Blog

Your self-hosting, system administration, and all things digital infrastructure hub: tutorials, reviews, comparisons, news and more.

Read our latest blog posts below:

How to Self-Host Karakeep: A Pocket Alternative for Saving and Tagging Links

10/26/2026

How to Self-Host Karakeep: A Pocket Alternative for Saving and Tagging Links

Set up Karakeep as a self-hosted Pocket alternative with Docker, HTTPS, optional AI tagging, bookmark imports, and guidance on updates and backups.

What Is a Cross-Connect, and Why Does It Cost Money Every Month in a Colocation Facility?

10/26/2026

What Is a Cross-Connect, and Why Does It Cost Money Every Month in a Colocation Facility?

Learn what a colocation cross-connect is, why facilities charge recurring fees, and how to plan connections, costs, and redundancy for your rack.

What Is ASPA, and How Does It Go Beyond RPKI to Stop BGP Route Leaks?

10/26/2026

What Is ASPA, and How Does It Go Beyond RPKI to Stop BGP Route Leaks?

Learn how ASPA uses signed upstream-provider records to help detect BGP route leaks, where its protection stops, and what operators need for deployment.

What Is OpenTelemetry, and How Do You Self-Host an Observability Stack Around It?

10/26/2026

What Is OpenTelemetry, and How Do You Self-Host an Observability Stack Around It?

Understand OpenTelemetry's APIs, SDKs, Collector, and telemetry signals, explore self-hosted backends, and try application instrumentation with a demo stack.

Colocation Cabinet Sizing Guide: How Much Rack Space and Power Do You Actually Need?

9/29/2026

Colocation Cabinet Sizing Guide: How Much Rack Space and Power Do You Actually Need?

Sizing a colocation cabinet means committing to rack space and power before you've finished filling it, whether it's your first cabinet or your fifth. Here's how to size both realistically, and what to check before you sign.

What Is BGP Route Leak Detection, and How Do You Monitor for One?

9/29/2026

What Is BGP Route Leak Detection, and How Do You Monitor for One?

A BGP route leak can silently reroute a meaningful share of internet traffic through the wrong network for hours before anyone notices. Here's what a route leak actually is, and how operators monitor for one.

What Is DDoS Scrubbing, and How Does It Differ from Basic Rate Limiting?

9/29/2026

What Is DDoS Scrubbing, and How Does It Differ from Basic Rate Limiting?

Rate limiting can slow down a determined attacker, but it isn't built to handle a genuine volumetric DDoS attack. Here's what DDoS scrubbing actually does differently, and when a server needs it.

What Is RPKI, and Why Are More Networks Requiring It from Their BGP Peers?

9/29/2026

What Is RPKI, and Why Are More Networks Requiring It from Their BGP Peers?

RPKI has gone from a nice-to-have to something more networks expect from their BGP peers. Here's what it actually does, how it works, and why it's becoming a baseline expectation rather than an edge case.

Anycast Explained: How One IP Address Can Live in Multiple Places at Once

8/22/2026

Anycast Explained: How One IP Address Can Live in Multiple Places at Once

Anycast lets a single IP address be announced from many locations at once, routing users to the nearest one automatically. Here's how it actually works, where it's used, and what it takes to run it yourself.

Docker vs. Podman: Which Container Engine Should You Use in 2026?

8/22/2026

Docker vs. Podman: Which Container Engine Should You Use in 2026?

Docker built the container ecosystem, but Podman has become a serious daemonless alternative. Here's how they actually differ, with real commands, and which one fits your setup.

How to Self-Host ntfy for Mobile Push Notifications

8/22/2026

How to Self-Host ntfy for Mobile Push Notifications

ntfy is a simple, open-source notification service you can run yourself. Here's how to self-host it, lock it down, and start sending push notifications straight to your phone from your own scripts and services.