Stop Living Dangerously on :latest Docker
Using :latest in production is a ticking time bomb. Pin your Docker image versions or watch a surprise update break everything at 2 AM.
Tag: homelab
All the articles with the tag "homelab".
Alpine vs. Distroless: Choosing Your Minimalist Base
Alpine gives you a shell and apk; Distroless gives you nothing but the app. Compare attack surface, image size, and multi-stage build complexity.
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.
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.
Plex Optimization: Remote Access, Transcoding, and Taming the Beast
Make Plex actually fast: enable hardware transcoding, fix remote access without relay, tune Docker env vars, and decide if Jellyfin is calling your name.
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.
Proxmox vs XCP-ng: Hypervisors for People Who Like Their Data Center at Home
Proxmox vs XCP-ng compared for homelabbers: KVM vs Xen, ZFS, web UI, VM management, and which hypervisor to pick for your spare rack server.