# Networking evolution — building a home network lab

> Homelab evolution — Dell R710, closet wiring, Docker stacks, Caddy, WireGuard, Proxmox, and why I still draw the network on the wall.

- HTML page: https://antoineboucher.info/CV/blog/posts/home-networking-evolution/
- Language: en
- Translation (fr): https://antoineboucher.info/CV/blog/fr/posts/home-networking-evolution/index.md
- Published: 2021-09-06
- Updated: 2026-11-05
- Tags: Networking, Homelab, Docker, WireGuard, Proxmox, Caddy
- Author: Antoine Boucher (https://antoineboucher.info/CV/index-en.html)Cloud bills pushed me toward a **home lab**: old PCs, Docker instead of SaaS where possible, and enough scripting to rebuild after a bad weekend. This post is how that network grew — not a perfect design, but one that taught routing, VPNs, and virtualization by breaking things locally.

## Why a home lab

University courses covered IP, VPNs, and routing on paper. Running services at home made the tradeoffs real: power, noise, backups, and “who has SSH when the router dies.” I wanted a place to break things without a cloud invoice — and a story I could tell in interviews that was not only “I used AWS once.”

## Docker first

I mapped **free container stacks** to jobs I was paying for in the cloud — media, dashboards, small utilities. Docker was the on-ramp to treating the homelab as composable services instead of one giant pet server.

Lesson that stuck: **one compose file per concern**. When Plex misbehaved, I did not rebuild the whole machine — I recycled the volume and learned what actually persisted.

## Bash and two servers

Core hardware: a cheap **Dell** box plus an older 2004-era machine. **Bash** scripts for **Ubuntu**, **CentOS**, and **Proxmox** installs — repeatable enough that reinstalling after experiments hurt less.

### Physical rack (October 2022)

Before the Lucidchart diagrams, the lab was literally **closets and shelves** — cable nest included. I cropped these from old story posts; they are the real wiring, not a render.

**Wall stack** — switch, modem, router, **enterprise server (2010-era)**, and UPS, labeled while I was still learning what plugged into what:

![Home lab network stack labeled — switch, modem, router, server, UPS](https://antoineboucher.info/CV/blog/posts/home-networking-evolution/images/homelab-wall-stack-labeled.jpeg)

**Dell PowerEdge R710** — dual **Xeon X5667** (~3 GHz quad-core), **24 GB RAM**, running headless beside acoustic foam. The handwritten tape on the bezel was my inventory system:

![Dell PowerEdge R710 homelab server with Xeon X5667 and 24 GB RAM](https://antoineboucher.info/CV/blog/posts/home-networking-evolution/images/dell-poweredge-r710-homelab.jpeg)

**Closet shelf build** — rack server horizontal, yellow switch, monitor for local installs, and enough blue patch cables to teach patience:

![Homelab server closet — rack server, switch, monitor, and cabling](https://antoineboucher.info/CV/blog/posts/home-networking-evolution/images/homelab-closet-server-setup.jpeg)

Virtualization matters when you snapshot before trying something dumb. A dedicated hypervisor host beat bare-metal churn.

The Lucidchart diagram was the “explain to a roommate” version — which subnet, which box, what is allowed from the internet.

![Network diagram (Lucidchart)](https://antoineboucher.info/CV/blog/posts/home-networking-evolution/images/lucidchart.jpeg)

## Remote access and edge

**Caddy** as reverse proxy; public exposure through an **OVH** front so home IP is not the only line of defense. Remote admin and service health became part of the same job as making a service reachable. Automatic HTTPS mattered more than I expected — fewer manual cert renewals, fewer late-night openssl commands. I later mirrored that habit on AWS; see **[Caddy + EC2 + CloudWatch](https://antoineboucher.info/CV/blog/posts/caddy-ec2-cloudwatch-lambda/)**.

**WireGuard** for VPN — annoying to configure the first time, fast once up. I contributed small setup helpers so friends could connect without reading man pages for a week. Split-tunnel vs full-tunnel was the debate every guest had; document your choice on the wiki page you will forget to update.

## Growth after moving

New apartment, more VLAN curiosity, **Proxmox** VMs for club projects. **Lucidchart** for the wall diagram; **C4**-style views when explaining the stack to someone else.

![C4-style view](https://antoineboucher.info/CV/blog/posts/home-networking-evolution/images/c4.jpeg)

Later I moved public sites toward **static hosting** (S3/GitHub Pages) to cut always-on cost — the lab stayed for private services.

## Failures I remember

- **Single disk, no backup** — one bad `apt upgrade` and a weekend restore from scratch.
- **Exposing admin ports** — learned to put admin UIs behind VPN only.
- **Thermal noise** — the R710 taught me to care about fan curves before “server” means “bedroom adjacent.”

## Where it landed

A homelab is a sandbox for **platform instincts**: automate installs, document topology, assume failure. Related today: **[MediaBoxDockerCompose](https://github.com/antoinebou12/MediaBoxDockerCompose)** and install scripts on the main CV project list.

## Related posts

- [MediaBox homelab — Docker stack notes](https://antoineboucher.info/CV/blog/posts/mediabox-homelab-docker-catalog/) — compose, ports, and Proxmox helper-scripts
- [Renpho scale + Home Assistant](https://antoineboucher.info/CV/blog/posts/renpho-health-api-blueprint/) — another “own your data at home” project
- [Skate rack — CAD to plywood](https://antoineboucher.info/CV/blog/posts/skate-rack-cad-to-object/) — physical builds between cable runs
- [Caddy on AWS](https://antoineboucher.info/CV/blog/posts/caddy-ec2-cloudwatch-lambda/) — same reverse-proxy ideas, different bill