Few questions from the beginner

[Ged296123]

Hi @Malakay

Welcome to using Freedombox.
I’ll try my best to go over your questions. I won’t be able to answer all of them but maybe give you a few pointers on the way.

@Malakay

for what kind of use is FreedomBox designed? I don´t want to expose it outside to the Internet (not planning to use it for some openVPN or similar things, I don´t need remote access). I want to use it as another local network client, providing few services for other clients. Is it possible to use FreedomBox this way?

Freedombox (FBX) is a Debian Pureblend. That means it’s Debian at it’s core (not a distro).
With FBX you can do anything you could that’s possible with Debian, as long as you know your way around.
FBX serves to help you self-host. It’s specifically designed to be hosting so converting it to work only for your intranet will need some adjustments. Have a look at this post.

@Malakay

this is related to question 1 - when I was setting up after installation, it gave me 3 options how my network works, I chose option that my pc is connected to the internet via router I can manage (and above it there is providers antenna I can´t manage). It works but I was wondering why there was some note about DMZ and about routing - can someone tell me why should I setup anything on my router???

FBX can act as your router if you use it in DMZ mode (bypassing your modem’s functions and transforming it into a mere “bridge”). All the options presented to you on the initial setup will be necessary for i.e. your port forwarding, firewall settings, as you install apps.

@Malakay

I set up static ip address, but after restarting there was old address again. Why? And how to set really static address, which persists after restart?

can you give more detial on this? i.e. you setup static ip address on your router? or you have a static ip address on you wan? which device did you restart? a little information on your exisitng network/device configuration would help.

@Malakay

I want to use Radicale, it was working out of the box right after installation and basic configuration. But I didn´t tested, if it runs automatically after restart. Can someone confirm or negate that Radicale starts automatically after restart of FreedomBox? And if not, how to achieve this?

Once you install it, Radicale will restart by itself after every reboot of your FBX.

@Malakay

I was using Pihole before, so I want to use it again. Is possible to install Pihole on FreedomBox and use it as adblocker for all clients on the network? I can install it via terminal, but I was wondering I didn´t see Pihole in appstore.

PiHole is not an application in the Debian repos. So, untill it’s maintained in Debian and configured for FBX, you need to download, install and run it manually. It is technically possible to run PiHole on FBX just as it is technically possible to run it on Debian.

@Malakay

and one more thing - I was thinking about paid VPN service like Proton or NordVPN, could be FreedomBox configured in the way, that all clients will connect to VPN through Freedombox? Is this even possible? (I know I have to choose if I will use Pihole or VPN, both won´t work perhaps)

There are varios VPN clients that you can install from the Debian repo (OpenVPN being one of them). If you know your way around to configure these clients manually, then sure, you can run it off FBX. Nevertheless, FBX comes with OpenVPN fot the purpose of connectiong to your home server from WAN (the otherway around of what you’re looking for).

Hope these help.
Good luck and hope you have a good experience with FBX.