A personal tour of a 2025 homelab setup. Explore the hardware and software behind a custom pfSense router, Proxmox server, NAS, and more.

It’s funny how hobbies evolve. What started a few years ago as a simple setup with a couple of servers has… well, it’s gotten a bit more elaborate. It’s 2025, and my homelab has taken on a life of its own.

I get asked what I’m running at home, so I thought it would be fun to give you a little tour of my current setup. It’s a mix of new, old, and repurposed hardware that works together surprisingly well.

The Gatekeeper: My Custom Router

Let’s start with the most eye-catching piece: the bright orange PC. This isn’t a gaming rig; it’s the brain of my entire network. It’s a custom-built router and firewall running pfSense.

Why build my own router? Control. It gives me a ton of flexibility and security features you just don’t get with off-the-shelf routers. Inside, it has a Xeon E3-1245 V2 processor and 32 GB of RAM, which is admittedly overkill, but it never breaks a sweat. It handles all the internet traffic, keeps the network secure, and just works.

Oh, and there’s a little secret inside: a Raspberry Pi tucked away in the case, quietly running a small personal website.

The Workhorses: My Servers

Under the router sits a small but mighty HP EliteDesk. This one runs Windows Server. Its main job is to handle WSUS, which is a service that manages and distributes Windows updates to all the other machines on my network. It keeps everything patched and up-to-date automatically. It also hosts a couple of simple websites. It’s powered by an i5-8500 and 32 GB of RAM, so it has plenty of horsepower for its tasks.

Next to it is another EliteDesk, this one a slightly older model. This is probably the busiest machine in the rack. It runs Proxmox VE, which is a fantastic tool that lets me create and manage multiple virtual machines (VMs) and containers on a single physical computer. It’s like having a dozen tiny computers all running on one box.

This Proxmox server is where most of my services live:

• NGINX Proxy Manager: It directs all my web traffic to the right service.
• Keycloak: This handles user logins for my applications, all in one secure place.
• Gitea: A self-hosted Git service, like having my own private GitHub.
• Docker: I run a bunch of applications in Docker containers.
• WordPress: The very blog you might be reading this on!

This machine makes it incredibly easy to spin up new projects, test software, or host new services without needing more hardware.

The Library: My 8TB NAS

The big black box in the corner is my Network Attached Storage, or NAS. It’s the central file cabinet for the entire network. With 8 TB of storage, it holds all my documents, media, backups, and project files.

I went with some solid hardware for this: a Xeon E-2124 processor and 32 GB of RAM on an ASRockRack motherboard. The server-grade motherboard is great because it has features for remote management, which means I can check on it or fix issues without having to plug in a monitor and keyboard.

The Backbone: Switch and Access Point

You can have the best servers in the world, but they’re useless without a solid network connecting them. For my wireless needs, I’m using a FRITZ!Box 4040. It used to be my main router, but it was struggling to keep up. Now it runs OpenWRT and serves as a simple, reliable Wi-Fi access point.

But the real hero of my network is the switch. It’s a 3com Baseline Switch from 2010 that I got for free from my old school. It’s a beast. It has 24 gigabit Ethernet ports and even 4 SFP ports for fiber connections.

Sure, it’s old, but it’s a perfect example of “they don’t make them like they used to.” It’s incredibly solid, has a lifetime warranty, and provides all the gigabit ports I could ever need. Right now, I’m only using 8 of the 24 ports, so there’s plenty of room to grow.

Why Do All This?

Building and maintaining a homelab is a hobby. It’s a fantastic way to learn about networking, servers, and enterprise-grade software in a hands-on way. It gives me a sandbox to experiment in, a reliable place to host my own projects, and full control over my own data.

It might look like a lot, but each piece has a purpose. And for a tech enthusiast, it’s incredibly rewarding to see it all come together and work seamlessly.