This is my biggest cumlative project. Most of my other IT related projects will fall under this. My current hardware consists of:

1. An Optiplex running OPNSense.
2. An unmanaged netgear switch for essential functions. (low power option)
3. A manager Juniper Switch EX3300 for for additional devices.
4. An unused desktop gaming PC which serves as my main compute.
5. A dell poweredge which serves as additional compute when I don't have to worry about power consumption.
6. Raspberry Pi running Pi-Hole and Tailscale. It is my tailscale exit node.
7. My personal PC, which is where I manage everything from.

I typically prefer the lower power options I have. The old desktop PC and the small switch are servicable while costing less for me to run. As I also live with roommates, this help's keep their power bill low too.

The optiplex acts as the router in this network. It is then connected to the managed switch where I have my work computer, personal computer, main compute, and pi-hole also connected.

Future upgrades: I would like to buy a dedicated PFSense box in the near future, as well as a Ubuquiti AP for better wireless speeds.

I'm grouping these into one section as they run on the same device, and were both deployed at a similar time.

Pi-hole

Pi-hole is a super popular and very easy to set up custom DNS server that blocks advertisements. This was my first "homelab" project that and it was a great starting point for me to learn about DNS, DHCP, and how networking works.

Steps:

1. Install RaspberryOS
2. I literally just ran this: "curl -sSL https://install.pi-hole.net | bash"
3. I configured the server through the GUI. Setting passwords and adding blocklists.
4. I then configured my router to use the Pi-hole for DNS queries.