Wednesday, April 29, 2026

Deploy Nextcloud on TrueNAS SCALE; Behind NPMplus SSL Proxy

 


Deploy Nextcloud on TrueNAS SCALE
Behind a NPMplus SSL Proxy

Nextcloud is consistently one of the most-installed apps on TrueNAS SCALE, but the official app catalog ships with a few defaults and quirks that can send a fresh install sideways; especially if you're putting it behind a reverse proxy like NPMplus. The good news is that once you know which boxes to tick (and which to leave alone), the whole stack comes up clean and stays up.

This guide walks through the exact sequence I used to deploy Nextcloud on TrueNAS SCALE Community Edition with NPMplus handling SSL and reverse proxying, with all the working settings with no detours, no "try this and see if it works" steps, and no recovery sections you'll only need if something breaks.

Wednesday, April 22, 2026

Project N.O.M.A.D.: Your Offline AI Survival Kit

 


Project N.O.M.A.D.: Your Offline AI Survival Kit (And How to Actually Get It Running)

If you've been following the homelab and self-hosted AI scene, you've probably heard of Project N.O.M.A.D. which is short for Networked Offline Machine for Autonomous Data. It's an impressive all-in-one offline-first AI platform built by Crosstalk Solutions, designed to give you a full AI assistant, knowledge base, and document processing engine that works even when the internet doesn't. Think Wikipedia mirrors, Stack Exchange snapshots, medical references, and a fully local LLM; all in a Docker stack you run on your own hardware.

This post covers what NOMAD is, how to install it, how to get it behind a reverse proxy with authentication, and (for those of you with AMD Ryzen mini PCs) how to unlock GPU acceleration so your AI assistant actually runs at a useful speed.

Tuesday, April 21, 2026

The Fragile State of Modern Tech: Where Accountability Goes to Die

The Fragile State of Modern Tech:
Where Accountability Goes to Die

So... I need to rant about a few things.

Technology today is the most powerful and accessible it has ever been... and yet somehow, also the most unreliable I can remember. We have more computing power, more tools, and more connectivity than ever, yet reliability and accountability feel like they are going backwards. 

At some point, “good enough” stopped being good enough.

We’ve reached a stage where almost everything is “easy” to use on the surface, but underneath, it’s held together with layers of complexity that break in ways that don't make sense anymore. Updates fix one thing and quietly break three others. Features get pushed out half-baked. 

Stability has become an afterthought.

Wednesday, April 15, 2026

How To Setup a Desktop PC as a Server


Desktop PC as a Server:
The Ultimate Setup Guide (Windows 10/11)

Applies to: Windows 10 Pro / Windows 11 Pro (22H2 and later)

The purpose of this guide is to help folks with configuring a standard desktop computer to reliably serve files, printers, and business applications (QuickBooks, Sage, etc.) without downtime or performance lag.

Wednesday, April 8, 2026

UniFi Console Migration Guide

UniFi Console Migration Guide:

Dream Machine Upgrade or Migration: Including Cloud Account Claiming, Cellular WAN Failover, SSH Credential Capture & Orphaned Device Recovery

This guide covers migrating all adopted UniFi devices (APs, switches, cameras) from a Dream Machine (UDM) to a Dream Machine Pro (UDM-Pro) with minimal disruption. It assumes you are replacing the UDM entirely and the UDM-Pro will take the same network role.

This guide has been updated with real-world field experience from an actual UDM → UDM-Pro migration, including the cloud account claiming procedure, Mesh AP tweaks required post-restore, and cellular WAN failover configuration using a designated LAN port as WAN3.

Friday, April 3, 2026

A Professional Guide For Responding to a Network Breach, System Breach, or Hack


Digital First Aid:
A Professional Guide For Responding to a Network or System Breach, and/or Hack

Discovering a security breach is a high-stakes race against time. Whether you are a home user or a business owner, your response in the first few hours determines whether the attacker is evicted or stays for the long haul.