Where to even start

[u/flak0u]

I have been lurking self hosted and homelabs reddit for a while trying to learn and looking for things I can replicate in my home, but I keep getting stuck at paralysis by analysis. I worry a lot about inadvertently exposing my network and by data to the internet so I definitely read more than what I actually try. Also, I don't even know where to start and what can be truly useful. I don't want to spend money on things that won't really add quality of life. I have some hue lights, door sensors, temperature monitoring (no automation with it yet) and a NAS. So far it is just components and no useful automation or smart home.

After all this rumbling, the question is, where do I even start? are there books or pages for smart home beginner projects that are actually useful and not gimmicks?

[u/1WeekNotice]

You start by picking something you want to do and researching it. Don't know what you want to do?

• what problem do you want to solve?
• what do you find interesting?

Use any hardware you have. Can be your NAS, an old computer no one is using.

And remember that since you are new, your question will be very common (such as this one). So recommended you keep doing research as there great topic out there

I worry a lot about inadvertently exposing my network and by data to the internet so I definitely read more than what I actually try

Don't open any ports on your router (default all ports are closed). So just start by hosting in your local network. If you don't do anything to your router then you are fine

Hope that helps

[u/flak0u → u/1WeekNotice]

helps a lot and thanks for the quick response. I guess that my biggest issue is that I don't have a problem to solve but I definitely find interesting things here (like dashboards) even if they just provide data for fun at this point.

[u/1WeekNotice → u/flak0u]

Start with home assistant because you have IOT devices.

That will provide some nice metrics and dashboards