thedigitaldown.com

Why I Use NO-IP Dynamic DNS in My Lab

Thu, 19 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

What This Is Link to heading

I use NO-IP Dynamic DNS (DDNS) to give my home lab a stable hostname, even though my public IP changes.

Instead of chasing a changing IP address, I use:

echobase.ditchyourip.com

Why It Matters Link to heading

Most residential internet connections don’t have a static public IP.
That means your external IP can change at any time.

Building My Homelab: TrueNAS, Proxmox, and a 10GbE Storage Fabric

Wed, 18 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve been running a single Proxmox node at home for a while now — good enough to spin up VMs, mess around with things, break things, fix them. But it’s always bothered me that everything was sitting on local storage with no shared backend, no live migration, no HA. Basically a very expensive way to run a few VMs.

So I decided to fix that. The goal: build a TrueNAS SCALE server, connect it to my Proxmox environment over a dedicated 10GbE storage fabric, migrate all my VMs off local storage, and then eventually stand up a second Proxmox node and form a proper cluster. This is part one — getting the network fabric up and the storage interfaces configured.

How I Set Up Audio Narration on This Site

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

One of the things I wanted from the start with The Digital Down was to make it easy for people who prefer listening over reading. Smart but lazy, as I like to say. Here is how I set up automated audio narration for every post on this Hugo site.

The Goal Link to heading

Write a post in markdown, run one command, and have a clean audio player appear automatically above the content. No manual work after setup.

About

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve spent more than twenty-five years working in information technology, building, supporting, and improving the systems that keep organizations running. My career has spanned everything from hands-on troubleshooting to designing and managing infrastructure that supports large environments. Over time my focus naturally moved toward infrastructure operations, reliability, and the practical side of keeping systems stable, secure, and maintainable.

thedigitaldown.com is where I document the technical side of that journey.

How I Ended Up in I T

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

My path into IT wasn’t something I planned. In a lot of ways, it started long before I ever had a job in technology.

When I was a teenager, my mother worked as an adult educator teaching people how to use computers, both Macs and PCs. She had a remarkable mind for organization and patterns. She could sit at the piano playing classical music, reading sheet music, singing, and never once look down at the keys. Computers were the same way for her. At one point she became very good at coding and scripting, building websites and writing JavaScript programs almost effortlessly.

Contact

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Follow me, @johndoe.

Music

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

My Playlists Link to heading

The Digital Down Mix Link to heading

The Lab

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Home Server Link to heading

Proxmox — Hypervisor running the whole show
TrueNAS — NAS build in progress
Windows Domain — Home lab domain for testing

Side Projects Link to heading

2wayinn.com — Personal Google Workspace domain
Corporate Domain Upgrade — AD functional level upgrade project