My RPi's are like lottery tickets. I buy them with the thought of all they could be used for...then collect duct in the junk drawer.
I also tell myself I'm supporting the manufacturer, though it would appear they don't need my help.
Can I heavily recommend the use of them as a pihole + Wireguard VPN + DNSCryptProxy Server.
Pihole -> Great use for a network wide adblocker/DHCP server.
Wireguard VPN -> In combination with a DDNS setup and some port forwarding enables the use of a global private VPN. I think it's a prerequisite for a decent home-automation setup.
DNSCryptProxy -> Great for ensuring all DNS requests on the network via DNS over HTTPS. Kind of useful because frankly ISPs are sniffing DNS traffic. Also useful for bypassing DNS based ISP filters.
The above basically enabled me to create a 5 country wide private VPN by giving VPNs to family members. It enables me to print/scan things from abroad, access CPU resources/servers/GPUs/Webcams/automation and obviously browse as if I am in another place.
My family when they are abroad, can now work as if they aren't.
It also saves power (reducing analytics traffic), improves privacy and takes about a weekend to setup.
They also make great personal gifts too.
Any good tutorials on setting up Wireguard? This (and Pihole) have been on my todo list for a while.
Once you have the base OS ready to go, it will take you less than 30 minutes if you know how to muck with your DHCP/firewall settings in your router.
https://github.com/pi-hole/pi-hole/#one-step-automated-insta...
Install Pi-Hole, then edit your DHCP server to hand out the Pi-Hole as the DNS server.
After installing Pi-hole, install this. Choose Wireguard, not OpenVPN. port-forward the Wireguard UDP port to your VPN server. use the "pivpn" command to create client configs and the "qr" subcommand to scan the config into your phone.