To open self-hosted services by memorable names instead of IP addresses and port numbers, give the homelab’s key machines stable DHCP reservations, point local DNS names at an always-on reverse proxy, then configure that proxy to route each hostname to its service and port. In one setup documented by It’s FOSS author Abhishek Prakash, typing jellyfin.internal opens Jellyfin without entering its address or port. The exact addresses and menus below are examples from his network, not universal settings.
Why IP addresses and ports make a homelab frustrating
A bookmark can stop working if a device’s address changes, and a service on a nonstandard port is awkward to enter—especially on a TV remote. The fix is to separate two jobs: DNS turns a name into an IP address, while a reverse proxy uses the requested hostname to choose a service and its port.
Prakash’s setup puts AdGuard Home in charge of local DNS rewrites and Nginx Proxy Manager (NPM) in charge of routing requests. For each service, a DNS rewrite sends its name to the proxy host; an NPM rule forwards that hostname to the service’s actual address and port. DNS by itself does not select a port.
What the setup needs
- A stable address for the infrastructure: reserve an IP for the machine running local DNS and the reverse proxy. Reserve backend devices too when proxy rules point directly to their addresses.
- A local DNS resolver that clients actually use: the resolver must be reachable whenever devices need to look up private names.
- A reverse proxy for services sharing an IP: NPM can route different hostnames to different backend ports on the same host.
- A client on the configured home network: names ending in
.internalin this design are local, not a remote-access method.
The roles do not require the specific hardware in the example. An existing, capable server can run the software; what matters is that the DNS and proxy host stays powered and reachable. Consider spare capacity, network connectivity, processor architecture, and availability before buying a dedicated machine. The sources establish no power-use or cost comparison.
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Step 1: Reserve stable addresses for the important machines
DHCP reservations tell the router to give a device the same address, usually by associating its network identity with an IP. This prevents a DNS rewrite or proxy target from silently pointing to an address that has since been assigned elsewhere. Make sure reserved addresses do not conflict with the router’s dynamic pool; check your own router’s subnet, reservation rules, and lease behavior.
In Prakash’s TP-Link network, the router was 192.168.0.1, the DHCP pool began at 192.168.0.10, and reservations were made for 192.168.0.4 (the always-on ZimaBoard running AdGuard Home and NPM) and 192.168.0.5 (a ZimaCube 2 Pro that was not always on). These values are examples only. After making a reservation, a client may need to renew its lease or reconnect before the new address takes effect.
Keep the resolver and proxy on a reliably powered host: if clients depend on that machine to resolve names or route web requests, they depend on its availability too.
Step 2: Make local DNS available to your clients
AdGuard Home is the local resolver in this example. A router can either forward clients’ DNS requests to AdGuard or, if its DHCP settings allow it, hand out AdGuard’s address directly as the DNS server. With forwarding, AdGuard may log the router as the requester; handing out the resolver directly can make individual clients visible in its query log.
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Be cautious about configuring a public secondary DNS server alongside the local resolver. Client resolver behavior varies: some devices may send a request to the secondary server without waiting for the primary to fail. A public resolver will not know a private .internal rewrite, so a client that uses it for that request may fail to resolve the name. Confirm that the devices you care about are using the intended local resolver rather than assuming every device treats the secondary as a strict standby.
Check the active resolver on Linux
Prakash found that changing DNS manually did not affect his active Linux connection until he reconnected to Wi-Fi. He used resolvectl status to inspect resolver state. On a system using NetworkManager, the following commands set DNS for a connection and then bring it down and back up; replace the connection name and resolver address with your own values:
nmcli connection show
nmcli connection modify "YOUR_CONNECTION_NAME" ipv4.dns "YOUR_ADGUARD_IP"
nmcli connection down "YOUR_CONNECTION_NAME"
nmcli connection up "YOUR_CONNECTION_NAME"These are NetworkManager commands, not a universal Linux procedure. Check the active connection and verify the resulting DNS configuration on your distribution.
Step 3: Create a local DNS rewrite for each service
In AdGuard Home, the example uses Filters → DNS rewrites. Add a hostname and the IP address to which it should resolve. For the shared-host arrangement here, that address is the reverse proxy host—not the backend service’s port.
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Prakash uses jellyfin.internal as an example name and points it at the proxy host. The suffix .local is associated with multicast DNS systems such as Bonjour and Avahi and can behave inconsistently in this kind of setup. His article describes .lan and .home as names that could become real domains, identifies .home.arpa as an official alternative, and reports that ICANN reserved .internal for private networks in 2024. These suffix notes are the article’s explanation; the reservation claim is not independently established by the sources cited here.
A rewrite only resolves a name to an address. If Jellyfin and Home Assistant use different ports on the same machine, DNS cannot tell those requests apart; the proxy rule handles that distinction.
Step 4: Configure Nginx Proxy Manager to route hostnames
NPM listens for web traffic and selects a proxy host based on the requested hostname. Its rule then forwards the request to the backend address and port. The NPM administrative interface is separate from the service-facing HTTP and HTTPS listeners.
For jellyfin.internal, Prakash’s example rule forwards to the Jellyfin backend on port 8097. The DNS rewrite sends the name to the proxy host; the proxy rule maps the name to that backend. For another service, create its own rewrite and proxy-host rule, using that service’s actual port. If the backend runs on another device, use its reserved or otherwise stable address.
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The official NPM setup page, checked 2026-10-03, shows Docker image jc21/nginx-proxy-manager:2.16.0 and example port mappings 80:80 for HTTP, 443:443 for HTTPS, and 81:81 for the admin interface. It lists amd64 and arm64 support; armv7 is no longer supported from version 2.14 onward, with version 2.13.7 noted for users who need that architecture. Check the official page for current setup instructions before deploying, since versions and support can change.
The NPM homepage describes proxy hosts, a configuration interface, Docker, and built-in Let’s Encrypt support. Those capabilities do not mean local .internal HTTPS is already configured. Prakash left SSL unconfigured for his local names and described HTTPS as future work; his setup therefore demonstrates local HTTP naming and routing, not working HTTPS certificates.
Step 5: Test access and diagnose failures
Test a service directly on its backend address and port, then test it through its hostname. That isolates whether the service itself is reachable or whether DNS, proxy routing, or service trust settings are the problem.
When a name does not resolve
- Verify the rewrite’s hostname and IP address, and confirm the address is still assigned to the proxy host.
- Check that the client is using the local resolver; a device that bypasses it or sends the request to a public fallback may not know the private record.
- Reconnect or renew the client’s network lease after changing router or DNS settings, then inspect resolver state where the operating system provides that information.
When the proxy cannot connect or another app owns a port
Check which process is listening before changing NPM’s intended listener. On Linux, ss can show listening sockets; docker ps shows running containers and their port mappings. Prakash found port 80 already occupied by a host dashboard, moved that dashboard to port 8888, and rebooted after an installer continued to report the old conflict. That was a platform-specific fix, not a reason to move another service without identifying the process first.
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When direct access works but the proxy returns an error
Home Assistant worked directly for Prakash but returned 400: Bad Request through NPM until the proxy was explicitly trusted. Follow the service’s own trusted-proxy guidance and use a narrowly correct address or network range. Container IP addresses can change when containers are recreated, so a trust rule based on an old address may stop working; avoid broad trust settings that do not match the actual network.
When an app stops connecting after enabling filtering
Prakash reports that AdGuard filtering interfered with a Netflix TV app because telemetry hostnames were blocked; allowlist rules resolved his case. This is a report about his setup, not evidence that every AdGuard installation blocks Netflix or that his allowlist rules are suitable for other networks. Inspect the resolver’s query and filtering logs for the affected device before allowing a domain.
What this setup does—and does not—solve
The names in this design resolve only for clients using the configured home-network DNS. A reverse proxy does not make a private hostname reachable from outside the home. Remote access is a separate choice; Prakash names a VPN approach such as Tailscale. Decide how external access should work independently, rather than exposing services on the assumption that local DNS or NPM provides remote access.
The choice of NPM over another proxy is also situational. Prakash chose it over Caddy because it was available as a one-click ZimaOS app and had a web interface. That explains his convenience choice, not a measured performance or security advantage. Router-managed records may be simpler when a router supports the needed local DNS features; a dedicated resolver such as AdGuard Home offers the rewrite controls and query logs used here, but adds a service that must stay available.
Do these 3 things before closing this tab:
1Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems2Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches3Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsPrakash describes the result in his own setup: “Now I just type jellyfin.internal in the browser. No IP, no port number.” It is a useful pattern for the same annoyance, provided the network, resolver, proxy, and service-specific settings are adapted to the reader’s environment.
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