The Stein Home Network is a long-term hobby of mine. I enjoy the process of researching and testing technologies to find ways to make my life easier, more efficient, more secure, and more fun. Every year during the holidays I tend to change something with the network be it installing new hardware, upgrading or changing software, or something else. That is why you may see things like “2017 Edition” or “2021 Edition” in the titles.
I have used a number of different backup and high-availability (HA) strategies over the years. These have gotten rather complex especially on the HA side. Therefore, for 2024, I decided to move away from HA and simplify the network. I also reviewed what I was backing up in order to further streamline the backup process […]
Backups – 2024 Edition Read More »
A detailed explanation of what a virtual private network (VPN) provides and how I use it may be found in Home Private Network (VPN) – 2021 edition. My goals for a VPN have not changed since then, but the technology used to implement it has. This change was made because unRAID, the platform I use
Virtual Private Network (VPN) – 2024 Edition Read More »
I have been hosting web sites on my home server since the early 1990s. At first, all the pages on these sites were made by hand without any sort of framework around them. In the early 2000s, I wrote a simple content management system (CMS) that allowed me to write the body of a page
Website – 2023 Edition Read More »
A major core of the home network is the server computer. This computer is located in the basement and handles data storage and other capabilities that are accessible throughout the house and in some cases over the Internet. All of my music, photos, videos, TV recordings, documents, backups, and other digital files are stored on
Home Server – 2023 Edition Read More »
A Virtual Private Network (VPN) is a way to securely access a private network over a public one such as the Internet. For example, when I am away from home I may want to access and use my desktop computer located in my home study. But I do not want other people who may have
Virtual Private Network (VPN) – 2021 Edition Read More »
DNS and DHCP are core services that many home networks provide. Usually these services are handled by an appliance such as a router provided by a person’s Internet Service Provider. Even though one of the major goals of the 2021 edition of the Stein Home Network is to simplify the infrastructure, (see Stein Home Network
DNS and DHCP – 2021 Edition Read More »
When computers connect to each other over the Internet or on your home network they usually use something called an IP address to know how to reach the destination computer. Unless you have a “business class” Internet package, you are likely given a single, Internet-accessible IP address for your home network. Your network equipment then
Dynamic DNS – 2021 Edition Read More »
Every year over the holiday season there are usually changes to the Stein Home Network. This is because I have extra time with vacation and the like to work on projects. Usually those changes are limited to one or two modifications such as installing some new equipment, switching an existing service to a new technology,
Stein Home Network – 2021 Edition Read More »
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is a way in which people can subscribe to a feed on a web site. Instead of visiting a web site to see what if any new articles of interest have been published, RSS may be used to detect new articles and possibly alert you when something new is available. An
RSS Aggregation – 2021 Edition Read More »
DNS and DHCP are core services that people probably want on their home network. Most home users will be given a router or purchase one and just use the services built into it. The Stein home network is a little more complicated with multiple sub-nets and VLANs, so a more comprehensive solution was desired. A
DNS and DHCP – 2017 Edition Read More »
