Rack 2 Reality

How to Access Home Assistant Remotely with Tailscale on a NAS (No Port Forwarding Required)?

One of the biggest things I wanted after setting up Home Assistant was reliable remote access. At first, I assumed this would be simple. Install Home Assistant, install the mobile app, sign in remotely somehow, and that would be the end of it. The deeper I got into self hosting though, the more I realised remote access is one of those areas where things become complicated surprisingly quickly.

What to change after that?

Don’t try to fix everything at once. Identify what feels unreliable, test it on a wired connection, and if it improves, that device or workflow shouldn’t rely on WiFi. Most people jump straight to upgrading hardware, but changing how things are connected usually has a bigger impact.

How to Design a Reliable Smart Home (Using Datacenter Principles)?

Most people do not think about infrastructure when building a smart home. They buy a few smart bulbs, maybe a camera or two, add a smart speaker, and slowly build up automation over time. Everything works well enough until the day something goes wrong. The internet drops. The router crashes. A power outage hits. Suddenly the entire smart home stops being smart.

What Is the Anker SOLIX X1?

I came across the SOLIX X1 fairly early on in my research, but it took a while for it to click why it was being positioned differently to a lot of other systems. The Anker SOLIX X1 is a modular home energy storage system designed to scale over time rather than forcing homeowners into a fixed capacity from day one.

What Will Decide Whether This Is Worth It?

By this point in the process, I found it useful to step back and write down what actually mattered to me, rather than what looked good on a spec sheet. Before committing to a system like this, there are a few criteria that matter more than headline specifications. Non negotiables These are the points I found myself coming back to repeatedly, regardless of which product or installer I was looking at.