Keep swapping the OS (or have different memory cards) and play around with whatever software you come across that peaks your interest.

https://www.bee-link.com/products/beelink-me-mini-n150

I have no experience with this. Just sharing so you have more ideas to think about

Futo gave them a micro-grant this month

Be prepared for your router to not work until you figure out how to set stuff up. So hopefully this isn’t your only router. I converted a router to OpenWRT and my knowledge of networking was super basic. It was very confusing but I did get it working in a few days. However, I couldn’t get some things working like a VPN or updating without wiping all my settings. OpenWRT is router firmware, not NAS software. You’ll need to run something like CasaOS, OpenMediaVault, TrueNAS, etc for that.

This website is a great starting point for router configurations: https://routersecurity.org/#StartHere

Thank you. That’s incredibly insightful. When I get the cash I’ll setup a PiHole

Fair

That’s a good point

Why would someone pick PiHole over say a customized NextDNS on your router?

This is really neat. I’ll be trying it out for sure

I did. Not nearly enough to manage my own router unfortunately

Following a guide on how to make something is different than understanding what you’re doing. By all means go for it. I think if you want to enjoy self hosting, skip to that part and come back to creating a router in the future.

Trying to create a router yourself is complicated. I knew nothing about it and installed OpenWRT onto a Netgear router and was unprepared. I ended up effectively taking a YouTube crash course trying to understand so many new networking terms and more. I got it working but any small tweaks could cause issues as I didn’t fully understand what I was doing. I bought a GL.iNet Flint 2 and have been super happy with it. Save yourself a headache, get a good router like that and start having fun running things on a RPi.

I know Batocera (which is primarily for retro gaming) has a way to launch Steam games. I wondered myself if there was a way to connect GoG too

You can use the Polycentric protocol on Grayjay, though I doubt any creators actually read it.

Thank you. I clearly need to prioritize learning more about ports. I have had little time to try fixing this issue (hence why this comment is so late) but figured out it was VPN related. My phone’s VPN was blocking connection. After enabling local network bypass another SMB entry appeared with the accurate IP, if required me to only enter my username and then it connected fine.

I did and got the same results unfortunately. Good to know though, thank you