[marwatk]

I love these things:

https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256804116114245.html

There are a few suppliers, but the 4x Intel NICs open up lots of possibilities. They're very lower power, but still fast enough to handle a lot of traffic.

I run VMWare ESXi on mine and use openwrt for my router on two ports and then a general purpose server in another VM.

[pbnjeh]

I have a couple of N5105 boxes I got off of Amazon on sale, but I haven't put them into use, yet.

I've never bought off of AliExpress. I'm in the U.S. Do people take precautions when ordering from them? I'm not so worried about the products, themselves. I'm worried about the use and security of my financial data.

Worried as in, I just don't know whether they are safe stewards. No experience, no one to ask. Except maybe you guys. Give them my credit card #? Generate a one time #? PayPal?

Sorry to go a bit OT, but this is yet again where I've been tempted to order from them.

[alsobrsp]

I buy from AliExpress often. Most recently a batch of anodized metal business cards, before that a bunch of home automation sensors. I could get the same sensor from Amazon for a lot more money, I did get one for a test piece before buying 16 of them.

My experience has always been a good one. Just be prepared to wait a while for delivery, the business cards were about three weeks.

[nprateem]

Just use a 1 time card and reinstall the OS.