Homelab, self-hosting and game servers, written up from a real server in my room. Plus the story of building a Roblox game with AI.https://realfin.dev/https://realfin.dev/blog/building-this-blog-astro-cloudflare-pages/https://realfin.dev/blog/building-this-blog-astro-cloudflare-pages/A static site with search, tools, guest authors and ads, costing about €12 a year, with nothing exposed on my home server. The stack, the costs and the security decisions behind it.Thu, 15 Oct 2026 17:00:00 GMThomelabastrocloudflarestatic-sitesecurityself-hostingRealFinhttps://realfin.dev/blog/adsense-new-static-site-setup/https://realfin.dev/blog/adsense-new-static-site-setup/Owning the domain, the code snippet vs ads.txt, verification that failed for reasons that had nothing to do with my site, the EU consent message, and the rules that get accounts banned.Thu, 15 Oct 2026 16:30:00 GMThomelabadsensemonetizationstatic-sitecloudflareRealFinhttps://realfin.dev/blog/cloudflare-api-token-least-privilege/https://realfin.dev/blog/cloudflare-api-token-least-privilege/How I scoped a Cloudflare API token to one domain, five permissions, my home IP and three months, so automation can manage DNS and redirects without being able to touch billing or the domain itself.Thu, 15 Oct 2026 16:00:00 GMThomelabcloudflaresecurityapidnsRealFinhttps://realfin.dev/blog/cloudflare-email-routing-custom-domain/https://realfin.dev/blog/cloudflare-email-routing-custom-domain/hello@yourdomain forwarding to your normal inbox in five minutes: the DNS records it adds, verifying the destination, and the one privacy catch when you reply.Thu, 15 Oct 2026 15:30:00 GMThomelabcloudflareemaildnsprivacyRealFinhttps://realfin.dev/blog/dns-negative-caching-new-subdomain/https://realfin.dev/blog/dns-negative-caching-new-subdomain/I added www to my domain and it worked on mobile data but not on my home network for half an hour. My own resolver had cached the 'doesn't exist' answer. The one Unbound setting that fixes it.Thu, 15 Oct 2026 15:00:00 GMThomelabdnsunboundadguardcloudflareRealFinhttps://realfin.dev/blog/adguard-blocked-my-own-adsense-dashboard/https://realfin.dev/blog/adguard-blocked-my-own-adsense-dashboard/Every button in Google AdSense did nothing. The cause was my AdGuard Home blocking Google's ad domains house-wide. How to confirm it, and how to unblock AdSense for just one PC.Thu, 15 Oct 2026 14:00:00 GMThomelabadguarddnsadsensead-blockingRealFinhttps://realfin.dev/blog/prowlarr-sync-400-bad-request/https://realfin.dev/blog/prowlarr-sync-400-bad-request/Prowlarr logged '400 BadRequest' when syncing indexers to Sonarr and Radarr several times a day. The culprit was one indexer that never returns movie or TV results. How to find it using the APIs.Thu, 15 Oct 2026 13:00:00 GMThomelabprowlarrsonarrradarrtroubleshootingmediaRealFinhttps://realfin.dev/blog/zigbee2mqtt-restart-loop-docker-network/https://realfin.dev/blog/zigbee2mqtt-restart-loop-docker-network/A container that lost its Docker network after a reboot, couldn't resolve the MQTT broker, and crash-looped for three days. How to spot it and fix it.Thu, 15 Oct 2026 12:40:00 GMThomelabdockerzigbee2mqtthome-assistantmqtttroubleshootingRealFinhttps://realfin.dev/blog/certbot-standalone-port-conflict/https://realfin.dev/blog/certbot-standalone-port-conflict/An old certbot setup kept failing because AdGuard and Nginx Proxy Manager own ports 80 and 443. Why standalone renewals break on a busy server, and the DNS-challenge alternative.Thu, 15 Oct 2026 12:30:00 GMThomelabcertbotletsencryptnginx-proxy-manageradguardtroubleshootingRealFinhttps://realfin.dev/blog/homelab-tour-30-containers/https://realfin.dev/blog/homelab-tour-30-containers/What runs on my home server, how it's organised with Docker Compose, and the lessons that shaped it.Thu, 15 Oct 2026 12:20:00 GMThomelabdockerhomelaboverviewRealFinhttps://realfin.dev/blog/docker-log-size-limits/https://realfin.dev/blog/docker-log-size-limits/Docker's json-file logs grow forever by default. Two lines in daemon.json fix it, but only for containers created afterwards.Thu, 15 Oct 2026 12:00:00 GMThomelabdockerlogsdisk-spacedaemon.jsonRealFinhttps://realfin.dev/blog/valheim-crops-not-growing-empty-server/https://realfin.dev/blog/valheim-crops-not-growing-empty-server/I measured the world clock in the server's save files: it stops about 13 minutes after the last player leaves. Crops, smelters and kilns only progress while someone is connected.Thu, 15 Oct 2026 11:40:00 GMTgame-serversvalheimfarmingdedicated-serverworld-timeRealFinhttps://realfin.dev/blog/docker-reclaimable-space-misleading/https://realfin.dev/blog/docker-reclaimable-space-misleading/docker system df claimed 92% of my image space could be freed. Checking image by image told a very different story. How to find what's actually unused before you prune anything.Thu, 15 Oct 2026 11:30:00 GMThomelabdockerdisk-spacecleanupRealFinhttps://realfin.dev/blog/nvidia-driver-mismatch-jellyfin-transcoding/https://realfin.dev/blog/nvidia-driver-mismatch-jellyfin-transcoding/Ubuntu auto-updated the NVIDIA driver but kept the old kernel module loaded. GPU transcoding broke for weeks. Diagnosis and a reboot script that only reboots when needed.Thu, 15 Oct 2026 11:20:00 GMThomelabjellyfinnvidiagpuubuntuunattended-upgradesRealFinhttps://realfin.dev/blog/docker-stop-before-reboot-mistake/https://realfin.dev/blog/docker-stop-before-reboot-mistake/restart: unless-stopped treats an explicit docker stop as 'the user wants this off'. A reboot script that stopped containers first stranded every service, including DNS.Thu, 15 Oct 2026 11:00:00 GMThomelabdockerrestart-policyrebootmistakesRealFinhttps://realfin.dev/blog/unbound-servfail-after-internet-outage/https://realfin.dev/blog/unbound-servfail-after-internet-outage/Unbound marks unreachable nameservers as down for 900 seconds by default and serves instant SERVFAILs. CDN-heavy sites suffer most. Three settings fixed it.Thu, 15 Oct 2026 10:40:00 GMThomelabdnsunboundadguardtroubleshootingRealFinhttps://realfin.dev/blog/homelab-health-check-checklist/https://realfin.dev/blog/homelab-health-check-checklist/The commands I run to check a Docker homelab: restart counts, failed units, alarms, disks, backups and log noise. On its first run it found a container that had restarted 22,000 times.Thu, 15 Oct 2026 10:30:00 GMThomelabdockermonitoringchecklistmaintenanceRealFinhttps://realfin.dev/blog/adguard-unbound-network-adblock/https://realfin.dev/blog/adguard-unbound-network-adblock/Network-wide ad and tracker blocking plus your own recursive DNS resolver, with no Google or Cloudflare DNS. Compose file, router setup and the gotchas.Thu, 15 Oct 2026 10:20:00 GMThomelabdnsadguardunbounddockerprivacyRealFinhttps://realfin.dev/blog/jellyfin-arr-stack-docker/https://realfin.dev/blog/jellyfin-arr-stack-docker/Jellyseerr → Sonarr/Radarr → Prowlarr → qBittorrent → Jellyfin. How the pieces talk to each other, hardlinks, FlareSolverr and the settings that tripped me up.Thu, 15 Oct 2026 10:00:00 GMThomelabjellyfinsonarrradarrprowlarrdockermediaRealFinhttps://realfin.dev/blog/homelab-backup-script-docker/https://realfin.dev/blog/homelab-backup-script-docker/A nightly cron job that tars every app's config with a throwaway Alpine container, keeps 7 copies and skips caches. Plus what it doesn't protect you from.Thu, 15 Oct 2026 09:40:00 GMThomelabbackupdockercronbashRealFinhttps://realfin.dev/blog/local-ai-ollama-4gb-gpu/https://realfin.dev/blog/local-ai-ollama-4gb-gpu/What actually fits on a GTX 1050 Ti, why I baked the context length into the model, and how to give a local LLM web search with self-hosted SearXNG.Thu, 15 Oct 2026 09:20:00 GMThomelabaiollamaopen-webuisearxnggpullmRealFinhttps://realfin.dev/blog/homelab-security-no-port-forwards/https://realfin.dev/blog/homelab-security-no-port-forwards/Why I don't port-forward anything, how Tailscale replaces it, how to publish a website safely with Cloudflare Tunnel, and the hardening checklist I actually follow.Thu, 15 Oct 2026 09:00:00 GMThomelabsecuritytailscalecloudflaredockerufwRealFinhttps://realfin.dev/blog/yt-dlp-music-metadata-navidrome/https://realfin.dev/blog/yt-dlp-music-metadata-navidrome/How I turned 'ARTIST - TITLE (OFFICIAL VIDEO) 1998.' into proper artist, title and album tags with yt-dlp's --parse-metadata and --replace-in-metadata.Thu, 15 Oct 2026 08:40:00 GMThomelabmusicnavidromeyt-dlpmetadataRealFinhttps://realfin.dev/blog/valheim-dedicated-server-docker/https://realfin.dev/blog/valheim-dedicated-server-docker/A complete docker-compose for a Valheim server: ports, auto-updates only when nobody's online, hourly world backups, and how friends connect.Thu, 15 Oct 2026 08:20:00 GMTgame-serversvalheimdockergame-serverRealFinhttps://realfin.dev/blog/valheim-import-world-new-save-format/https://realfin.dev/blog/valheim-import-world-new-save-format/Valheim no longer saves worlds as .db + .fwl. Where the new world folder lives, how to get it out of Steam Cloud, and how to load it on a server.Thu, 15 Oct 2026 08:00:00 GMTgame-serversvalheimsavessteam-cloudmigrationRealFinhttps://realfin.dev/blog/valheim-server-lag-better-networking/https://realfin.dev/blog/valheim-server-lag-better-networking/Valheim caps how much data it sends per player. On a big base that's the real bottleneck, not your internet. How Better Networking raises the cap, and why vanilla friends can still join.Thu, 15 Oct 2026 07:40:00 GMTgame-serversvalheimlagbepinexmodsnetworkingRealFinhttps://realfin.dev/blog/valheim-whitelist-instead-of-password/https://realfin.dev/blog/valheim-whitelist-instead-of-password/Valheim never remembers server passwords. permittedlist.txt lets only your friends' Steam IDs in, with no password prompt, and it's arguably more secure.Thu, 15 Oct 2026 07:20:00 GMTgame-serversvalheimsecuritywhitelistdedicated-serverRealFinhttps://realfin.dev/blog/valheim-mods-client-vs-server/https://realfin.dev/blog/valheim-mods-client-vs-server/Some mods only change your own game, others need every player and the server on the same version. How to tell the difference so vanilla friends can still join.Thu, 15 Oct 2026 07:00:00 GMTgame-serversvalheimmodsbepinexr2modmanthunderstoreRealFinhttps://realfin.dev/blog/crafty-controller-modpack-import/https://realfin.dev/blog/crafty-controller-modpack-import/Crafty can't import a server from a folder, only from an uploaded zip. The placeholder-and-swap workaround, the Java 21 command for NeoForge and where the memory setting really lives.Thu, 15 Oct 2026 06:40:00 GMTgame-serversminecraftcraftymodpacksneoforgedockerRealFinhttps://realfin.dev/blog/roblox-remote-events-never-trust-the-client/https://realfin.dev/blog/roblox-remote-events-never-trust-the-client/Exploiters can fire any RemoteEvent with any arguments. The validation every remote needs, and the mistakes AI coding assistants make by default.Thu, 15 Oct 2026 06:20:00 GMTrobloxrobloxluausecurityremote-eventsai-codingRealFinhttps://realfin.dev/blog/roblox-datastore-safe-saving/https://realfin.dev/blog/roblox-datastore-safe-saving/Player data loss is the bug that kills Roblox games. The patterns that prevent it: UpdateAsync over SetAsync, retry with backoff, saving on shutdown and session locking.Thu, 15 Oct 2026 06:00:00 GMTrobloxrobloxluaudatastoresavingRealFin