Hello, World!
Hi, I'm Ariel, a tech enthusiast and hobbyist web developer living in Florida. Welcome to my personal blog, really just collected guides and other documentation I've written for myself about various things I've learned in web development, using Linux, self-hosting, networking, etc.
Though I mostly write for myself, I figured I may as well make my writings available for others who may also need help with some of this stuff. In addition to having them online for my own access from anywhere, I hope some of it will be helpful to someone out there. If not, that's ok, it's still helpful for me to come back and reference. Either way, thanks for visiting!
Recent Posts
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How to securely expose Plex from behind CGNAT with Cloudflare Tunnel
Exposing Plex normally involves port forwarding from the router, which is very insecure and not recommended. If your home network is behind CGNAT - very common with most ISPs nowadays -- you can't even port forward if you wanted to. Here's how I did it in a fairly secure way that limits access by using Cloudflare.
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Set up Tailscale to securely access a server from outside the home
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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Setup Watchtower to auto-update Docker containers with notifications
I'm running almost 30 containers on my home server at this point, and I'm extremely lazy when it comes to updating them. Watchtower is a lightweight set-it-and-forget-it solution to auto-updating containers, and it even has built-in notifications. Here's how to set it up.
Recent Links
- Dockge Type: self-hosted GUI to manage container stacks via Docker Compose, created by the person who made Uptime-Kuma.
- Forgejo Type: self-hosted A self-hosted software forge -- really just means it's a self-hosted GitHub alternative.
- Home Assistant Type: self-hosted Open-source home automation platform that puts local control and privacy first. Usable as a dedicated OS, a Docker container or you can purchase an appliance with it installed.