Building a Private Cloud at Home: A Comprehensive Guide

As various cloud drives become unavailable, I want to set up a “private cloud drive” at home.“Private cloud drive” is a big term, but it essentially refers to a file server that can be accessed away from home.Nowadays, everything needs to use big words.For example, “embedded computing” is just a single-board computer;“massage gun” is just a massager;and “private cloud drive” naturally refers to a file server.

Searching online, there are countless articles about private cloud drives, making it overwhelming for readers. Moreover, today’s geeks—”geeks” is also a big term, which actually means “tech-savvy and single”—especially like to write in obscure ways, using jargon. For instance, “toothpaste factory” refers to Intel, as the performance improvements of its CPUs are like squeezing toothpaste; and “mining accident machine” refers to machines used for mining that are sold at low prices after a mining accident. This is no different than not explaining at all, but this is the geek style, not wanting outsiders to understand. It’s somewhat similar to poets. Poets use allusions to find like-minded individuals. If you can’t see it, they won’t bother to explain.

The abundance of articles online causes a problem of too many technical paths. The functionality you want to achieve can be done in countless ways. Will you spend thousands to buy a Synology, or a few hundred for a box? Will you use Peanut Shell for internal network penetration or an ASUS router? Or simply rent a virtual host? However, this is not just about countless methods; there are countless pitfalls within. Geeks call this “flipping the car”. Many have flipped their cars already. “Wankeyun” is one, and Phicomm is another. I couldn’t find the term “Phicomm” on Taobao and JD, leaving me puzzled; they are a major router manufacturer! Later I found out they had a promotion for zero yuan purchase, which was suspected of fraud and got banned by JD and Taobao.

Building a Private Cloud at Home: A Comprehensive Guide

Then there’s “My Cloud”, which just flipped in July.It dispersed users’ data for storage, which sounds quite safe, but once it goes bankrupt, all user data is lost.One user on Baidu Tieba was tearfully asking for their data, which was quite alarming.

But extending this situation leads to a significant implication; it is actually the price of freedom and the fear that comes with freedom!I wish to ride the wind back, yet fear the jade towers and crystal palaces.High places are unbearably cold, dancing and playing with shadows, how is it like in the world?It’s better to have only one solution, wearing the same outfit, having the same original intention is more reassuring.

However, it is in the choice under freedom that one can truly see a person’s height.You need some basic knowledge, you must be able to learn, and you need to be able to judge.You must know who you are, where you come from, and where you are going.

Little Meow has collected many movies, stored on two external hard drives.Every time I want to download a movie, I have to connect them to my laptop;to watch a movie, I must connect them to the TV.Little Meow’s brother is abroad, and sometimes the two nephews specifically request certain movies, so I have to download the movies first, rename them, add a txt file, package them, upload them to some cloud, and then send the link; they download it later.It’s not too troublesome, simpler than burning a CD and mailing it, but Little Meow hopes it could be simpler.

Then there are the photos on the phone.Actually, connecting the phone to the laptop allows for instant transfer, but for some reason, there are still many photos in Little Meow’s phone that haven’t been backed up to the hard drive.Ultimately, it’s still cumbersome.

And the backupof documents.We have three external hard drives for backup, each containing various data, many of which are duplicates.Can we combine them into one and create a RAID?

Among the private cloud solutions, the first thing I rule out is various NAS.NAS means “Network Attached Storage”, which is a hard drive box that only connects to the network cable.It provides various functions, including private cloud. Online, it’s often said, “There are two solutions for creating a private cloud, one using Synology and one not using Synology.” Synology is the best NAS.But NAS has a fatal flaw; its operating system is all Linux, which our external hard drives cannot use.Old movies use old methods, new movies use new methods, which is not impossible, but the hard drives in NAS cannot be recognized by Windows, and this is unacceptable for me.

Having ruled out NAS, I need to set up a file server myself.Now there are many options for hardware.A mining accident machine is one, very cheap, around 200 yuan, but I’ve heard the fan noise is quite loud, and one needs to replace the fan.There are also mini-hosts.The mini-hosts produced by the toothpaste factory are very cute, and I really like them.Many domestic manufacturers also produce them, most of which are brands I’ve never heard of.There’s a Zero Point, suddenly there are many articles on “What is worth buying”—”Se Mo Zhang Da Ma”.I think it’s a soft article, but the stuff looks good.

Little Meow’s parents got rid of a Philips all-in-one machine a couple of years ago, as the display didn’t light up and it had been sitting idle.Little Meow fiddled with it for a while and surprisingly got it to light up.It doesn’t matter if the file server doesn’t have a display; after all, it has always had a display.Yes, that’s it!

Little Meow installed a simplified version of Windows 7, bought a UPS, and a USB hub.Buying these two items is quite deliberate.The file server needs to protect the hard drive; one of the requirements is sufficient voltage, and the USB hub is used for this.Another requirement is that the file server needs to have power-off protection.If the hard drive suddenly loses power while being read, it will damage the hard drive after a few times.Little Meow couldn’t afford an automatic shutdown UPS with a serial port, so I bought the cheapest one, and then set a task in Windows 7 to automatically shut down when the network cable is disconnected, and it works well.But what about automatic power on?There are many high-end solutions online, various smart plugs, etc., but Little Meow didn’t use any of them.Little Meow used the Arduino board I’m most familiar with to control a relay, waiting 5 minutes after power on, then closing the relay for 700ms before opening it again, simulating a hand pressing the switch.Of course, this is somewhat overkill; I should have built a delay circuit or something, but Little Meow forgot everything about radio.

With the file server, various TVs, set-top boxes, phones, and laptops at home can watch movies anytime, but I still lack a “cloud”.How can the external network access this server?This is where internal network penetration comes into play.There are many methods for internal network penetration, various NAS, and boxes all have their own penetration methods.However, after researching, I found that all internal network penetrations require third-party forwarding, exposing everything to others’ eyes.In other words, private things really cannot be placed on “private” cloud.

So what can be stored?Probably movies, music, and some e-books.Of course, some “sisters”—this is also a term geeks love to use, referring to sexually enlightening movies—and some less private photos can also be stored.

Initially, I used TeamViewer for internal network penetration. This software is famous and free for personal use. It can remotely control computers and access shared files on remote computers. While using this software, I suddenly thought that if there are physical bodies outside, it would be easier to access the internet. This is an additional benefit of creating a private cloud, but I dare not elaborate.

However, TeamViewer has a drawback; it can only be one-on-one and is sufficiently slow.There is a domestic company that does internal network penetration, and their products have very down-to-earth names:Peanut Shell, Sunflower, Dandelion.Little Meow used its Dandelion for internal network penetration.This product has both hardware and software, allowing for a many-to-many relationship, which is just right.

Little Meow bought two Dandelion routers, using one Dandelion software client when going out.The free product supports three clients, just enough.The free version provides 2M bandwidth, which is fine for watching 1080p movies, but not for 4K.Speaking of which, to watch 4K, I guess the home network has to be upgraded to a gigabit Ethernet.

Now that it’s all done, who knows abroad, at least in China, I can watch wherever I go.Little Meow can review several episodes of “Fargo” on the highway back to Beijing.And transfer photos.The other day I went out to play with a drone, and the downloaded videos basically filled up my phone; I can immediately upload them to the file server when I get back—of course, that’s theoretical.Little Meow dislikes the slow transfer speed, so I pulled out the SD card from the phone and directly copied it to the laptop.

Let’s post a piece of code; otherwise, it really doesn’t look like a geek article.

void setup() {pinMode(2, OUTPUT); digitalWrite(2, HIGH); delay(300000); digitalWrite(2, LOW);  delay(700);digitalWrite(2, HIGH);}void loop() {}

This is the program I wrote to control the relay.

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