DNS & Ad Blocking
When Pi-hole Blocks a Site You Need: Whitelist, Wildcards, and Regex That Actually Work
Fix Pi-hole overblocking: learn exact whitelisting, wildcard rules, and regex overrides—plus the query log step most people skip.
Building a home network and a lab that behave, using gear a household can actually justify buying.
OPNsense Multi-WAN Failover That Actually Works: Gateway Groups, Sticky Connections, and DNS
Multi-WAN failover tutorials promise resilience but deliver flaky fallback, broken DNS, and dead sessions when a link flaps.
DNS & Ad Blocking
How to Block DNS-over-HTTPS (DoH) on Your Network to Enforce Pi-hole
DoH tunnels DNS through port 443, bypassing Pi-hole entirely. Block it at the network with firewall rules, DNS hijacking, and domain poisoning.
Home Automation
Automated Home Assistant Backups to a Remote NAS with Samba and the Backup Integration
Set up automated Home Assistant backups to a remote NAS over Samba. Off-device snapshots, no cloud fees, and a restore drill for real recovery.
DNS & Ad Blocking
Migrating from Pi-hole to AdGuard Home: DNS-over-HTTPS and Advanced Filtering
Step-by-step migration: Pi-hole to AdGuard Home for native encrypted DNS, advanced filtering, and fewer moving parts. Back up, convert lists, verify.
Routers & Firewalls
OPNsense Firewall Rules: Isolate IoT Devices with Aliases and Schedules
Block IoT devices from your LAN and restrict internet by schedule using OPNsense aliases. A 30-second auditable ruleset with zero raw IPs.
WiFi & VLANs
Bridging the VLAN Gap: Set Up an mDNS Repeater for Cross-VLAN Discovery in Home Assistant
When your IoT VLAN breaks discovery, an mDNS repeater is the fix. Set one up so Home Assistant sees all your devices, no firewall rules needed.
Home Automation
Integrating Zigbee2MQTT with Home Assistant: Local Control Without the Vendor Hub
Stop juggling vendor hubs. Use Zigbee2MQTT and a USB dongle to bring every Zigbee device under local Home Assistant control—no cloud accounts needed.
Self-Hosting
Self-Host a Private Metasearch Engine with SearXNG
Break free of search profiling: run SearXNG in Docker to proxy queries, strip trackers, and keep your search history off third-party servers.
Lab Projects
Encrypt All Home DNS with a dnsdist DoH Proxy
Set up a lightweight dnsdist proxy to encrypt all home DNS over HTTPS. No per-device changes—ditch ISP snooping with one privacy-respecting forwarder.
Self-Hosting
Nginx Proxy Manager: Free SSL for Self-Hosted Services
Set up Nginx Proxy Manager with Docker to get free Let's Encrypt SSL for your homelab services. No raw nginx configs needed—just a clean GUI and automatic
Self-Hosting
Jellyfin Hardware Transcoding on a Mini PC: A Setup Guide
Set up Jellyfin with Intel Quick Sync hardware transcoding on a mini PC using Docker. Practical guide with backup tips and honest maintenance notes.
Networking
Fix Bufferbloat with CAKE QoS on OpenWrt in 20 Minutes
Your gigabit lies: bufferbloat kills video calls. Deploy CAKE QoS on a $50 OpenWrt router in 20 minutes for lag-free home networking.