Projects
Self-hosting, local AI, and privacy experiments from my own home lab. Honest write-ups of what I built, what broke, and what I learned along the way.
Accessing Home Assistant From Outside the House
I wanted to reach Home Assistant from my phone when I'm away from home. I looked at three options and ended up with Cloudflare Tunnel for the app and Tailscale for the server.
Giving Every Service a Proper Domain Name and HTTPS
How I replaced a wall of port numbers with clean domain names and automatic HTTPS using Traefik as a reverse proxy on my home lab.
Getting Your Home Lab Ready to Run Apps
The setup that lets you deploy and manage self hosted applications from a browser, without needing the command line for every change.
Configure a Smart Home That Works for You, Not the Manufacturer
Most smart home devices work on the manufacturer's terms. Home Assistant changes that, giving you automations that run on your network, not theirs.
Configure a Filter That Protects Your Whole Home Network
One piece of software that blocks ads and trackers on every device in your home, without installing anything on any of them.
Setting Up Your First Home Lab
The first step: picking the right hardware and getting it online. What to buy, what to avoid, and how to connect to it once it is running.
AI doorbell detection, stored locally, no monthly bill
How I replaced a failing subscription camera setup with a Reolink doorbell, Frigate, and a Google Coral, and ended up with better AI detection than I ever had paying monthly.