~/jackwent.co.uk
jack@jackwent:~$ whoami

Smart home and homelab projects, from someone who runs it all at home.

You've found my corner of the web. I'm Jack, 20+ years in IT by day and homelabber after hours. This is where I share the projects and scripts I've built, from server monitoring to smart home automation, written so even beginners can follow along.

ls ~/projectscat about.md
jack@jackwent
Role
Head of Technical Delivery, MSP
Uptime
20+ years in IT
OS
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS
Host
Home Assistant Yellow
Zigbee
Connect ZBT-2, 25 devices
Devices
~200, 40+ automations
CCTV
Reolink + PoE doorbell
Shells
bash, PowerShell, Python
Certs
VCP 5.1 / 6 / 6.5, Meraki CMNA, +31
jack@jackwent:~$ ls -lht projects/

Projects

Things I've built and use every day, written up step by step with the why behind each command.

total 15

-rw-r--r--21 Oct 264.6Kpresence_wake.pyMy Face Detection Wall Dashboard, and Why It Failed-rw-r--r--20 Oct 268.8Knight-drift.jsonWLED Lights for My Cabin and Deck, and the Night Drift Effect-rwxr-xr-x17 Oct 265.3Kjarvis-session.shJarvis: The AI Assistant That Runs My Homelab-rw-r--r--10 Oct 269.1Kcabin-build.logBuilding My Log Cabin Home Office-rw-r--r--10 Oct 2610Kcabin-zigbee2mqtt.yamlMaking My Cabin Office Smart with Zigbee2MQTT-rw-r--r--09 Oct 266.9Kxmr-dashboard.jsSelf Hosted XMR Mining Dashboard-rw-r--r--07 Oct 264.6Kesphome-updates.yamlHands-Off ESPHome Firmware Updates-rw-r--r--07 Oct 267.6Kserver-alerts.yamlOne Alert for the Whole Homelab-rw-r--r--07 Oct 266.3Kllm-doorbell.yamlA Sarcastic AI Doorbell-rw-r--r--24 Sept 2615Krfid-films.yamlRFID Cards That Start Films-rw-r--r--12 Sept 266.9Krack-cooling.yamlKeeping My Comms Rack Cool with Home Assistant-rwxr-xr-x16 Oct 2512Kha-mqtt-agent.shPuts your Ubuntu servers in Home Assistant over MQTT: live CPU, memory, disk, IPs and pending updates, plus a reboot button and one click updates.-rwxr-xr-x24 Aug 248.2Kauto-update.shKeeps Ubuntu 24.04 servers patched on their own, and reboots when needed, picking up where it left off.-rw-r--r--26 Mar 248.6Kgarden-irrigation.mdA Raspberry Pi that waters the garden for me, using soil moisture sensors, a pump and valves.-rw-r--r--17 Mar 246.8Kesp8266-fish-feeder.yamlA cheap Ilonda fish feeder given an ESP8266 running ESPHome, so the fish get fed on a schedule from Home Assistant.

home-automation/

Smart devices, routines and a connected home, all running on a Home Assistant Yellow.

scripting/

Scripts, tutorials and best practice in PowerShell, Bash and Python to automate the boring bits.

insights/

Lessons from 20+ years in IT, plus write-ups from the smart home and homelab I run at home.

threat-map/

Every attack blocked on my sites in the last 24 hours, flying in on a live globe.

View the map

Built something cool? I'd love to see it. Send it over and I might feature it on the projects page.

Share a project
jack@jackwent:~$ cat about.md

Twenty years of servers, networks and the bits in between

It all started with a love of electronics and coding. These days I'm Head of Technical Delivery at a Managed Service Provider, working across servers, networking and the application layer to build secure systems people can rely on.

Tech moves fast, so I'm always learning something new.

35certifications across VMware, HPE, Microsoft, Cisco, Nexthink and more

Full skills and certifications

jack@jackwent:~$ apt list --installed
  • vmware/esxi-3-7 [installed]
  • proxmox/virtual [installed]
  • microsoft/winserver [installed]
  • microsoft/entra-id [installed]
  • microsoft/exchange [installed]
  • microsoft/intune [installed]
  • cisco/asa-catalyst [installed]
  • paloalto/firewalls [installed]
  • watchguard/firewalls [installed]
  • pfsense/firewalls [installed]
  • hpe/proliant [installed]
  • hpe/storage-msa [installed]
  • aruba/procurve [installed]
  • veeam/backup [installed]
  • ubiquiti/unifi [installed]
  • opengear/lighthouse [installed]
  • splunk/siem [installed]
  • nexthink/dex [installed]
  • cloudflare/waf [installed]
  • freeswitch/voip [installed]
  • linux/ubuntu [installed]
jack@jackwent:~$ mail jack

Get in touch

Got a question about a project, some feedback, or something you'd like featured? I'd love to hear from you, and I aim to reply within a day or two.

[jackwent]