I'm Ariel, known online as fullmetalbrackets, a tech enthusiast and hobbyist coder. Welcome to my blog. I mostly write for myself, each time I figure out how to install or run a new thing, I write down how I did it for future reference. I hope my writings will be helpful to you. Thanks for visiting!
Featured Articles
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How to remotely access your home server from anywhere using Tailscale
Accessing self-hosted services from outside the home is a challenge for many, and can be complex to manage, but Tailscale makes it easy to set up a VPN between your phone (or laptop, or any other device outside your network) and your homelab, securely and without opening ports on your router.
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Complete guide to self-hosting a website through Cloudflare Tunnel
Self-hosting a static web blog has never been easier thanks to Cloudflare Tunnel. In this guide I explain how to expose a static website hosted on machine inside my network to the internet using Nginx as webserver and securing it with various free Cloudflare services.
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Set up Pi-Hole for network-wide ad blocking and Unbound for recursive DNS
Besides just using a browser extension for ad blocking, I've been using Pi-Hole for years to prevent all devices on my network from getting ads, and stopping smart home devices from phoning home for telemetry and tracking. Pi-Hole will run on almost anything that can run Linux, is very easy to set up, and super effective with the right adlists.
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Recent Posts
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Setting up a reverse proxy for HTTPS with a custom domain using Nginx Proxy Manager, Pi-Hole and Cloudflare
I've used a reverse proxy to access my self-hosted apps and services for years, but I recently re-did everything from scratch and decided to write it down. When done, we'll be able to access our apps and services through a custom domain, with unique sub-domains for each app or service, with full HTTPS and accessible only locally.
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How to use Pi-hole from anywhere with Tailscale
Tailscale is my new homelab toy. I've been using it to access my media on the go, to connect to a VPS for sharing my Plex library with family, and now with on-the-go adblocking on my phone, tablet and laptop. Here's how.
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How to securely expose Plex from behind CGNAT using Tailscale and a free Oracle VM
I wrote before about securely exposing Plex for external access, but my previous solution relied on Cloudflare Tunnel and it was technically against their TOS. So I switched to using a Oracle VM on their free-tier, connecting it to my home network with Tailscale, and exposing Plex via reverse proxy. It works like a charm!
Recent Links
- Jellyfin Type: self-hosted A personal media server for your videos, like Plex though with less slick UI, but it's fully open-source with no paid features.
- Plex Type: self-hosted A personal media server that provides a slick Netflix-like frontend for all your videos, automatically grabbing metadata, generating posters, etc. However, Plex is closed-source and they some lock features behind Plex Pass.
- Tautulli Type: self-hosted A web app that you can run alongside your Plex Media Server to monitor activity and track various statistics.
- IT-Tools Type: tool A suite of online tools for developers and IT professionals. Use the website or self-host it as a Docker container.
- Paperless Type: tool A document management system that transforms your physical documents into a searchable online archive so you can keep less paper.