Setting up a small home lab
I finally replaced the old router with a mini PC running a proper firewall. The goal was simple: separate the IoT devices, keep the NAS on its own VLAN, and stop guessing what the ISP box was doing.
The hardest part was not the configuration but deciding which services actually deserve to run 24/7. In the end it is a file server, a media server and a backup target. Everything else is turned on when I need it.
Power draw at idle is around 14 W, which is acceptable. Next step is a small UPS so a short outage does not corrupt the pool again.