This is where I share hands-on notes from the homelab, reflections on experiments, and lessons learned while digging into IT systems and networks. It’s a running log of what I’m testing, breaking, and fixing.
Latest Journal Posts
- From Bright-Eyed to Burned Out: My Life in Customer Supportby Rudy ValenciaI was 18 when I started in customer support. Bright-eyed, eager, convinced I could handle anything. The scripts felt clunky, the metrics endless, but I was ready. I thought enthusiasm could carry me far. I imagined it would be a stepping stone, a way to learn and grow. At first,… Read more: From Bright-Eyed to Burned Out: My Life in Customer Support
- From ESXi to Proxmox: Why I Switched My Hypervisorby Rudy ValenciaWhen I first set up my homelab, VMware ESXi 8 felt like the obvious choice. It’s polished, enterprise-grade, and easy to administer. Between the web console and VMware Workstation integration, spinning up VMs was painless. For a while, it was perfect. But over time, I realized ESXi was giving me… Read more: From ESXi to Proxmox: Why I Switched My Hypervisor
- The Turbo Router, Part 2: Why I Switched to OpenWrtby Rudy ValenciaWhen I first built the turbo router on RouterOS, I thought I’d cracked the code. Finally—a router with enterprise-level features, running on repurposed PC hardware, without the limitations of consumer gear. And for a while, it was everything I wanted. Then came the day my router refused to boot. One… Read more: The Turbo Router, Part 2: Why I Switched to OpenWrt
- The Turbo Router: Why I Built My Own Router on RouterOSby Rudy ValenciaMost people let their ISP give them a router – or maybe they go out and buy a decent consumer-grade model and call it a day. I went in a different direction. I built my router from scratch using a Dell OptiPlex 3040 SFF, installed MikroTik RouterOS, and turned it… Read more: The Turbo Router: Why I Built My Own Router on RouterOS
- Synology’s drive lockdown: smarter hardware or vendor trap?by Rudy Valencia(OCTOBER 2025 – UPDATE: Synology has reversed course on their decision to require branded drives, according to the linked article on Tom’s Hardware.) Synology’s latest NAS models are now limiting support to their own branded drives. As a DS923+ owner, I explore what this means for homelab builders, why vendor… Read more: Synology’s drive lockdown: smarter hardware or vendor trap?
- Introducing my new blogby Rudy ValenciaHi, I’m Rudy Valencia, a Northern Colorado native. I am a technologist at heart who is looking to grow into a career in Information Technology and Systems Administration. This blog will be a great resource with content about technology and how it can improve our lives. I decided to start… Read more: Introducing my new blog