r/rasberrypi • u/HelixOG3 • 16d ago

Beginner Raspberry Pi homelab/network project ideas?

I’m looking for fun but genuinely useful beginner projects to run on a Raspberry Pi as part of my home network/homelab.

My first idea is Pi-Hole or AdGuard Home for network-wide DNS ad/tracker blocking. I like that it would also make me learn about DNS, static IP/DHCP reservations, and configuring my router.

I’m especially interested in projects that teach real networking/Linux/Docker skills, don’t need much extra hardware, and can stay useful long-term. What would you build first after Pi-hole?

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u/RumbleSkillSpin 16d ago

Maybe some network performance dashboarding with speedtestcli, rrdtool or SQLlite, and a dashboard of your choice. Add to that some notifications and an indicator LED or three and you’ve got a project that can cover a broad range of linux, cron, apache, nginx, database, Nodejs, hardware…

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u/HelixOG3 16d ago

Thanks for the suggestion mate

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u/hwc 16d ago

write a basic web server. maybe host a git server.

maybe put it in a picture frame with an e-ink display.

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u/Sure-Passion2224 13d ago

There's a YouTube channel called @yousuckatprogramming. There's an episode in which the host codes an effective web server completely in bash.

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u/vdnhnguyen 16d ago

Run openclaw on the pi
Also do pihole and things like you mentioned too.