Blog
News, guides, and product updates from Obelinf.
Quieting Your Homelab: Fan Mods, Noctua Swaps and Noise vs Thermals
How to quiet a homelab without cooking it: why small server fans are loud, what Noctua swaps actually change, and how to tune fan curves for noise and thermals.
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Tier 1 vs Tier 2 vs Tier 3 ISPs: Transit, Peering and What It Means for Your Performance
What Tier 1, Tier 2 and Tier 3 ISPs actually mean, how transit and peering shape your routes, and what to evaluate for latency, resilience and cost.
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Data Center Storage Planning: Sizing Rack Space, Power, and Cooling
A practical guide to sizing storage in the data center: how many rack units arrays really take, how to budget power from measured draw instead of PSU nameplates, and what each kilowatt means for cooling and weight.
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Evaluating ISP Redundancy Capabilities Before You Sign the Contract
How to evaluate an ISP's redundancy claims before you commit: SLA math, last mile diversity, restoration commitments, the contract clauses that matter, and the evidence to collect.
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Telecom Circuit Uptime: What SLA Metrics to Verify on Every WAN Link
What the availability number on a telecom SLA really commits to: uptime, MTTR, latency, jitter, packet loss, measurement points, and the credit mechanics to verify on every WAN link.
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Homelab for Beginners: The Exact Order of Operations Before You Buy Anything
The exact order of operations for a first homelab: define the goal, inventory what you own, settle placement, do the power and network math, set the budget, then buy.
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Kubernetes for students: the essential concepts before you touch a cluster
The Kubernetes mental model you need before your first cluster: declarative desired state, the control plane and worker split, pods versus containers, controllers, Services, and the order in which to learn the rest.
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Structured Cabling at Home: Ethernet Before Renovation
Running Ethernet while your walls are open: plan the drops, pick Cat6 or Cat6a, build a central patch point, and test everything before the drywall closes.
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What to run on your first homelab: 5 starter services ranked by value
Your first homelab server is running, so what should you install on it? Five self hosted services ranked by the value they deliver per hour of setup.
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Homelab Rack vs Shelf vs Closet: Choosing Where Your Lab Lives
Open rack, shelf, or closet: what each homelab placement really gives you, how heat, noise, and space decide the answer, and a practical process for choosing where your lab lives.
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Linux for Network Engineers: The Commands You'll Use Every Day
The Linux commands network engineers use every day: ping, traceroute, mtr, dig, ss, nc, tcpdump, ip, and ethtool, what each one proves, the pitfalls that mislead, and how to chain them through a real incident.
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OPNsense vs pfSense vs UniFi: Picking a Router for Your Home Lab
OPNsense, pfSense, and UniFi each run a homelab differently. We compare firewall control, hardware costs, and daily upkeep so you can pick the right router for your network.
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