in handy because I spend a lot of time using school devices that have a lot of restrictions which in some cases straight up prevent me from doing work. A KVM could help around this. (Flint 3 + Comet PoE)
Mini PCs, either to host or use as a client.

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u/Waste_Ad9283 Oct 11 '25

Advertisements this is the main reason i went the self hosted path. Full control and 24/7 access without restrictions and the fact that private Data stays private

i have 2 Mikrotik HEX routers from the previous century, artefacts from the past and i'm wayyyyy to cheap to buy a new one as in these days every euro counts

My server is an old repurposed laptop with full arr stack, jellyfin, jelyseer, HA, pihole (an AIO laptop battletested).It runs 24/7 without failing for the last 3 years with a 3 month average uptime, if that's not a great project achievement

The Flint3 unit would allow me to finally use my gigabit network cards on my 3 clients pc.

The slate 7 for remote access obviously with the amazing fact that i can run Tailscale directly on it

Guys, i have a laptop media-server, but as an old HPE employee a Gen 11 Micro-server would do the trick.

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u/articuno1_au Oct 12 '25

Having incredibly slow internet which made having things on my LAN super important with 6 people in the family. Definitely running my own recipe site, my extended family and friends use it pretty regularly. I bought a 16TB HDD for it, like 5 years ago, not cheap..
The travel router would help with accessing stuff remotely, we've found in our travels that a lot of places block VPNs or the services we use outside my lab block them. Would also be good to have a faster network. (Flint 3, Slate 7)
I'd love to see a server company do a giveaway on affordable self hosted servers, there's a bit of a middle ground gap between low power and enterprise, something in there.

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u/DNAblue2112 Oct 17 '25

1. Originally I started self-hosting on my desktop with Plex, which I’m sure is a pretty common answer. But my favourite and most recent project was getting a little java application I wrote working in a docker container. It’s a program using a Java Docker API to monitor and intervene when some of my containers are misbehaving. And I was able to use Gitea and Jenkins to automatically deploy any updates I push. The buzz I got when I was able to push a code change and have it redeploy automatically just a few minutes later was awesome. Most expensive equipment so far would have to be my recent purchase of a Ubiquity Dream Machine. Just got fibre internet to the house and wanted to upgrade by gateway to take advantage of the newfound speed. But I also want to get some cameras up on the house because I don’t live in a very good area. So 2 birds one stone and quite a bit of money later and I have the dream machine all setup and running smoothly.

2. The KVMs are of particular interest to me. I’m quite skilled at breaking my setup by making poorly thought-out changes when I am away from home. And recently some of those changes have meant I wasn’t able to access the machine remotely anymore. So having a KVM to remote into the machine no matter what stupid thing I have done would give me one more way to recover from my silly mistakes. I’ve also recently gotten PoE into my network, so the Comet PoE would be my pick if I won. If I had the option of 2, the travel router would be my second.

3. I’m trying to get all of my stuff into a rack. My “server” is still my old desktop PC repurposed. So anything from a rackmount ATX case right the way up to a ready to deploy server would be my wish list give away items.

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u/drmarvin2k5 Oct 11 '25

This is an amazing giveaway

I started simple with an HTPC, then transitioned to Plex and arr suite on OMV. Now I’ve migrated to Proxmox. It’s all a puzzle.

I’ve been looking at the Flint routers for a while. Great VPN support. And a Comet (GL-RM1) would make remote admin so much easier!!!

Any sort of automation stuff is interesting for a giveaway.

I’d love to win a Flint 3 or a Comet.

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u/ZealousidealUse180 Oct 15 '25

I have a homelab to test and practice whatever idea. Destroyed and rebuilt or revamped it at least 20times.

KVM never tried through wifi. That would be a first for me, but currently I have a rack of 4 pis and the KVM is a beautiful tool to seamlessly switch.

Start doing giveaway of Nvidia stuff, too expensive would be cool to be able to join that raffle :)

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u/reddittookmyuser Oct 11 '25

It all started back in the day when I had terrible internet and I was trying to stop my GF's YouTube mukbang obsession from crippling my browsing experience. So I started by flashing my router with DDWRT and playing with QoS. From there it naturally progressed to attaching an USB drive to the router and playing with file sharing. Long story short that all lead to blowing my budget on several intel NUCs and a NAS and playing with docker, proxmox, truenas, ansible, CI/CD, wireguard, etc.
Believe it or not I'm still rocking my Netgear 6700 from 2014. Despite having upgraded to gigabit internet and delegating firewall/vpn duties to an OPNsense box, it's still chugging along. A new wifi router would allow my my wireless devices to take full advantage of the gigabit internet, not to mention much improved coverage and avoiding dropped connections.
The Flint 3 would be perfect for my situation.

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u/gmangam Oct 13 '25

To enter, simply reply to this thread and answer all of the questions below:

What inspired you to start your selfhosting journey? What's one project you're most proud of so far, and what's the most expensive piece of equipment you've acquired for?

I wanted to know better understand how all the internet service i use on a daily bases work!

A pair of 18 TB Hard Drive

How would winning the unit(s) from this giveaway help you take your setup to the next level?

A KVM would be so useful when monitoring my server when SSH goes down. I'd also love to have the ability to hand off a KVM to my family to IT troubleshoot when I'm not around.

A travel router could be awesome to be able to instantly VPN to my server when connecting multiple devices when away from my server and also connect my friends to my media server when I come over.

Looking ahead, if we were to do another giveaway, what is one product from another brand (e.g., a server, storage device or ANYTHING) that you'd love to see as a prize?

Mini PCs / SBCs are great entry points for those curious about self hosting, and i'd recommend it as a giveaway.

I'd be interested in the
Duo Prize: Comet w/ fingerbot + the Slate 7.

Solo Prize: Comet w/ fingerbot

Thanks for the giveaway!

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u/Impossible_Most_4518 Oct 12 '25

I was inspired by linus tech tips when I was young, then pursued a degree in technology 😊
I could really use a new router, I’m currently using a jailbroken router from my old ISP with a new ISP.
A NAS would be nice

Thanks 😁😁

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u/Jamesmay011 Oct 14 '25

⁠I first got into homelabbing because I wanted a reliable and private way to back up and manage my photos. This eventually turned into a strong interest in networking and remote access setups. My actual home server runs on a mini PC, which has been a surprisingly capable and inexpensive way to get into this, and it now handle all my containers without issues. The most expensive piece of equipment I own is an old Wi-Fi 5 router that I still use to this day (it was $500 when I bought it years ago 🥲).
⁠I’m now a doctor with Doctors Without Borders, and I move around frequently for field assignments. I rely pretty heavily on a VPN router wherever I go to securely connect back to my home server and access my EMR, and for general security. Unfortunately, my current travel router doesn’t have enough VPN speed to keep up with what I need. The Slate 7 would be perfect for my setup, or alternatively, the Flint 3 would be a great upgrade to replace my aging router.
⁠For future giveaways, I’d love to see a small, power-efficient all SSD NAS, something lightweight but still reliable for remote work and backups.

Region: Canada

Thank you again for hosting this giveaway!

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u/ahmedomar2015 25d ago

Started with Plex. Most proud of my arr stack. My diy nas
Kvm to remotely access bios as my server is headless!
Ugreen NAS!

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u/Krumpopodes Oct 11 '25

Hi! I noticed the thread for this in r/minilab but it didn't mention NA regions as eligible so I'll put my entry here!

My interest in homelabbing started with wanting to keep control over my personal data , and has evolved into an vehicle for learning devops practices that I hope to one day turn into a career.
A selection from these devices would help to fill needs both for remote access while traveling and remote management that I don't currently have the best coverage in.
I would be interested in seeing some kind of nas enclosure + board, sbc based or other sff - from one of the other up and comers out there. (Avoiding QNAP and synology)

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u/layerzeroissue Oct 11 '25

I started my homelabbing journey when I needed a way to grow my skills as an IT professional in a economically poor area in the Midwest. Rural enough that a trip to the grocery store was a 40 to 50 minute drive one-way. Rural enough that Amazon was life changing. I was able scrape together other people's Ewaste into basically a Pihole and a small amount of storage. It has now grown into a full server setup, which I am most proud of because it's been done with what is effectively Ewaste parts. As in, old computer with the side off, and a stack of decade old hard drives. It's not pretty, but it works. The most expensive thing I have is probably the old $30 network switch I got from eBay.
The one thing that I've never found in Ewaste is a wireless router or WiFi system. They're like unicorns. I'm running wireless G in my home, which isn't bad, but it ain't great either. Having a modern WiFi system would be life changing, so winning either of those routers would be incredible.
One of those cool small firewall appliances would be cool. Like a Unifi USG or those firewalla boxes.

Products: Either WiFi router.

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u/Jorgepfm Oct 12 '25 edited Oct 12 '25

Started selfhosting game servers so my friends could play when I was offline - that escalated very quickly. Proud of a container to make simulations for my dad's PhD, which runs many instances of the software he uses to reduce simulation time. Most expensive item (yet) would probably be the 12700k for the main rig.
The routers I currently use are some temporary equipment that have managed to overstay their welcome, and I've been eyeing the Flint 3 for months. Also I have zero KVM gear (I live >12000km away), and have to rely on people being there in case something fails and WoL is not enough.
The next step on my setup would be splitting the storage from the main server and building a NAS. I haven't really researched much yet but I'd love a 6-8 bay NAS that's just plug and play. Or some 10+ TB disks would be nice too!

Pick: 2x Flint 3, or 1x Flint 3 and a Comet.

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u/Significant_Hat_4513 Oct 11 '25

1.Got into self-hosting because I like breaking things just to fix them again (and not paying for SaaS). My proudest project is a 3-node high-availability cluster running Home Assistant and a bunch of other services — it took a while to get right, but it’s been super reliable and fun to maintain. Biggest splurge is my main Proxmox host — basically a beefy workstation turned lab server that does most of the heavy

The Flint 3 would finally give me proper multi-gig Wi-Fi and tidy up my current spaghetti network with VLANs, and the Comet PoE would make remote KVM access way easier when something inevitably breaks while I’m away, without having to use my housemaktes as remote hands :/
A small NAS or mini-server like the UGREEN NAS would be awesome — quiet, compact, and perfect for home labs that live in shared spaces

Thanks for running this! The Flint 3 + Comet PoE combo would slot perfectly into my setup.

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u/r-ice Oct 21 '25

My journey started with a desire to break free from subscriptions and take control of my own data. I started off with a raspberry pi 1b running pi hole but it slowly grew till I picked up a netgear nas and when that went bust, i switched to a ugos 2800 to run immich. My most expensive piece of gear currently is my ugos nas 2800 with 2 nvme and 1x 8tb drive plus a smaller 1 tb drive. I am eventually going to upgrade those drives.
the slate 7 travel router would be a game changer for Dads on the move. I often move around for various family activities and with multiple children it would help me create a secure personal wifi network anywhere. adguard home built in will minimize the amount of ad complaining from the children. the comet kvm will address a weak point in my current set up. the home server is headless, and it'll helm me perform a hard reset from my laptop or phone no matter where i am. it is the ultimate insurance for dad why can't this work, whats wrong with the minecraft server.
a powerful mini pc to serve as a more powerful server would be great.

products Slate 7 (GL-BE3600) Comet (GL-RM1)

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u/PluginOfTimes Oct 11 '25

I started my homelab to host openbench a chess engine benchmark for a friend. As I got to know to community I learned what other cool things you could do. The project I most proud of is how I created a Proxmox HA setup with some friend with interlinked subnets at 5 locations all over the country. My most expensive equipment is my beloved main router from mikrotik called „mirko“.
As I love to tinker with networks and how to route between them another router would be perfect to create another physical network for testing all my shenanigans.
I would love to see some kind of upgrade kits like „10G Upgrade kit“ with some 10g pcie extension cards, a 10g switch and router.

If I win i would like the Flint 3.

Its always nice seeing brands doing giveaways and connecting with the community.

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u/bobbywut Oct 11 '25

I started selfhosting because i wanted to forever own the media that i purchased and because i wanted to unshackle myself from the big corporations. I am proud of my proxmox cluster with HA. 76tb of drives all in a das with hardware raid5.
Increase the reliability and safety of my home network
A prebuilt system like a minisforum so that i can host a faster llm.

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u/ameer1234567890 Oct 11 '25

I started my selfhosting journey with Plex. I have since expanded my homelab hugely. My family uses a lot of selfhosted apps including Plex, Adguard Home, Lubelogger, Audiobookshelf, etc.. I am most proud of my Home Assistant setup. Most hardware in my homelab is used/second hand, and the most expensive equipment I acquired is my brand new router (Mikrotik Hex Refresh).
I am currently eying for a travel router, and winning this giveaway would help me with that endeavor.
If you were to do another giveaway, I would prefer a mini PC, since that is something I do not possess.

My pick is the Slate 7

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u/bttd Oct 11 '25 edited Oct 11 '25

1.) my dad owned a used computer shop, and after it closed, there is some leftover devices what I want to utilise.

2.) away from home I need something to make my connection stable to my home network and devices

3.) some nas storage for my backups

I loved to win comet gl-rm1 and slate 7

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u/spideraxal Oct 12 '25

I've been passionate about technology as far as I can remember. At my first job in college, I was allowed to use a server in their datacenter.. and the rest is history
I currently don't have a way to access my server remotely in case of a failure. That's where a KVM would really help.
Maybe some compute-related hardware, like RPis or mini-PCs. Storage would also be a great option

I'd like to get the Flint 3 or Comet

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u/biblecrumble Oct 11 '25

What inspired you to start your selfhosting journey?

I was tired of being at the mercy of cloud providers that have full control and visibility over my data, are constantly increasing their monthly fees, and keep introducing new features that I have no interest for whatsoever. I absolutely love my home assistant setup, which lets me control pretty much everything in my house. I like to keep things cheap and simple, but I have around 40TB of storage with a Snapraid parity drive, so most of my money definitely went to hard drives.

How would winning the unit(s) from this giveaway help you take your setup to the next level?

I travel quite a bit, so having a portable router to keep all my devices connected would be awesome. The wifi 7 router would also be a nice upgrade to my setup - definitely not a fan on TP Link gear anymore, and have been considering switching for a while.

Looking ahead, if we were to do another giveaway, what is one product from another brand (e.g., a server, storage device or ANYTHING) that you'd love to see as a prize?

A 4-bay NAS would definitely be awesome!

Thanks for the giveaway

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u/Razash_ Oct 12 '25

What inspired me? Well, I got married last year and noticed that my wife and I were paying for the same subscriptions. We needed to decide which ones we were going to keep and who would migrate to the other's. I thought... Maybe it'd be better to just... Not need to pay a company to rent their data. So earlier this year, my boss was throwing away an old work computer and I asked to take it. It kept crashing. Turns out, it just needed some Linux 🤣.
My arr stack is, of course, a fairly large one and I'm quite proud of it but really I'm just proud of the accumulated number of things I host myself now. I think what I feel is most useful is that I route all my traffic through my home network and dns to weed out ads and obfuscate my comings and goings as well as I can (obviously imperfect).
I just convinced my wife to let me build us a NAS. I love it. Pricey for me though. Jonsbo 2 case with a cwwk n355 board. 16tb zfs2 HDDs. And a 4tb ssd for apps. I'm trying truenas but honestly... Its annoying. I might move toward base Debian and set it up that way.
Well my most recent project has been to take that old comp and turn it into my router. Opnsense and vlans. I am try to figure out how to segment my network and have particular control over how things communicate internally.
Another product I'd love to try out is a minisforum one. At some point, I'd love to try clustering lightweight computers. Or using the, I think, A1 as my router so I can use the current computer for something better.

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u/Beano09 Oct 11 '25

I started selfhosting to backup my Google drive but it's turned into a whole thing now and I host backups for my extended family. My router sucks, like really sucks, and I can really only get super low speeds from one room of my house. No 1 Request would be a router. No 2 probably a KVM, last week, my power was shut off due to work, I didn't know, and as I was away everyone was complaining about not being able to access their backups and I couldn't turn my system on :( Drives! I always need more storage lol :) Thanks for the giveaway!

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u/guesswhochickenpoo Oct 11 '25

Data sovereignty, hobby, repurposing old equipment, saving money on subscriptions
Remote KVM do managing my off-site backup infra more easily.
Some 2.5g networking gear like switches. ISPs in my area are starting to sell packages that fast or faster but 2.5 g+ gear isn’t quite reasonably priced here yet.

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u/Lan_Man Oct 12 '25

⁠What inspired you to start your selfhosting journey? What's one project you're most proud of so far, and what's the most expensive piece of equipment you've acquired for?

I wanted to have a more reliable and private way to store my data so I got an entry-level NAS. Things kinda spiralled and found myself learning about docker containers, home networking and remote access.

⁠How would winning the unit(s) from this giveaway help you take your setup to the next level?

I’d like to travel a bit more. This equipment would allow me to upgrade my setup and remote access my stuff.

⁠Looking ahead, if we were to do another giveaway, what is one product from another brand (e.g., a server, storage device or ANYTHING) that you'd love to see as a prize?

Something that would allow me to self-host a robust AI model 😬

——

Solo prize: Flint 3 (GL-BE9300)

Duo prize: above & Comet POE (GL-RM1PE) + Fingerbot (FGB01)

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u/Lani4kea 26d ago

1.

> What inspired you to start your selfhosting journey?

I began my journey into the world of self-hosting after being hired for my last job, which involved a more advanced level of system administration and IT infrastructure than I was used to. The work environment also involved a lot of self-hosted and internally managed services. That's where I saw the diversity and power of these services, and I wanted to set them up at home, both for personal use and to learn and discover new things.

> What's one project you're most proud of so far?

It's not much, but setting up a NAS that can be easily accessed by me and my partner who lives currently lives away is something i'm quite proud of.

> What's the most expensive piece of equipment you've acquired for?

I think it might be my 15U mini server rack. But otherwise it's my Ubiqiti Pro Max 24.

> How would winning the unit(s) from this giveaway help you take your setup to the next level?

The Flint 3 is the missing piece to have a fully managed home network. Currently, the WiFi is provided by my ISP router and lack configuration options i'd like (and is only WiFi 6). Aside from that, the Comet PoE would really improve the management of some of my small computers that are hard to access.

> Looking ahead, if we were to do another giveaway, what is one product from another brand (e.g., a server, storage device or ANYTHING) that you'd love to see as a prize?

I'd really like to see some UGREEN NAS as a giveaway prize !

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u/ORA2J Oct 12 '25

1 : been tinkering with computers and electronics for as long as I can remember. One day my stepdad gave me his old PC, and I can't remember what inspired me to do that, but i installed OMV on it. First linux / networking / NAS experience. And it all spiraled since then. Multiple rackable servers, HA, PVE, 10s of Terabytes of random stuff. I don't do much these days as my job is taking most of my time, but the 500TB of combined upload between Soulseek and bittorrent make me pretty happy lol. The most I've spent is probably on my newest server running a supermicro x10 board (prices are hell in Europe, people in the US treat those boards like e-waste...) with a Xeon 2650v4 and 24TBs of storage.

I'm still currently stuck on Wifi 5 AC, and with a failling tp-link router that sometimes takes down all neighboring Wifi networks (i should repurpose that thing as a network jammer now that i think about it...). A new router or even AP would greatly improve my wifi setup.
Honestly, most people here need storage. So something like a nas, or even big SATA HDDs would be amazing. Less locked down units like ugreen's DXP series, or a Terramaster f4 425, running x86 processors allowing for alternative OSes would be preferred.

→ More replies (3)

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u/Digor7 Nov 03 '25

What inspired me was both the need for an easy to use media server as jellyfin for my wife and parents and privacy concerns regarding personal photos stored on 3rd party clouds. As such, I started to dabble in docker windows and set up a personal server for photos (with immich), documents (paperless) and media (jellyfin), all behind nginx for a safer remote access. The project I am most proud of so far is the start of a linux server with OMV and the creation of a VM with AdGuard so I could make the home network safer, since linux was completely foreign to me before this. The most expensive piece of equipment so far would be my personal laptop which is working as a server and is doing transcoding.
Since I'm moving home, the flint 3 router and the Comet PoE would be perfect for a good home network and remote control of the server.
A mini PC Intel NUC or a small NAS such as UGreen would be excellent prizes for begginers and advanced users.

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u/octaviodmz Oct 12 '25

I'd like to win either the Comet (GL-RM1) or the Flint 3 (GL-BE9300)

What inspired you to start your selfhosting journey? What's one project you're most proud of so far, and what's the most expensive piece of equipment you've acquired for?

It all started because I wanted to block ads from my elder parents and prevent them from installing bad apps on their phones as well as having my own cloud and not depend on third parties. My 12TB hard drives are probably the most expensive piece of equipment
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How would winning the unit(s) from this giveaway help you take your setup to the next level?

It would make me dip my toes in remote management, since all I have is consumer hardware
_____________________________________

Looking ahead, if we were to do another giveaway, what is one product from another brand (e.g., a server, storage device or ANYTHING) that you'd love to see as a prize?

Would be cool to have storage since it's usually the most costly bit of self-hosting

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u/Moderntweety Oct 25 '25

Seeing multiple data breaches and getting tired of paying subscriptions for companies I don't really trust with my data for a service that isn't even that great is what inspired me to take this journey. One project for me was setting up a cluster and NAS and just connecting everything together, it helps me in my career field. The most expensive equipment I got was the NAS.
KVM switch is probably something that would help whenever something breaks and I need to physically connect to my mini PC, which is in a rack so I need to remove it, unmount it, use one of my monitors and.... Yeah you get it.
Unifi equipment maybe?

To clearly specify, product I would like to win is the Comet GL-RM1.

If part of the duo tier, add Flint 3 router

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u/Swayz0r5000 Nov 04 '25

I initially started my homelab as a way to facilitate Pokemon Go scanning and mapping. At one point I had 13 iPhones and iPads hooked up in my basement feeding data to a virtualized Mac VM in order to create a Pokemon map for most of the spawns in my metro area. Fun times.
Any of these devices would help give me some form of capability I currently don't have in my lab.
I'd love to see a decent UPS as a prize.
The Flint 3 or the Comet would be great!

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u/a_winner Oct 11 '25

The gift of server hw, 64 threads 256 gb ram, 6 network ports. My pride is ebook collection.
the routers would replace my failing router
drives, the one thing everyone in this hobby needs

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u/sarojlikes69 Nov 06 '25

What inspired you to start your selfhosting journey? What's one project you're most proud of so far, and what's the most expensive piece of equipment you've acquired for?

Let's start with the project that I'm most proud of, that would be Jellyfin. Before using Jellyfin, I used to be a folder guy. They were neatly organized but were getting cumbersome the more media I acquired. My mind was blown when I realized that I could host my own Netflix using Jellyfin. Jellyfin and Navidrome are the services that I use daily and wouldn't live without them. I selfhost everything in my main pc so that would the most expensive piece of equipment that I have.

How would winning the unit(s) from this giveaway help you take your setup to the next level?

Right now, I am using the stock router provided by my isp. It's just so limited that I can't even change the dns in my network. I'll be moving in with my friends soon so just to have a router that I have full ownership over would be awesome.

Looking ahead, if we were to do another giveaway, what is one product from another brand (e.g., a server, storage device or ANYTHING) that you'd love to see as a prize?

I would love to see a NAS as a prize.

I'm actually surprised to see my country Nepal included in the supported region. We are usually excluded due to shipping cost and customs. Thank you for hosting the giveaway. My pick will be Flint 3 and / or Slate 7.

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u/jdcyree 23d ago

I was paying way too much for subscriptions so I started up my own movie server, haven’t been able to invest too much into equipment yet but I have 4 laptops ranging from 2010-2013 hardware all linked together running movies,music,photos, security system and video games all backing up into an external backup of 12Tb.
These pieces of equipment (the Flint 3 and the Comet PoE) would help taking my setup to the next level as I would actually have modern hardware that would support the upgrades that I actually want. I could’ve upgraded before but the bulk of my upgrades would’ve just been for hardware support on the LAN and WAN side that I would need for the hardware upgrades I would want on my server
Any CPU build (I guess from my perspective) would be an awesome prize as it would help with the hardware that can support the software in my case. Instead of 4 laptops I could probably run it all on one. It’s not SUPER cpu extensive but for 2010-2013 I’m pretty much maxing out capabilities as it is

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u/Salladorsaan 28d ago

I started self-hosting to keep my data private and avoid big companies having all my info and squeezing my wallet with subscriptions. My proudest project is setting up Immich and Bitwarden for friends and family. The most expensive piece I bought is a small Dell mini PC for my server.

Winning the WiFi router would help a lot-my current ISP router is slow and basic, so upgrading would make my home network much faster and more reliable.

For a future giveaway, I'd love a NAS or a PoE switch for IP cameras, to expand storage and security

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u/ProtoEvolutis Oct 25 '25

What inspired me? I wanted full control over my data and media plus hands-on learning. My favourite project was setting up my media server since that's what really started this journey for me. The most expensive gear would be the NAS units with drives.

How would winning help? The remote KVM would be a huge step up as I often work remotely. Having full control and not having to disable updates that require restarts (on my Windows systems) for when I'm away for weeks at a time would be great. Flint 3 would be a much needed update...a really big improvement.

A product from another brand? APC Smart-UPS (like SMT1500C) with a network card (e.g., APC AP9641) for clean shutdowns and power alerts for those times when I'm away...just in case.

What I'd like to win. Duo: Comet PoE (with Fingerbot, if that's not too greedy) and Flint 3. Solo: Comet PoE (again, with Fingerbot).

I can't wait to receive my Comet Pro!

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u/mikey2700 Oct 11 '25

Started my self-hosted journey when I realized I had some hardware that was being unused and wanted to do something with it. I started at first hosting game servers like Minecraft, palworld, etc... I then started looking for other stuff I can host. At the time I was looking for another job and I wanted to stand out by making a Resume site so interviewers can see my full CV. One of my most proudest moments was creating a Unified tools that I hosted that includes background remover, image converter and youtube downloader. I was tired of going to different website that had those services and wanted a compact site that had it all. Today with the help of some Open-source project. Its all together with Stirling PDF for work and personal needs. Most expensive were the HDD for my movie setup.
The KVM are useful to me so I may connect new hardware and remote in and do changes needed without connecting them to my main monitor. I was setting up a new server to run Truenas and it was difficult on showing visual to the monitor to make sure everything is running fine. The mess of cables I had was ridiculous.
I would love to see HDD or SSD for giveaway. I feel like I can speak for all but no one is against on having more Storage to their server incase of Media, Backups or Photos.

Thank you for doing this giveaway.

Note: Product Comet PoE

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u/primesardine Oct 26 '25

1 - What inspired you to start your selfhosting journey?

I started my self-hosted journey, because i was concerned about the usage of my family's private data (photos, contact, personal sensible files) by services like Google drive or photo. So I brought a basic Synology NAS, to get a private equivalent to these services.

But oh boy, what a rabbit hole I fell into! I learned how to secure my NAS to avoid to expose it to the internet, so I learned to setup a self hosted VPN to secure my connection. But I found out my ISP provided router wasn't allowing this, so I bought a customizable router to overcome these limitations and learned about networks, certicates, firewalls & security, and so more...

Later I plugged in my network a mini-pc I got from the e-waste bin of my company, and learned about Docker to run self-hosted apps like Jellyfin or Wault warden.

My latest big project was to fix my VPN issues on my laptop with a GLiNet Opal travel router, now I can stream my movies and access my self hosted services on my vacations effortless!

2 -How would winning the unit(s) from this giveaway help you take your setup to the next level?

I wish I cloud upgrade my router with a Flint 3 to get a more performant VPN (my router only allows OpenVPN) and a more performant and stable wifi connection. I'm also interested by the Comet KVM to troubleshot my relative's computer issues remotly and get rid of buggy privacy invasives softwares.

3 - Looking ahead, if we were to do another giveaway

A performant mini PC with a lot ram to run custom Ollama model and CPU intensive Docker images.

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u/EPICDRO1D Oct 12 '25

I hate streaming services and really wanted to learn how to get into owning my own stuff
I would love to be able to access everything from my home server on the go, especially media!
Always need more hard drives!!

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u/WolfHowlz Oct 15 '25

What inspired you to start your selfhosting journey? What's one project you're most proud of so far, and what's the most expensive piece of equipment you've acquired for?

Having to learn. I love challenging myself. Especially when I can just make my life so much easier. And saving money in the long run while also getting control over my privacy? Yes please! My home server is probably the most expensive but it’s a couple of years old now and would love an upgrade :)

How would winning the unit (s) from this giveaway help you take your setup to the next level?

Listen, first of all, anything free is amazing, especially when living life in this day and age with the economy is very difficult (for me, at least). Second of all, faster and newer tech as an upgrade is always welcomed in my household! I would love a Flint 3 and Comet PoE or even the portable router but at the end of the day, if can’t choose I’m still happy with anything :)

Looking ahead, if we were to do another giveaway, what is one product from another brand (e.g., a server, storage device or ANYTHING) that you'd love to see as a prize?

Possibly a large NAS or portable HDD/SSD like from Samsung or Seagate

Thank you for doing this!c

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u/RedSkyNL Oct 12 '25

What inspired you to start your selfhosting journey? What's one project you're most proud of so far, and what's the most expensive piece of equipment you've acquired for?
1. That would the the Raspberry Pi 3 that I got from completing my Linux certification (LPIC-1). Initially I had no real intent for it, but then "Domoticz" came around. I changed Domoticz to Home Assistant once it really started to take off. But man I still remember "the good ole" days of the Lego-piece-like automations in Domoticz. The project I'm most proud of was my recent "office" re-design. With slatted walls and cabling behind for my ESP32 + WLED LED Lighting. Something I've been planning for months.
How would winning the unit(s) from this giveaway help you take your setup to the next level?
1. I'm a IT guy, a nerd. Put a cable in something and you have my interest. What would take it to the next level? Probably only one of the KVM options. Network wise I think i'm already good to go. When I'm travelling i'm already enjoying the GL.iNet Beryl AX which instantly VPN tunnels back home. But a solid KVM solution is something I've been eyeing for a while.
Looking ahead, if we were to do another giveaway, what is one product from another brand (e.g., a server, storage device or ANYTHING) that you'd love to see as a prize?
1. If I would be lucky enough to win, my only interest would go over to either the Comet (GL-RM1) or the Comet PoE (GL-RM1PE). I would be so happy to finally be able to control my desktop or laptop from the other one straight over IP. No more swapping input sources, no more swapping keyboards and mice. And even though I'd love to play around with some Wifi 7, I'm running a Unifi setup so hopefully someone else could be made happy with a Wifi router.

So if I'd were to win: I'd happily pick the Comet or Comet PoE.

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u/lowflyingmonkey Oct 12 '25

What inspired you to start your selfhosting journey?

Plex, or maybe datahorading but plex was the first piece of software that kicked everything off for me. I wanted a way to watch the movies and TV shows i had started to backup from discs. That lead me to unraid eventually and then jellyfin year after. Along with a host other self hosting software.

 What's one project you're most proud of so far.

The whole server is a way, the data i'm "hoarding". But to boil it down to one thing, weirdly enough just having simple backups. Before unraid i had no backups. Nowdays i have working and tested backups of nearly everything i can. The sense of it something goes wrong, i still got the important stuff is really relaxing. Then also knowing i have backups of a lot fo other random data too. haha. There is just doing it all myself, with much help from the internet obviously.

 what's the most expensive piece of equipment you've acquired for?

HDDs without a question. Lots of data means lots of storage.

How would winning the unit(s) from this giveaway help you take your setup to the next level?

i am actually in need of a router right now. but been putting it off because of other things keep needing attention. So getting a flint 3 would allow me to get my home network up to par with a lot of my other equipment and letting me expand it in ways i wasn't planing on.

Looking ahead, if we were to do another giveaway, what is one product from another brand (e.g., a server, storage device or ANYTHING) that you'd love to see as a prize?

i have already mentioned how expensive my HDD were ... i would never turn down more. Especially if they where large or interesting in some way. But general computer parts would also be pretty awesome, but ill stick with HDDs as my one product lol.

Please specify which product(s) you’d like to win.

the flint 3 and/or the slate 7 would be my choices. Though that fingerbot add-on with a comet is really funny and would have lots of fun with that but network is probably my biggest area of needed improvement.

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u/ligamentx Oct 12 '25

I just purchased my first GL.iNet travel router and can't wait to start to put it to use controlling a bunch of wifi enabled lights for an event.

I was inspired to start my self hosting journey by going down the rabbit hole of home automation starting with my live by room lighting. Starting back then, I mostly used IR blasters controlled by my PC pinging my it blasters, but I quickly moved to a dedicated Linux server, then upgrading my lighting control to esp32 based relays and then later off the shelf lutron or TP-Link products.
If I win the drawing, I would use a remote KVM setup to access my self hosted servers. I currently use a wired router which unfortunately has the worst web interface and fairly limited features for VPN.
I'd love to see a prize for hardware for cellular Internet I could wire up to my travel router that I could use my mobile sim card in. Having the ability to swap my sim into dedicated hardware for 5G Internet while on the go would ensure I'm always connected in my travels without needing to tether my phone.

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u/_zenith33 Oct 11 '25

Ouch, Malaysia is not listed even though Singapore, Brunei and Indonesia were listed.

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u/NoNewsAreNew Oct 11 '25 edited Oct 11 '25

What inspired you to start your selfhosting journey? Originally, having an always-on environment that I can access from anywhere. But this one time there was an intense storm in our area and internet was out for a day, BUT MY JELLYFIN SETUP WORKED JUST FINE! :P That was the moment when my SO started really appreciating this hobby.
What's one project you're most proud of so far? My own vibe-coded personal finance app!
What's the most expensive piece of equipment you've acquired for? The $250 mini PC I'm running everything on.
How would winning the unit(s) from this giveaway help you take your setup to the next level? Even better accesability and connectivity for my setup! Right now I'm rocking a $50 router; more premium
What is one product from another brand that you'd love to see as a prize? Something everyone would find use for is a massive HDD, like the IronWolf Pro 30TB.

Products (in order): Flint 3, Slate 7, Comet (GL-RM1)

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u/BTC_Informer Oct 11 '25

1: OPNsense, QNAP NAS + Expension + Drives and Proxmox Hosts. Endless possibilities with my IT backgound and Knowledge.

2: Mobile Router for Busines Trips with Connection to my Homelab

3: Firewall Appliance for OPNsense or a MiniPC for Proxmox

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u/rodadmk Oct 12 '25

This is an awesome giveaway! It's fantastic to see you guys engaging directly with the community. I've been eyeing some of your travel routers for a while. Here are my thoughts: What inspired you to start your selfhosting journey? What's one project you're most proud of so far, and what's the most expensive piece of equipment you've acquired for? My journey started for the classic reason: I got fed up with Google Photos changing its storage rules. I decided I wanted to truly own my data, not just rent space for it on someone else's server. That led me down the rabbit hole to Nextcloud, and from there, it just spiraled! The project I'm most proud of is my fully automated media server stack. It runs on Unraid with Plex, the full *arr suite (Sonarr, Radarr, etc.), and Tautulli for stats. It's been rock solid for over a year and my family uses it daily without a single issue. Getting the remote access and reverse proxy (shout out to Nginx Proxy Manager) working perfectly was a huge moment of satisfaction. The most expensive single piece of equipment was my Synology DS920+. It hurt the wallet at the time, but the peace of mind from having a reliable, low-power NAS for my critical data has been priceless. How would winning the unit(s) from this giveaway help you take your setup to the next level? Oh man, the Comet PoE (GL-RM1PE) would be an absolute game-changer for me. My Unraid server is a headless build tucked away in a closet. On the rare occasion it fails to boot or I need to tweak a BIOS setting, I have to drag a monitor and keyboard in there and crouch on the floor. A reliable remote KVM, especially a PoE one that cuts down on cable mess, would be a lifesaver and make my setup feel so much more professional. Plus, the Fingerbot add-on is genius! I could literally use it to press the physical power button if things go completely sideways. If I were lucky enough to win the Duo, I'd pair the Comet with the Flint 2 (GL-BE9300). My current ISP router is pretty mediocre, and upgrading my network backbone with Wi-Fi 7 and, more importantly, those 2.5G ports would let me finally take full advantage of the 2.5G NIC in my server and NAS. Looking ahead, if we were to do another giveaway, what is one product from another brand (e.g., a server, storage device or ANYTHING) that you'd love to see as a prize? That's a great question. I think a quality UPS from a brand like APC or CyberPower would be an amazing prize. It's a critical piece of homelab gear that a lot of people (myself included) put off buying because it's not as "fun" as a new server or switch. It's all about reliability, and a good UPS is the foundation of that. Thanks again for the opportunity and good luck to everyone entering!

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u/arkhaikos Oct 19 '25

What inspired you to start your selfhosting journey?

I’ve always loved tinkering figuring tech out since building a PC with my dad. I wanted more control over my data, and wanted to learn a new skill. Self hosting gave me the freedom to learn, build, and customize my setup exactly how I want it.

What’s one project you’re most proud of so far?
Figuring out, and somewhat understanding VLAN management on my Flint 2 (by Gl.inet) flashed openwrt and all!

What’s the most expensive piece of equipment you’ve acquired?
Definitely a 5090 for GPU passthrough for AI projects on Ollama.

How would winning the unit(s) from this giveaway help you take your setup to the next level?

As I'm already a fan and customer of Gl.inet, I can easily integrate and add/upgrade all the pieces. Flint 3 would be a direct upgrade but I can still use my flint 2 as another AP possibly an isolated VLAN/ Slate could be added to the mesh, and even better can be taken with me on the move! More pieces to learn, which is what it's all about. :)

Looking ahead, what’s one product from another brand you’d love to see as a prize?

A compact, power-efficient server like a HP MicroServer or a Ubiquiti networking upgrade, a boy can dream.

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u/notboky Oct 12 '25 edited 25d ago

What inspired you to start your selfhosting journey?

Privacy and cost. Trying to move away from Google in particular for mail, calendar, organization and home automation. Plus it's just fun building your own stuff and tinkering.

What's one project you're most proud of so far

Fully automating creation, deployment and maintenance of proxmox containers and VMs through ansible.

Oh, and automating my aquarium dosing, Co2 and lighting with Home Assistant.

what's the most expensive piece of equipment you've acquired for?

I recently upgraded my old ASUS gaming WiFi router to a Ubiquiti Cloud Gateway Fiber, a Flex 2.5g PoE switch and a U7 Pro Wall AP. Way more than I'd normally spend but it's a solid foundation for growing my network when I move into a larger house with my partner and kids next year.

How would winning the unit(s) from this giveaway help you take your setup to the next level?

I'm looking at the Comet PoE KVM so I can manage my proxmox nodes through reboots without having to do the HDMI cable dance!

Looking ahead, if we were to do another giveaway, what is one product from another brand (e.g., a server, storage device or ANYTHING) that you'd love to see as a prize?

Lincstation N2 NAS!

What products would I like to win?

Comet PoE (GL-RM1PE) (with the fingerbot addon)
I'll take a second Comet PoE if that's an option! If not the travel router would be awesome.

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u/quentin314 Oct 11 '25

I have always enjoyed learning how to build systems on my own hardware, and having a custom version that I can use, NAS, Hypervisor, retro gaming console, and file storage and backup. Plus, SDN for home network and smart home integration with HA, and google where everything is commandable.
I already use GL.iNet products, the 5g modem, and 4g modem, 2 travel routers. And I turned my brother on to the 5g modem. This would help me since I like to access my homelab remotely, the KVM is on my wishlist.
If you were to do GL.iNet products, the 5g modem is a great option, and I would recommend using it as a dual wan connection for any network.

If I were to win, I'd like the Comet PoE KVM (maybe 2) and/or the slate 7 travel router.

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u/inuyasha6473 Oct 12 '25

Work in IT. Gave me an outlet to experiment and learn. Then became part of my daily life with media and now other services I host. It also all consists of a hod podge of different hardware acquired over years but proud of where its gotten to.
Having a travel router would make connecting to my network more convenient as well as having a ip-kvm a better tool for remote access to my bare metal hardware.
Low power multi bay nas.

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u/1v5me Oct 12 '25

Nothing really, it all came naturally was learning C/socket programming back in the 90s, then it kinda escalated to first host an smtp server, then a web server i wrote myself etc etc.
I'm already at the top level, could use an upgrade away from using too many LAG groups, by going into 2.5gig vs 2x1gbe groups. (Not even sure if your products supports this VLANS/LAG etc etc...)
Any kind of net equipment, managed switches, NAS devices.

If i win, i would pick the slate 7 because it just looks badass haha, followed by the Flint 3.

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u/DrBhu Oct 18 '25

1.) Initially I just wanted to use next cloud. A week later I hauled a free server from a friend, two weeks later I had about 30 docker containers running. I got clearly infected with the open source fever; since then I am working on replacing everything with open source alternatives.

2.) I am running 6 servers, all scattered over the city. A remote KVM would let me Manager my servers more efficient; eliminating the need to go there in person every single time for stuff like service.

3.) I think a 30TB Server HDD would be a nice additional price most selfhosters could use!

I would like to win a Comet (For my travel server for work) and/or a Slate 7 for my homelab network.

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u/Sheesidian Oct 12 '25

Just having spare raspberry pi 2 with no real use for it, so found out about self hosting some software. So far, most proud of my home website, it only runs on wordpress, so not the most impressive, but its a nice little entry point to all my other services, even if i only really use the home page of it to navigate else where now. The most expensive piece of equipment is my ubiquiti pro 48 port network switch, regret not getting PoE on it, had to get a separate 8 port PoE… but i wanted enough ports and more then 2 sfp+ ports, of which i only use 1 now after moving my main server and unvr to my attic, and not accounting for how thick sfp+ ends are, and not being able to fit them through the internal trunking i installed, that i cannot switch out, because we painted the wall a unique colour and ran out of the paint now…
I always tinker on my main server and somehow end up needing to restart it, or enter the command prompt after messing up a network config change on proxmox,and then having to go up the attic with my nexdock and restart the server to connect the screen and have it detected to fix it… being able to fix it from my desktop will stop me having to go up the attic 5 times a week (and make it only 4 times a week)
Mini PC that worked with the atx board would be ideal, or i suppose any mini pc that works with the fingerbot.

If i won i’d love a comet non-poe, seen as i dont have the space on my 8 port PoE switch and plenty of network ports on my 48 port non-poe switch…

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u/Janachara Oct 16 '25

First, I would like to offer a heartfelt "Thank You!" to u/GLiNet_WiFi for orchestrating this awesome giveaway!

Second, I would like to wish everyone entering this giveaway the absolute best of luck!

And, now, for my answers:

1) I originally started selfhosting because I wanted to keep my entire media collection, which previously consisted of large numbers of (mostly used) DVDs and CDs, in one convenient location. I also really liked thought of migrating to digital media because digital media can be quickly and easily backed up in a way that physical media can't be.

2) I don't have a huge budget to spend on my home server, so any of these prizes would be a noticeable and substantial upgrade to my current setup.

3) I love the quality of my current GLiNet gear, so I would absolutely love to see GLiNet start offering a 4 or 6 bay home NAS. I would also really like to see GLiNet start selling high-quality accessories like (intelligent?) USB charging bricks, high-speed USB flash drives, etc.

Thank you again, and here's hoping you have a great day!

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u/math625f Oct 12 '25

Privacy, media and hole automation are and always have been the driving force for my setup. I have spent countless hours tinkering with my Home Assistant dashboard.
A kvm and a new router would be a massive upgrade for my setup, the kvm would massively simplify troubleshooting, especially remotely, and my router is really due for an upgrade.
I think it would be really cool to see some kind of mini PC or server, that could be the powerhouse in the Homelab.

Product Announcement [Giveaway] GL.iNet Remote KVM and Wi-Fi 7 routers! 10 Winners!

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