Does the Pogoplug v4 serve any purpose anymore? Share your thoughts

I was cleaning up my shelf this afternoon and found the Pogoplug v4 I purchased years ago. After these many years of collecting dust, I wonder what can be done with this little device with very low hardware specifications. I already have a Synology 2-bay NAS serving my home network. Is anyone else using it for any other purpose? Even pi-hole won't work on it, I guess?

I have 6 total, at least 1 of each type, though 2 of the 6 are broken and used for future parts. I do use the 4 that work. I use an E02 as my main DNS server running Pi-hole and Unbound. I use the other 3, a Mobile, a Pro and a V4, as Time Machine Backups and also just for fun and to keep my Linux/Debian skills sharp. I've had most of them for at least 12 years and I absolutely love those little boxes!

Tushar Wrote:
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> using it for any other purpose? Even pi-hole won't
> work on it, I guess?

You should be able to run pi-hole on it -- you need to create a swapfile or swap partition.

I used to run pi-hole on a dockstar, I guess CPU 1.2GHz / 800MHz is the main difference.

They make great remote log servers, too. My E02 runs rsyslog to collect the output from my various internet-of-things devices (mostly lighting controllers running Tasmota). A daily run of a Logwatch script emails me info on whether they're operating as expected or having issues.

Pi-hole most certainly does still work on the Pogoplug v4, honestly I'm convinced it would work on any computing device made after 1980. A great use case I've found for it and other kirkwood boxes is that of an Airplay receiver. Basically just compile shairport-sync from source and hookup a cheap plug and play usb to analog speaker DAC from eBay. I think I paid $2.50 for the one i'm using currently. Lets me stream music from my phone over the network. I've paired it with an old apple tv 3rd gen (non 4k or TV-OS) and use it (the pogoplug) as speakers for the TV. Lets me watch TV in silence while everyone else is sleeping. Lots of life still left in these old boxes.

Hello,

I just found the Pogoplug Pogo-E02 (pink one) my cousin gave me a couple of years ago. I had never used this device at the time it was "fully operational", so I don't have any idea what it looked like. Now, I can plug in some USB storage devices, and map them as network devices on my Windows 11 machine (probably I can access them from other devices also, I just haven't tried).
What I want to do is install a bit torrent client capable of remote access (through a web interface or in the best case - an android app) and a SAMBA server. I know that I will need to install Debian, Arch, or OpenWRT. I'm a bit familiar with Debian (not ARM) because of Ubuntu and Open Media Vault, but I don't know anything about Arch and OpenWRT. Which of the 3 operating systems is the easiest to install, configure, and maintain? Do all of them support SAMBA and Transmission, for example? Which will be the best choice?

I would point out that and older version of Arch might be findable and installable, but can't update it since Arch has dropped support for the hardware. I was initially running Arch on mine (btw), but since it can't be updated I've moved to Debian and been happy with it. This community supports Debian as a focus, and is very helpful. I'm happy with Debian and it works well for me.

As for what you can do with it - all of the above. Torrent, Samba you name it. Just keep in mind it's a tiny system with limited memory, so keep it small. I have no experience with Open Media Vault though.

If you can run web server, you can install kriss rss does not need any external database, very light, I run this on a Pi 0W for years.

They still work pretty well for me as home Asterisk PBX servers. I am using them for my VOIP telephone system with the VOIP providers BulkVS and viop.ms. I even recently upgraded them to Debian 12 (Bookworm) with Kernel 6.12.6 provided by Bodhi and installed Asterisk 16.29.1. Everything works fine and reliably.