Reddit /R/Selfhosted
Resources
Welcome to the Brewing Bytes and Beans Resources page — a collection of tools, projects, documentation, and communities I actually find useful when working with cybersecurity, networking, self-hosting, homelabs, and the occasional server that has decided 2:00 AM is the ideal time to develop a personality.
This isn't meant to be an enormous directory of every tool on the internet. These are resources I use, recommend, or regularly reference while building, troubleshooting, learning, and breaking things in the name of science.
Grab a coffee and dig in.
🐳 Self-Hosting & Docker
Awesome Selfhosted
One of my favourite starting points when I'm looking for something new to host myself.
Awesome Selfhosted maintains a huge list of free and open-source services that can replace commercial cloud products. You'll find everything from dashboards and monitoring platforms to photo management, password managers, finance software, media servers, and home automation tools.
I regularly use it when the thought enters my head:
"Surely there is a Docker container that does this."
There usually is.
Good for: Docker, open-source software, homelabs and finding another application you absolutely did not need to deploy tonight.
awesome-selfhostedDocker Documentation
Docker is at the centre of a large portion of my homelab.
When something works perfectly, Docker is wonderful.
When a container refuses to start because you accidentally used three spaces instead of two somewhere in YAML, Docker becomes a character-building exercise.
The official documentation is still one of the best resources for understanding Compose files, networking, volumes, environment variables and container management.
Good for: Containers, Docker Compose and troubleshooting.
Awesome Sysadmin
Another fantastic GitHub collection focused more heavily on system administration.
It includes monitoring tools, backup software, DNS servers, automation platforms, virtualization tools, security utilities and plenty of other projects worth exploring.
If you run servers professionally or have somehow accumulated enough computers in your basement to qualify as your own small datacenter, this list is worth bookmarking.
Good for: Sysadmins, infrastructure engineers and homelab enthusiasts.
awesome-foss🖥️ Virtualization & Homelab
Proxmox VE
Proxmox is one of my favourite platforms for running a homelab.
It provides virtualization using both virtual machines and Linux containers while giving you a clean web interface for managing hosts, storage, backups, clustering and networking.
It's an excellent choice if you're turning an old server—or several suspiciously inexpensive marketplace servers—into a home lab.
Good for: Virtual machines, LXC containers, clustering and homelabs.
Home Assistant
Home Assistant is one of those projects that starts innocently.
First you automate a light.
Then you add temperature sensors.
Then cameras.
Then power monitoring.
Then one day your house has dashboards, automations, MQTT brokers and more monitoring than some businesses.
Home Assistant is an excellent open-source home automation platform with support for thousands of devices and integrations.
Good for: Smart homes, sensors, dashboards, automations and questionable levels of household telemetry.
🔐 Cybersecurity
CISA
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency publishes vulnerability alerts, security guidance, advisories and other resources that are genuinely useful for defenders.
I frequently reference CISA material when researching vulnerabilities or writing about current security issues.
Good for: Vulnerability alerts, security guidance and defensive cybersecurity.
NIST Cybersecurity Resources
NIST publishes some of the most widely referenced cybersecurity frameworks and standards in the industry.
Their material covers identity, authentication, risk management, incident response, security controls and much more.
Not exactly light reading to pair with your morning coffee, but extremely useful.
Good for: Security frameworks, identity, compliance and risk management.
Have I Been Pwned
Have I Been Pwned lets you check whether an email address appears in known data breaches.
It's a simple service with an important purpose: showing just how frequently credentials and personal information end up circulating after breaches.
If your email appears in one, change affected passwords, make sure passwords aren't reused elsewhere and enable MFA wherever possible.
Good for: Breach awareness and account-security checks.
🌐 Networking
Wireshark
When a network says:
"Everything is fine."
…but clearly everything is not fine, eventually Wireshark gets opened.
Wireshark allows you to capture and inspect network traffic in incredible detail and remains one of the most valuable troubleshooting tools for network engineers and security professionals.
Good for: Packet captures, protocol analysis and answering the eternal question: What is actually happening on this network?
Nmap
Nmap is one of the most widely used network discovery and security tools available.
It can identify hosts, services, ports and operating systems and is extremely useful for network inventory, troubleshooting and authorized security testing.
Only scan systems you own or have permission to test.
Good for: Network discovery, troubleshooting and security assessments.
🏠 Self-Hosting Communities
r/selfhosted
The self-hosted community on Reddit is one of my favourite places to discover new projects and see what other people are running.
It's particularly useful when you're researching alternatives to cloud services or trying to figure out whether anyone else has experienced the extremely specific Docker problem currently ruining your evening.
Good for: Project discovery, community troubleshooting and homelab inspiration.
☕ What I Actually Use
A lot of the content on Brewing Bytes and Beans comes from technologies I use either professionally or in my own lab.
You'll regularly see me working with things like:
- Docker and Portainer
- Proxmox
- Home Assistant
- Linux
- Windows Server
- Fortinet
- Cisco
- UniFi
- PRTG
- Wireshark
- Nmap
- PowerShell
- Python
- Cloudflare
- Nginx Proxy Manager
- Frigate
- Nextcloud
- Immich
- Various open-source projects I probably installed because somebody on Reddit said they were cool
I try to write about the useful parts, the frustrating parts, and especially the parts that broke.
Because a tutorial showing a perfectly functioning installation is nice.
A tutorial explaining why it caught fire and how to fix it is usually much more useful.
A Note About Recommendations
Unless specifically stated otherwise, resources mentioned on this page are included because I find them useful—not because somebody paid me to recommend them.
If that ever changes for a particular product, service, sponsorship, or affiliate link, I'll clearly disclose it.
Have a tool or project you think belongs here?
Send it my way. I'm always looking for another excuse to add something to the homelab.
Brew a Byte and Code a Bean! ☕💻