TECH DECODE
To explain tech concepts the easy way
Our latest posts
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A Beginner’s Guide to HexOS: The Next Evolution of User-Friendly NAS Software
For years, setting up and managing a Network Attached Storage (NAS) system has been a challenge for non-technical users. While solutions like TrueNAS SCALE and Unraid have made significant strides in bringing enterprise-grade storage features to the home and small business market, they can still be complex for users who are unfamiliar with Linux-based systems…
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Understanding LXC Containers vs. Virtual Machines in Proxmox
When exploring virtualization technologies, you might come across terms like LXC containers and virtual machines (VMs) both of which you can run using our personal homelab platform called Proxmox. If you are interested in running your own homelab, be sure to check out our Build your Homelab series. We have already got a couple of…
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Home Assistant is Officially Matter Certified!
In exciting news for smart home enthusiasts, Home Assistant has achieved official Matter certification! Whether you are running your Home Assistant on a Raspberry Pi or on a VM in your homelab, this new certification is certainly a massive step for Home Assistant, the community and all contributors involved. But what does it actually mean…
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Securing Your Home Lab: How Free SSL Certificates from Let’s Encrypt Keep Your Self-Hosted Services Safe
When it comes to running your own servers, home labs, or self-hosted applications, security is not just an option—it’s a necessity. One of the easiest and most effective ways to protect your data is by using SSL certificates, and thanks to Let’s Encrypt, these certificates are free and easy to install.
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Build Your Homelab: 9 – NGINX From Outside The Home Network
Now that we can access our network from the outside, we configure an NGINX reverse proxy to safely route external traffic to our internal WordPress server, laying the foundation for a secure, accessible online presence.
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Build Your Homelab: 8 – Access When Not At Home
Now that we have a couple of services up and running for our home lab, it is time we start setting up everything so that we can access our services from outside of the local area network. This will enable us to access some apps and services when we are not at home, which can…
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Build Your Homelab: 7 – Databases with MySQL
One of the most valuable additions to any homelab is a MySQL instance, a powerful and widely used relational database system. But why would you want to run MySQL at home?
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How IPv6 Can Impact Your Home Network: The Pros and Cons
If you have issues getting your local DNS to work, even if you have followed stops to bypass the .local domain issue, you might have a problem with IPv6 on your home network
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Why Your .local Domain Might Not Work, Even with a Personal DNS Server
If you try to use a .local domain, you may find that it simply doesn’t work – even when your DNS server is correctly configured. The culprit? LLMNR (Link-Local Multicast Name Resolution)
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Build Your Homelab: 6 – Reverse Proxy with NGINX
Now that we have a DNS server, what about accessing our Proxmox server? Currently we still have to to 192.168.1.2:8006 to access Proxmox (your IP address may be different). How about we change that to something easier to remember, like proxmox.local?
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Build Your Homelab: 5 – Your Own Personal DNS
One of the first (if not the first) apps you can self host (run in your homelab) will probably be your own personal DNS server. Today we will look at running our own DNS server and how to set it up for the entire network
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Exploring TriliumNext Notes: A Comprehensive Guide for Everyone
TriliumNext Notes is an innovative note-taking application designed to help you capture, organize, and navigate your ideas with ease. Whether you’re a student, a professional, or just someone who loves keeping their thoughts organized, TriliumNext offers a versatile solution that works both online and offline.
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Build Your Homelab: 4 – Host a WordPress Site
Although one of the first apps/services you would normally deploy would be a custom DNS, we will put that one on the backburner for just a few days so we can get something really tangible up and running: let’s install WordPress. Wordpress actually consists of a few services, but we are going to use a…
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Build Your Homelab: 3 – Monitor CPU Temperature
Now that we have our homelab hardware sorted and Proxmox installed, it is not a bad idea to keep an eye on CPU temperature seeing as we will probably (hopefully) keep the machine powered on 24/7.
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Introducing GPT‑4.5: A New Era in Conversational AI (Yet again…)
Artificial intelligence is evolving fast, and the release of GPT‑4.5 marks a significant milestone in making interactions with computers more natural and helpful. When will it end? How far can we go?
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Build Your Homelab: 2 – Installing Proxmox
Now that we have the hardware up and running, it is time to start installing our operating system for our homelab. We have decided to run Proxmox. Proxmox is an open-source virtualization platform that allows you to manage virtual machines (VMs) and containers (LXC) on a single interface. It’s a popular choice for homelab environments…
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Build Your Homelab: 1 – The Right Host Hardware
When getting ready to set up your home lab for better security management, taking control of your data or just hosting your own apps, the first thing you need to look at is getting a host machine up and running. We look at the hardware we are going to be using for this series.
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Understanding Evil Twin Wi-Fi: Protect Yourself From Unsafe Hotspots
We dive into a bit more detail when talking about Man in the Middle (MitM) attacks, closely looking at the Evil Twin Wi-Fi attack. Reflecting on the pointers we previously gave, we also focus on one pointer: VPN usage.
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Review: Hands-On For A Month With The TP-Link Deco BE65
We’ve written plenty about mesh Wi-Fi as well as network hardware, but this time, we’re getting our hands dirty with a review of the TP-Link Deco BE65 after using it every day for an entire month.
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Understanding LXC Containers: A Simple Guide for Everyone
With containerization everyone normally associates Docker as the most prominent container technology. It certainly is the most preferred, and also very feature rich, but did you know there is another containerisation technology called LXC – Linux Containers that can run a “full” Linux install as a container?
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A Beginner’s Guide to Technitium DNS for Your Home Network
With all the articles we have on home labs, we thought to take a step back to one of the first services you probably will/should install – running your own DNS server. Today we look at Technitium – one of the easiest and best DNS servers to get up and running in your home lab.
