Tag: homelab

De-Googling: Self-Hosted Replacements for Google Apps

Google Drive, Gmail, Photos, Calendar, Maps, Analytics — all replaceable with self-hosted alternatives that don't report your life back to Mountain View.

Running Gemma 4 Locally with Ollama

Google's Gemma 4 is the best open model they've shipped yet. Here's how to pull it, run it, and actually use it for real work with Ollama on your own hardware.

LLM Backends: vLLM vs llama.cpp vs Ollama

vLLM, llama.cpp, and Ollama all run local LLMs — compare throughput, memory use, GPU support, and which fits your hardware.

Distroless: How to Build Slim, Secure Containers

Distroless images contain only your app and its runtime — no shell, no package manager, no attack surface. Here's how to build them.

Self-Hoster's Disaster Recovery: When Everything Goes Wrong at Once

Build a real disaster recovery plan for your home lab: RTO/RPO explained simply, 3-2-1 backup rule, Proxmox backups, Restic to Backblaze B2, and a runbook template you'll actually use.

VLAN Basics for Home Labs: Segment Your Network Before It Segments You

Learn VLAN basics for your home lab: 802.1Q tagging, trunk vs access ports, managed switch setup, and pfSense VLAN configuration to isolate IoT, guests, and your NAS.

Watchtower: Safe Container Auto-Updates

Tired of manually updating containers? Watchtower handles it. But if you set it wrong, you'll wake up to broken apps. Here's how to do it right.

You Should Be Testing Your Restores

You've got backups. Great. But do you know if they actually work? RTO and RPO mean nothing if you've never actually restored.

IPv6 on Your Home Lab: You Should Care (Here's Why)

IPv6 isn't just for the future—it's broken on your network right now. Here's why you should care and how to actually set it up.

BGP in Your Home Lab: Dynamic Routing for People Who've Run Out of Static Routes

Run BGP in your home lab with FRRouting. Covers iBGP vs eBGP, FRR installation, basic BGP config, peering with OPNsense, route filtering, and when BGP is actually worth the complexity.

nmap for Your Own Network: What You Should Be Scanning

nmap isn't just for pen testers. Learn what's actually worth scanning on your home network and what those open ports really mean.

Home Assistant + Node-RED: Automate Your Home Without Losing Your Mind

Home Assistant and Node-RED integration guide: Docker Compose setup, complex automation flows, presence detection, webhook triggers, and voice command pipelines.