Control Hubs: Bringing It All Together - Smart Home Automation with Linux and Raspberry Pi - page 267

Network Router

ISP

Modem

Node0 - Linux Server

Figure 7-8. A simple network configuration

This allows you to reuse the router as a network switch and employ servers with only one network port, such as
the majority of small low-power mini PCs on the market. If this configuration is too limiting, such as when you want to
use Linux as the router itself, then you can adopt a configuration like the one shown in Figure 7-9 . With this setup, you
will need two network cards and a separate network switch.

Other machines and media head units, connected through LAN

ISP

Modem Network Switch

Node0 - Linux Server

Figure 7-9. Using a Linux server to separate the two network domains

In either case, you use a remote server, such as a colocated server or a virtual machine located in a data center,
to accept and process all traffic, thereby hiding the identity of your home machine.