3. Software
I listed pretty much all the software I host on my home lab, but there are some of them that I'd rather take a few more notes about and share a bit more of my experience with them.
pfSense
I started using pfSense a few years ago when I was looking into a good firewall/router solution to use with custom hardware. I tried OPNsene but didn't find any reason to switch. pfSense does everything I need (and much, much more than I could ever need) and has a wide variety of packages.
I only use one though: WireGuard. I was previously using OpenVPN but prefers WireGuard.
Unifi Controller
I don't have much to say here, except that I really like this software. It's easy to use and every upgrade makes it better. Ubiquiti really makes great hardware and software. I have two Wi-Fi networks, one for us and one isolated for our guests. I really need to look into having a third for 2.4Ghz smart devices to isolate them from the rest of our network.
AdGuard
A must-have, either self-hosted or using their public DNS.
Photoprism
PhotoPrism is an AI-Powered Photos App for the Decentralized Web. It makes use of the latest technologies to tag and find pictures automatically without getting in your way. You can run it at home, on a private server, or in the cloud.
I have a dedicated page about my (little) Photoprism experience: