Build journal

Build Journal

A self-hosted home network — a small VPS, a VPN, and a Raspberry Pi — built one piece at a time, with the reasoning and the mistakes left in. A high-level design overview of what I built and why, rather than a how-to: no configuration steps, and no recommendations. The parts are meant to be read in order.

Part 1

The idea

A self-hosted home network built one piece at a time — why these specific pieces, what the VPN and CGNAT problems are, and what the alternatives were.

Part 2

Choosing the box and name

Renting an unmanaged VPS and deciding whether to put a domain in front of it — provider, plan sizing, OS choice, and registering the name.

Part 3

Taking control

The first SSH login, locking the box down, and finding it was already under constant automated attack — with the hardening pass that followed.