Homelab
The 2026 Self-Hosted Starter Stack: A Proposed Design
A pragmatic 2026 self-hosted starter stack: host OS, Docker Compose, DNS, remote access, reverse proxy, backups, monitoring, and daily-driver apps.
Home DNS Without a Single Point of Failure: Pi-hole, AdGuard Home, and Technitium
Design Pi-hole, AdGuard Home, or Technitium DNS around consistent records, independent resolver failure domains, and client failover tests, with a documented recovery path before changing DHCP.
Orange Pi 6 vs Raspberry Pi 5 for Homelab: Powerful Hardware, Real Tradeoffs
Compare Orange Pi 6's vendor-listed networking and storage with Raspberry Pi 5's software and accessory ecosystem. Check exact images, drivers, architecture, power and recovery before treating specifications as usable performance.
UPS Buying Guide for Home Servers: Runtime Is Not the Main Point
A practical UPS buying guide for home servers, NAS devices, routers, and homelabs focused on clean shutdown, sizing, USB signaling, and battery maintenance.
Old Gaming PC vs Mini PC: The Real Power-Cost Math for 24/7 Servers
A practical power-cost guide for deciding whether an old gaming PC or an efficient mini PC makes more sense as a 24/7 home server.
NAS vs DAS vs Mini PC: The Storage Decision Tree
A practical decision tree for choosing NAS, DAS, or mini PC storage based on who needs the files, how apps run, and how recovery should work.
The Beginner Homelab Buying Guide: Start Small, Upgrade Later
Choose a first homelab host around one workload, storage, backup, power, and expansion needs; check exact hardware specifications and total costs before adding a rack of equipment.
The Complete Plex, Arr, and Tdarr Homelab Media Automation Series
Navigate the Plex, Arr, and Tdarr guides in dependency order, from storage and permissions to controlled imports, playback checks, private access, backups, and recovery testing.
How Seerr and Tracearr Fit Into a Plex, Arr, and Tdarr Homelab
Separate Seerr request approval, Arr imports, Tdarr processing, and Tracearr playback analytics, then validate one authorized request-to-playback path with manual approvals and alert-only monitoring.
Tracearr Setup Guide for Plex, Jellyfin, and Emby Monitoring
Deploy Tracearr with Docker, connect Plex, Jellyfin, or Emby, validate live sessions and alert-only rules, and preserve a recoverable monitoring history.