The idea
I wanted to see what a small computer could do beyond one useful job. The answer turned out to be a growing set of experiments with infrastructure at home.
The build
The homelab is built around a Raspberry Pi and has become a practical environment for trying DNS services, Docker containers, monitoring and private remote access.
Problems & investigation
- DNS configuration and router DNS routing
- Static IP configuration
- Blocklists that were too aggressive and broke services
- Creating separate Pi-hole groups for different users
What I learned
- Small configuration choices can affect an entire network
- Troubleshooting is often a process of narrowing down assumptions
- Useful home infrastructure should be designed around the people using it
What's next
Move away from relying entirely on an SD card after a Raspberry Pi SD card failure, potentially using SSD or external storage.