I replaced 6 paid subscriptions with a homelab on an old laptop — here's the full stack
…The NAS was getting old; it had started to struggle with basic services like Synology Drive, and Plex was a big ask for the hardware. The DS218j had a 1.3 GHz…
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I stopped jumping between monitoring dashboards with one Claude Code command
…reliable and specifically designed for their respective tasks. I used the Beszel agent that connects to my Beszel hub for the system metrics . Uptime Kuma for all internal and external services' health…
I built my own Synology alternative, and the hardest part was accepting how good DSM still is
…After years of invested R&D and an Apple-like approach, Synology has created the ultimate NAS ecosystem with hardware, software, and cloud-backed services to create a well-rounded storage and…
Most home servers are wildly overbuilt, and the N100 proved it to me
…But for a home server running file shares, backups, containers, media services, and a few lightweight tools, it makes far more sense than its modest name suggests. The best home server isn…
I ditched Plex for Jellyfin, and the migration took less time than I thought it would
…As more looked to cancel streaming service subscriptions and host their own purchased media, Plex was positioned to take the market by storm, providing a reliable and intuitive way to catalog, store…
I stopped choosing between VS Code, Google Antigravity, and Cursor and built a hybrid workflow that uses the best of them
…If I’m working on something that requires spinning up heavy service stacks, database containers, or intensive cloud-aligned architectures, I don’t want my laptop fans spinning at maximum speed. Running…
My homelab SSD was silently failing, and one monitoring tool caught it before the other
…Sign in to your XDA account There is a widespread assumption among homelab users that if the server is running and services are working as expected, then everything must be fine. Like…
Raspberry Pi 5's price hike pushed me toward mini PCs, and now I can't justify going back
…A couple of Dockers running lightweight, self-hosted network-monitoring services. That’s the list of most things I ran on the Pi. When I took stock of things, the problem became…
This new feature in TrueNAS 26 makes accessing files easier than ever
…Between its terrific ZFS support, powerful data protection features, and solid compatibility with Docker apps, TrueNAS has everything you need to build a reliable storage server without spending a dime on the…
I stopped throwing out old hardware after discovering Proxmox
…But when it comes to self-hosting services, LXC-laden old nodes can handle most of the essential FOSS tools. Heck, I tend to use N100 mini-PCs to isolate certain services…