About

Building practical infrastructure and cybersecurity skills.

I am transitioning into networking and cybersecurity by building, operating and documenting a hands-on homelab. What began as an OpenWrt network has evolved into a UniFi-based environment covering segmented networking, virtualization, Linux, containers, monitoring, home automation and custom AI projects.

Current Environment

The homelab today.

The current environment combines centralized UniFi networking, four trust zones, Proxmox virtualization, self-hosted services, secure remote access and automation.

Network

  • UniFi Cloud Gateway Ultra
  • UniFi Managed Wi-Fi / AP
  • Four VLAN Segments
  • Zone-Based Firewall

Infrastructure

  • Proxmox VE
  • Ubuntu Server
  • Docker
  • Portainer

Services

  • Home Assistant
  • AdGuard Home
  • Uptime Kuma
  • Infrastructure Monitoring

Access & Automation

  • WireGuard Remote Access
  • Tailscale Evaluation
  • Knut AI & Automation
  • Planned Zigbee2MQTT

Featured Work

Homelab projects.

Each project is used to develop practical skills through implementation, troubleshooting, validation and documentation.

Network & Remote Access

UniFi Network

Current gateway, firewall and managed wireless architecture built around a UniFi Cloud Gateway Ultra.

Gateway · Managed Wi-Fi · Zone policies

VLAN Segmentation

Trusted, Guest, Lab/Servers and IoT networks separated by role and trust.

Segmentation · Isolation · Least privilege

WireGuard Remote Access

Established remote-access path, with Tailscale currently being evaluated as a complementary option.

VPN · Secure access · Evaluation

OpenWrt Migration History

The earlier network architecture and the VLAN, firewall, VPN and Wi-Fi lessons carried into UniFi.

Architecture history · Migration · Troubleshooting

Virtualization & Services

Proxmox VE

Virtualization platform for infrastructure services, virtual machines, storage and recovery workflows.

Virtualization · Storage · VM management

Home Assistant

Locally managed home automation integrated with the segmented IoT environment.

Automation · Integrations · IoT

Docker & Portainer

Container deployment and day-to-day service administration on the virtualized server platform.

Containers · Operations · Service management

AdGuard Home

Network-wide DNS filtering integrated with DHCP and the current segmentation model.

DNS security · Filtering · Privacy

Uptime Kuma

Availability monitoring for critical homelab systems and self-hosted services.

Monitoring · Availability · Service checks

Backup Strategy

Backup, snapshot and recovery planning for the virtualized infrastructure.

Recovery · Resilience · Validation

Custom Projects

Knut

A major custom AI and automation project focused on useful, observable and operator-controlled workflows.

AI · Automation · Systems integration

Borgen Audio

Raspberry Pi 4 and DAC Pro audio system with AirPlay through Shairport Sync and Android Bluetooth through BlueALSA.

Raspberry Pi · ALSA · BlueZ · systemd

Planned Zigbee2MQTT

A planned Zigbee coordinator, MQTT and Home Assistant architecture for local smart-home integration.

Planned · Zigbee · MQTT · Home Assistant

Network Architecture

Four networks, separated by trust.

The UniFi Cloud Gateway Ultra routes between dedicated VLANs and applies zone-based firewall policies. The UniFi-managed access point maps wireless clients into the appropriate network without weakening those boundaries.

Current UniFi homelab network topology

Trusted

Personal and administrative clients with controlled access to required infrastructure.

Guest

Visitor devices with internet access and isolation from private networks.

Lab/Servers

Proxmox, virtual machines, containers and infrastructure services.

IoT

Smart-home and lower-trust devices with only required integration traffic allowed.

Architecture History

From OpenWrt to UniFi.

The Netgear R7800 and OpenWrt environment was the original routing, firewall, wireless and VPN platform. It established the lab's first segmented design and provided extensive troubleshooting experience. The current UniFi architecture is the next stage of that work, while the OpenWrt documentation remains available as a technical record rather than being presented as the active network.

View OpenWrt History View Current UniFi Network

Skills

Technical skills demonstrated.

Networking

  • UniFi Administration
  • VLAN & SSID Design
  • Zone-Based Firewalls
  • WireGuard VPN

Infrastructure

  • Proxmox VE
  • Ubuntu Server
  • Docker & Portainer
  • Backup Planning

Automation & Services

  • Knut
  • Home Assistant
  • AdGuard Home
  • Uptime Kuma

Linux & Engineering

  • systemd / ALSA / BlueZ
  • Structured Troubleshooting
  • Git & GitHub
  • Technical Documentation

Roadmap

Current state and next steps.

Operating

  • UniFi Gateway & Wi-Fi
  • VLAN & Firewall Segmentation
  • WireGuard Remote Access
  • Proxmox & Container Services
  • Home Assistant
  • Knut & Borgen Audio

Evaluating

  • Tailscale
  • Infrastructure Monitoring
  • Automation Workflows
  • Documentation Improvements

Planned

  • Zigbee Coordinator
  • Zigbee2MQTT & MQTT Broker
  • Prometheus & Grafana
  • Security Onion & Suricata
  • Centralized Log Analysis

Documentation

Explore the complete project documentation.

Detailed architecture notes, screenshots, troubleshooting records and project journal entries are available in the documentation portal.

Browse Documentation View GitHub Repository

Contact

Connect with me.

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