Part 20 of the networking and home lab series.
Ah, Network Attached Storage, or NAS for short. It's one of those techy terms that sounds like it belongs in a sci-fi novel but is actually quite down-to-earth and incredibly useful. Whether you’re looking to keep your family photos safe, stream your favourite films across the house, or share files with your small business team without shouting across the office, a NAS might just be your new best friend.
Part 19 of the networking and home lab series.
Imagine your home network as the plumbing in a house. If it's well-designed, everything flows smoothly, and you hardly notice it. But if it's poorly planned, you'll constantly be dealing with blockages and leaks. In today's connected world, where everything from your fridge to your light bulbs might be online, having a robust and efficient home network is as important as having good electrics or central heating.
A series on how networks work, from the basics to running a home lab on a NAS with Docker. The early posts explain the building blocks; the later ones apply them to a real home network.
With my Synology NAS already handling Docker workloads, I’m looking to expand its capabilities with some new containers. These will enhance monitoring, automation, note-taking, development, and network management. Here’s what’s on my list:
As my self-hosted network grows, keeping an eye on my Raspberry Pis is becoming more important. With multiple Pi-hole, Home Assistant, and testing boards, I need a way to track their CPU usage, temperature, storage, and overall health—ideally from a single dashboard that also monitors other key devices.
Living in rural Lancashire with no close neighbours has its perks—peace, privacy, and the freedom to build a powerful self-hosted home network without worrying about ISP restrictions or poor infrastructure. My setup is built around Synology, Raspberry Pi, and Docker-powered services, giving me complete control over my network, automation, and devices. Here’s what I have running today and what I’m planning next.
For a private home network using a Synology NAS, Synology Router, and Raspberry Pis
*.home.example) to access internal services.For this setup, we assume the following hardware: