How it started
It started the way most homelab journeys start: a YouTube video, a problem that seemed solvable, and a willingness to break things. A Pi-hole for DNS-level ad blocking was the first project. Understanding how DNS worked led to understanding how networks worked. Understanding networks led to a VPN, then a local server, then the realization that a single machine running everything was a single point of failure.
Proxmox came next — a type 1 hypervisor that lets multiple virtual machines run on the same hardware. That unlock changed everything. Services that had been running on bare metal could now be isolated, snapshotted, and restored. A dedicated backup node (a Beelink NUC running the S13 Pro) handles Proxmox Backup Server duties. The primary Proxmox host is an ASUS NUC with an i5 and 64GB of RAM.
What YouTube provided in foundations, AI tools now provide in velocity. Projects that would have taken weeks to research and implement now take days.
Skills acquired
Networking & VLAN Segmentation
The UniFi stack — a UDM-Pro as gateway and firewall, a USW-24 PoE core switch, U6 Pro access points indoors, and a U6 Mesh unit for outdoor coverage — runs four discrete VLANs. VLAN 1 is the default network for lab infrastructure. VLAN 2 isolates work devices. VLAN 6 segments all IoT devices so a compromised smart bulb cannot reach anything sensitive. VLAN 100 is a reserved ProtonVPN guest WiFi network. Understanding subnetting, firewall rules between VLANs, and trunk port configuration came from building this, not from a textbook.
Virtualization & Provisioning
Proxmox VE runs a mix of VMs and LXCs on the primary ASUS NUC host, each chosen for the workload's needs. LXCs handle lightweight services: SearXNG for private search, Traefik as reverse proxy, and a Cloudflare Tunnel for secure ingress. VMs run heavier workloads: Home Assistant with dedicated USB passthrough, a Docker host running Mealie, Linkwarden, OpenWebUI, Paperless, Syncthing, and Uptime-Kuma, plus a Minecraft server. Understanding when to use containers versus full VMs, along with provisioning, resource allocation, snapshot management, and backup scheduling, came from managing this environment over time — including recovering from the inevitable mistakes.
Home Assistant & IoT Orchestration
Home Assistant runs as the orchestration layer for 85+ IoT devices across three ecosystems: Lutron (52 devices including switches, dimmers, and shades), YoLink (26 devices including leak sensors and temperature monitors), and Flic (5 buttons for physical automations). Pico W microcontrollers running ESPHome report temperature and humidity from every room via BME280 sensors. Smart switches control lighting and motion sensing throughout the house. Automations route signals between ecosystems — a Flic button press can trigger a Lutron scene and send a household notification simultaneously.
Security & Privacy
Network security is layered throughout the design. IoT devices live on an isolated VLAN with no access to trusted network segments. Pi-hole blocks DNS queries to known tracking and malware domains for every device on the network. Unbound provides recursive DNS resolution, eliminating the upstream DNS provider as a point of data collection. PiVPN enables secure remote access without exposing services directly to the internet. ProtonVPN runs as a reserved VLAN for guest WiFi isolation.
Local AI Hosting
Running large language models locally via Ollama means queries never leave the network. This approach trades some capability for complete privacy and zero per-query cost. The n8n automation platform connects AI pipelines with home assistant triggers and external APIs, enabling workflows that combine local reasoning with real-world data without touching a cloud provider. Understanding how to host, configure, and route to local AI services is a new layer on top of the existing infrastructure skill set.