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/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 GMThttps://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 GMThttps://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 GMThttps://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 GMThttps://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 GMThttps://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 GMThttps://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 GMThttps://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 GMThttps://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 GMThttps://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 GMThttps://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 GMThttps://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 GMThttps://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 GMThttps://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 GMThttps://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 GMThttps://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 GMThttps://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 GMThttps://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 GMThttps://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 GMThttps://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 GMThttps://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 GMT