Homelab Network Setup

This is the network design guide you wish you'd had before buying hardware. It walks you through separating gateway, switch, and access point roles, picking IP ranges that won't collide with VPNs, setting DHCP reservations for anything you SSH into, and avoiding the classic mistake of running multiple DHCP servers because you turned an old router into an AP. The advice is opinionated in a good way: use home.arpa for local DNS, avoid 192.168.1.0/24, reserve low IPs for infrastructure, and pick a gateway that matches your skill level. It's aimed at people outgrowing their ISP router or planning a homelab that can scale to VLANs later without a full teardown.

skills.sh installs: 5.5K
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last updated: Aug 21, 2026

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Install

$ npx -y skills add affaan-m/ecc --skill homelab-network-setup --agent claude-code

Installs into .claude/skills of the current project.

Files

Homelab Network Setup

Use this skill to design a home or small-lab network that can grow without needing a full rebuild.

When to Use

Planning a new home network or redesigning an ISP-router-only setup.
Choosing gateway, switch, and access point roles.
Designing IP ranges, DHCP scopes, static reservations, and DNS.
Preparing for future VLANs, Pi-hole, NAS, lab servers, or VPN access.
Troubleshooting a new network that has double NAT, unstable Wi-Fi, or changing server addresses.

How It Works

Start by separating device roles:

Internet
  |
Modem or ONT
  |
Gateway or router      NAT, firewall, DHCP, DNS, inter-VLAN routing
  |
Managed switch         wired clients, AP uplinks, optional VLAN trunks
  |
Access points          Wi-Fi only; ideally wired backhaul
Servers and NAS        stable addresses, DNS names, monitoring
Clients and IoT        DHCP pools, isolated later if VLANs are available

Pick a gateway that matches the operator, not just the feature checklist:

SKILL.md on GitHub