Home Lab

Technical Specification

A Raspberry Pi 5 running Docker-managed services on NVMe storage, including network-wide DNS filtering, a self-hosted password manager, and a push notification server - all served over HTTPS via an automatically provisioned reverse proxy. Remote access is handled entirely through a self-hosted WireGuard VPN, with no services directly exposed to the public internet.

Background, Scope, What's Next

This started as an endeavor against the encroachment of ads into every aspect of life, but quickly grew in scope as I realized the possibilities.

I wanted to set up a Pihole to limit ads locally, and to maximize the value of that, I figured I should also set up a VPN so that I can benefit from the Pihole adblock outside of the house or on my phone. The project grew in scope seemingly of its own accord from that point. Realizing I had a secure, private server I could access anywhere, I decided to also set up a password manager, a status dashboard, and a push notification system so that I could better keep track of any issues and resolve them since this was, after all, starting to manage some very important things.

There's still more I would like to do with this, and I think that's part of the beauty of this type of project - it is useful and serves its purpose while simultaneously being easy to scale and expand to other services. My next addition when I get around to it will likely be a software defined radio (SDR) that can serve the stream over the VPN, functioning as a digital/analog shortwave scanner with trunked system software.