homelabinc.uk // the index
Begin the journey.
Everything on Homelab Inc, in one place — the build logs, the guides, the mistakes worth avoiding, and the tools. Pick a path below.
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Who’s behind this
One operator. One rack. Every mistake documented.
I’m building Homelab Inc from a real rack, not a showroom. The site started with one old tower, a flat network, and a string of avoidable mistakes — then turned into a running log of what actually worked, what broke, and what I wish I had known earlier.
The point is not to pretend the lab was always clean. It’s to show the rebuilds, the wrong turns, and the fixes in a way that helps the next person spend less money and lose fewer weekends.
New here?
Pick the fastest way in
Choose a path based on whether you want a guided series, a quick fix, or help planning hardware.
Start here
Follow the Network Journey
Begin with the main guide, then work through the follow-up posts in order.
Need a quick answer?
Browse the latest fixes and notes
Jump straight into write-ups on networking, self-hosting, and the mistakes worth avoiding.
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Fresh from the lab
From the journal
OPNsense on a Mini PC: The Dual-NIC Starter Build
The practical build guide behind Part 1's single-NIC wall — how to pick the right dual-NIC mini PC, install OPNsense properly, and avoid the mistakes that cost a weekend.
The Homelab Journey — Part 2
Getting the Most Out of Fable: Run It Like a Colleague, Not a Chatbot
Five practical lessons from running Claude Fable 5 inside a real homelab — filesystems, contracts, skills, verification, and real infrastructure access.
The Homelab Journey — Part 1
Start From Scratch: Turning an Old Tower Into Your First Homelab
How to start a real homelab on an old desktop you already own, using Windows 11, WSL2, Docker, and a local LLM before spending money.
Featured series
The Network Journey
The Network Journey — How a Spare Mini PC Turned Into a Whole Homelab
How a spare HP Mini desktop and a single Ethernet port snowballed into a Proxmox-hosted Omada homelab network — the full origin story.
The Network Journey — Part 1
One NIC and a Dream: Building My First Router From a Spare Mini PC
Building a router from a spare HP Mini desktop with OPNsense — and hitting the wall everyone hits: a router needs two network ports, and I had one.
The Network Journey — Part 2
The Cheap Dongle That Cost Me a Weekend
How a bargain TP-Link USB 2.0 Ethernet dongle taught me what false economy actually means — in real time, at 11pm.
The Network Journey — Part 3
Enter Omada: Buying the Whole Ecosystem to Solve One Problem
Why I gave up on the spare-parts router and bought into the TP-Link Omada ecosystem — what it promised, and what I only thought it promised.
The Network Journey — Part 4
Bedtimes, Blocklists and Broken Promises: Making the LAN Kid-Safe
Making the LAN safe for the kids, building bedtime schedules, and discovering the gap between consumer parental controls and business networking gear.
From the journal
Latest posts
OPNsense on a Mini PC: The Dual-NIC Starter Build
The practical build guide behind Part 1's single-NIC wall — how to pick the right dual-NIC mini PC, install OPNsense properly, and avoid the mistakes that cost a weekend.
The Homelab Journey — Part 2
Getting the Most Out of Fable: Run It Like a Colleague, Not a Chatbot
Five practical lessons from running Claude Fable 5 inside a real homelab — filesystems, contracts, skills, verification, and real infrastructure access.
The Homelab Journey — Part 1
Start From Scratch: Turning an Old Tower Into Your First Homelab
How to start a real homelab on an old desktop you already own, using Windows 11, WSL2, Docker, and a local LLM before spending money.
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