Home Networking

Current Server Specs:

• CPU - AMD Athlon X4 860k Quad Core Processor
• Memory - 32 GB DDR3 RAM
• Storage - 2x2TB mirrored HDDs

Why a home server?

In 2022, I had an abundance of spare computer parts from upgrading my PC that I decided to build my own home media server. I mostly use it to store old pictures, videos, and school work, but I also will occasionally run game servers on it too. I originally used a Debian linux distribution on the machine, but in early 2024 the main hard drive failed and broke. I retired the project until I returned from studying abroad in South Korea. This time around I opted to use TrueNAS Scale as my OS for ease and simplicity.

Pi-hole + Unbound

In early 2026 I became much more conscience of my data privacy. In order to reclaim some of my data privacy, I set up Pi-hole and Unbound on my home server. Pi-hole is what is known as a DNS sinkhole. All network traffic on my home network routes through Pi-hole to make their DNS queries. Pi-hole then blocks DNS queries to malicious host names or host names known to be used for tracking or advertisement purposes. So, essentially, it is a network wide ad-blocker that also stops a lot of website trackers. Unbound, then, is a self-hosted DNS resolver. So, after a query goes to Pi-hole, Pi-hole then queries Unbound to resolve the requested hostname. This is done so that I don't need to use Google or Cloudflare's DNS servers which can log and track your DNS queries.