Nathan Reynolds

I have spent the better part of three years running Orange Pi and Radxa boards for home servers, mini NAS setups, and random weekend projects. Along the way I have learned that the hardest part is rarely the hardware. The real headache is software. When official OS images are outdated, abandoned, or simply never existed … Read more

If you want to isolate IoT gear, run a guest Wi-Fi, or split work from play on the same physical network, learning how to set up VLANs on a managed switch with pfSense for network segmentation is one of the highest-leverage skills you can pick up. I built my own segmented home lab on pfSense … Read more

Every smart camera, voice assistant, and connected plug you add to your home network is another potential entry point for attackers. Most IoT devices ship with weak default credentials, rarely receive firmware updates, and phone home to servers you have no control over. Configuring firewall rules to isolate IoT devices on their own VLAN is … Read more

Setting up OPNsense with tagged VLANs and a Proxmox bridge is one of the cleanest ways to run a virtualized firewall in a homelab. It gives you a single physical network cable that carries multiple isolated segments for guests, IoT, lab workloads, and management traffic. In this guide I walk through the full configuration: hardware … Read more

If you’ve ever set up a Tailscale subnet router, watched the route appear in the admin console, and then watched your traffic vanish into a black hole, you’ve probably hit one of the most common pain points in the Tailscale community: missing static return routes. The route advertises, the client says it’s there, and yet … Read more

A Tailscale exit node is a device on your tailnet that routes 100% of your internet traffic through its connection, so any device you connect from appears to be on the exit node’s network. In this guide, I’ll walk you through how to configure a Tailscale exit node for full-tunnel VPN access, from choosing the … Read more

I set up WireGuard on a small Linux server in my home network so I could reach my NAS, security cameras, and home lab from anywhere. The first attempt took me a frustrating weekend, mostly because I did not understand how AllowedIPs, NAT, and IP forwarding fit together. This guide is the one I wish … Read more

I used to dread setting up remote access to my home server. Every time I wanted to reach Plex, Home Assistant, or my NAS from a coffee shop, I had to log into my router, find the right port, hope my ISP hadn’t reassigned my dynamic IP, and pray I hadn’t accidentally exposed something to … Read more

When I first switched my home network over to Pi-hole, I was happy to see ads disappear across every device. Then I realized something simple but unsettling: every DNS lookup my family made was still being handed to a third-party resolver. That is the gap a Pi-hole Unbound setup fills. In this guide I will … Read more

I remember the first time I set up Pi-hole. The dashboard looked great, ads were being blocked, but the Top Clients panel showed only my router’s IP address. Every single device in my house was hidden behind one entry. I had no idea which laptop was streaming, which phone was running analytics, or which smart … Read more