The network is the homelab's floor: when it's solid, everything above it is boring. OpenWrt on modest hardware is more than enough for an apartment or small house. Enterprise Wi-Fi included — you already own it; the premium mesh upsell is deliberately out of stock.
The setup
- OpenWrt router. Full control over DHCP, DNS, firewall, and wireless — configuration as files, backed up and versioned.
- One good AP. A single well-placed access point beats a mesh of half-connected extenders. Place it high and central; run Ethernet where you can.
- Local DNS records. Router dnsmasq answers for your own domains pointing at internal IPs — internal traffic stays internal.
- DHCP reservations. Every server gets a fixed lease; reverse proxies reference IPs that never change.
Good habits
- Back up router config on every change — it's the smallest file that takes down the most.
- Query public DNS (DoH) to debug "works locally but not remotely" before touching anything.
- Keep a spare AP configured and shelved. Wi-Fi hardware dies on Sundays.