Networking · Infrastructure · Monitoring
Beyond the Internet — Watching the Network.
When I first started building my homelab, I wasn't trying to create a lab at all.
I was simply solving a problem for myself. Normally, I build things because a client asks for them. This time, I was the client. Well — the direct client, not the final one.
One service became two. Two became five. Then ten. Before I realized it, the homelab had grown into something that other people relied on every day.
And that changed everything about how I needed to think about it.
Sometimes the internet isn't the problem. Sometimes the network still has work to do — and nobody knows it until someone notices that the photos aren't syncing.
The Problem
The network might still appear online while something important is broken.
A while ago, I created a simple troubleshooting guide so anyone in the house could recover the internet if it went down. That solved one problem.
But the network is much more than internet access now. Today the homelab runs photo storage, a music server, a DNS filter, a firewall, a Cloudflare Tunnel, a service launcher, and an external management system for a client. Each of these services can fail independently — and when one does, the network might still appear "online" while an important part of it is actually broken.
That's when I realized I didn't need another troubleshooting guide. I needed visibility.
The Solution
One screen. Five services. Green or red.
I wanted anyone to be able to glance at a screen and immediately know whether everything was healthy, what service was down, and whether something needed attention. No commands. No SSH. No digging through logs.
Uptime Kuma — a self-hosted monitoring tool — runs in Docker on the NUC. It checks each service every 60 seconds and shows a simple status: up or down. That's all anyone needs to see.
Uptime Kuma — 5 services monitored, all green.
Monitored services
🔥 Firewall — OPNsense · 192.168.2.1
🛡️ DNS — Pi-hole · dns.home:8080
📷 Fotos — Immich · fotos.home:2283
🎵 Music — Navidrome · music.home:4533
🔧 Taller — taller.creativelydifferentbuilds.com
The Physical Dashboard
A repurposed Samsung A51 — always on, always visible.
The monitor lives on a Samsung A51 running Fully Kiosk Browser in kiosk mode — screen always on, always showing the status of every service. It connects to Uptime Kuma over the local network at monitor.home:3001.
The goal is simple: anyone in the house — whether they understand the technical details or not — can glance at the screen and know if something needs attention. Green means everything is working. Red means something needs a look.
Samsung A51 repurposed as a physical dashboard — always on, always visible.
The Launcher
Access for the family — no technical knowledge required.
Alongside the monitor, the service launcher now includes a card for Uptime Kuma. Anyone in the house opens servicios.home:8888 from any device — phone, tablet, or PC — and has direct access to every available service. No IP addresses. No ports to remember. Just names.
The Monitor card is now in the launcher — accessible from any device on the network.
What's Next
The list keeps growing — and that's the point.
As more services come online — home automation, security cameras, a local AI assistant, a family photo album, a music library — each one gets a card in the launcher and a monitor in Uptime Kuma. The infrastructure grows, but the experience stays simple.
Eventually, I'd like to build a guest access system — a QR code menu with curated services for visitors. A pre-selected family photo album. A shared music library. Maybe a local AI assistant. Content that's safe to share, easy to access, and requires nothing more than scanning a code.
That's still an idea. But the infrastructure to support it is already here.
Quick Setup Guide
Get Uptime Kuma running in under 5 minutes.
Requirements: Docker installed on any always-on machine
1. Run the container
docker run -d \ --name uptime-kuma \ --restart unless-stopped \ -p 3001:3001 \ -v uptime-kuma:/app/data \ louislam/uptime-kuma:1
2. Open the dashboard
Go to http://[your-server-ip]:3001 and create your admin account.
3. Add a monitor
Click + Add New Monitor → Type: HTTP(s) → enter the URL of your service → set interval to 60 seconds → Save. If the service uses a self-signed certificate, enable Ignore TLS/SSL error.
4. Add a local DNS record (optional)
In Pi-hole → Local DNS Records → add monitor.home pointing to your server IP. Now anyone on the network can open it by name.
There are many detailed guides out there for setting up Uptime Kuma — this is just the version that worked for me. If you run into something specific or need help getting it running in your setup, drop a comment below.
Real World Update
The internet was working. The photo service wasn't.
This is exactly why I built this. The internet was up. The network was running. But Immich — the photo service — went down, and the monitor caught it immediately with a timestamp.
The reason: photos don't have a permanent server yet. Immich runs on my main workstation, and when I shut it down for the night, the service goes with it. That's a known limitation — one that will be resolved when the services move to a dedicated always-on machine. For now, the monitor makes that limitation visible instead of invisible.
As soon as the workstation came back online, Immich recovered automatically. The monitor logged the downtime, the duration, and the recovery — without me having to check anything manually.
Immich down at 22:43 — timeout of 48000ms. Back up at 22:44 when the workstation came online. The monitor is in Spanish because my wife and kids are native Spanish speakers — the system should work for everyone in the house.
That's the point of visibility. Not to prevent every failure — but to know exactly when it happened, how long it lasted, and when it recovered. Without asking me.
The Honest State
It works perfectly. It looks like a work in progress.
Right now, the A51 is literally thrown on my desk — and it looks exactly like that. Next to the Fire Tablet running MacroDeck, the setup works perfectly but doesn't look intentional. Because it isn't yet.
"If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, of what, then, is an empty desk a sign of?"
— Albert Einstein
I've read that quote many times. And I agree with it — I don't want an empty desk. I want one that looks organized and functional. One that doesn't make a visitor wonder what happened here.
The plan is to mount both the A51 and the Fire Tablet on the wall with permanent connections to the PC. Everything within reach, nothing in the way. The desk stays as the workspace — the wall becomes the command surface.
That's the next project. Unless my mind takes a different route first — which, if you've read this blog, you already know is a real possibility.
The Point
A well-monitored network is one that anyone can trust.
The internet might be fine. But the network has more work to do. And now, anyone in the house can see exactly how it's doing — without asking me.
Green means everything is working. That's all anyone needs to know.
What are you monitoring in your homelab? Drop it below.
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