Finn’s Blog • 9. February 2026 • F.W. • Finnagin Wantland
Homelabbing: Humble Beginnings
Starting my own Homelab project
Homelabbing is a relatively new concept
to me that I discovered how most people my
age find out about pressing new advances in
at home technology, TikTok. All jokes aside,
homelabbing was a brand-new idea to me. I
knew people participated in it, but my under-
standing was limited to something like having
a full server rack in their garage, `a la Anton
from the show Silicon Valley (which I highly
recommend). After some online research and
looking into what goes into having your own
homelab I was genuinely surprised to find out
how accessible and easy it was to have one! To
begin lets talk about what my plans are for my
homelab and how I propose to set it up.
James, H. (2025). my homelab. Linux Blog.
Retrieved February 9, 2026, from
https://linuxblog.io/home-lab-beginners-guide-
hardware/
My first hardware purchase I plan to make
for my Anton of my own is the computer, of
course. Im lucky to still be enrolled at UNLV
so I have access to a whole number of resources
that will be useful for this quest. UNLV Sur-
plus Center manages the sale, repurposing, and
disposal of all university property no longer
needed by departments, including furniture,
computers, and equipment.
Hosting Services illustration
This means we can get working, safely
wiped computers at a great discount! With
that in mind, I need to decide whether I want
to use virtual machines for my server or run
it directly using Ubuntu Server. I am leaning
toward the latter due to my interest in using
Pi-hole for network-wide ad and tracker block-
ing. I also plan on looking into Docker so I
can use containers, but more on that in future
posts. Now I just need a router and I’m ready
to go!
The real question, though, is why? For a
more formal answer, it’s to gain a better under-
standing of computer networks and how they
work. For a more fun answer, I can host a ton
of cool services, like having my favorite movies
available at any time, hosting my own website
with a custom domain, and even running game
servers like Minecraft for me and my friends!
All in all, I’m excited to begin this adven-
ture and plan on updating all of you along the
way. For more updates, check back in with my
blog and my LinkedIn: Finnagin Wantland
