I'm gay!

I swear this relates to my homelab...

So up until this point, I used a certain domain for all of my external homelab and reverse proxy needs. I originally purchased the domain for the sole purpose of offering a dynamic dns domain to remote into my PC from while at work. I used this method because it needed to be internet accessible due to my inability to install a VPN tunnel on a work machine. I bought (pleaseconnecttomyhomenet.work) because that's exactly what I wanted to do: connect to my home network. I also find that computers are nicer to you if you ask them nicely. Combine these two things and I have a cheap domain that I can use to RDP into my personal PC from anywhere in the world! If the idea of exposing my RDP port to the internet made you violently ill, I have since learned better! I promise! I found out that L2TP VPNs can be added directly inside Windows settings, doesn't require administrator rights, and can be done on fleet machines relatively painlessly (assuming of course your sysadmin hasn't blocked VPNs with Group Policy). Because of this, I now have access to my home PC without the need of a domain thanks to UniFi's lovely built in VPNs on their cloud gateway models.

It's not like I'd get rid old domain. It was the only one I had, so once I started opening my homelab services to the internet, I figured I'd use that existing domain since it somewhat fit the bill. They say there is nothing more permanent than a temporary solution though, and so I kept this domain for more than a year. It had just one problem though... It's super long! And since my main service offered is one often used on smart TVs, typing it in would be a nightmare. Fast forward to today when I decided to repurpose another domain that I had laying around! I bought it solely to act as my Bluesky handle and it was surprisingly cheap at only $30/yr once the promotional period expired. The thing is, it also made a fitting domain for any and all services I'd offer through my homelab. I need not tell you this domain because you just need to look up (or down on some mobile browsers) to see it! That brings us full circle, because this dragon is - in fact - gay.