Networking

Networking knowledge underpins both the Home Lab infrastructure and Web Development deployment.

Fundamentals

The OSI Model (Simplified)

Layer	Protocol Examples	What It Does
Application	HTTP, DNS, SSH	User-facing services
Transport	TCP, UDP	Reliable/unreliable delivery
Network	IP, ICMP	Routing between networks
Link	Ethernet, Wi-Fi	Local network delivery

DNS

DNS translates domain names to IP addresses. In the Home Lab, Pi-hole handles local DNS and ad blocking.

# Query DNS
dig example.com
 
# Check DNS propagation
nslookup example.com 8.8.8.8

Home Network Design

The lab uses VLANs to segment traffic:

• VLAN 10 — Management (switches, access points)
• VLAN 20 — Servers (Docker hosts)
• VLAN 30 — IoT devices (isolated)
• VLAN 40 — Guest network

Firewall Rules

IoT devices on VLAN 30 cannot initiate connections to the server VLAN. This limits blast radius if a smart device is compromised.

Useful Commands

# Check connectivity
ping -c 4 192.168.1.1
 
# Trace route to a host
traceroute example.com
 
# Show open ports
ss -tlnp
 
# Scan local network
nmap -sn 192.168.1.0/24

Reverse Proxy Setup

Caddy handles reverse proxying for all Home Lab services, providing automatic HTTPS via Let’s Encrypt:

archive.local {
    reverse_proxy localhost:8080
}

jellyfin.local {
    reverse_proxy localhost:8096
}

Related

• Home Lab — The network these concepts support
• Docker — Container networking
• Web Development — Web-facing network config
• Bookmarks — Networking learning resources