about.shephard.cc

About Me

I’m a husband and father of two with a deep passion for IT. For the past six years, I’ve been self-employed, managing a mix of auctions, computer reselling, battery repair, and real estate, which has allowed me to comfortably provide for my family. However, the unpredictability of self-employment has motivated me to seek a stable career in the tech industry. I’ve earned a couple IT certifications to demonstrate my knowledge and commitment. While my professional background spans various fields like real estate and handyman services, my true passion has always been technology. I’ll also share more about my homelabs and notable tech achievements later.

Contact Details

Alex Shephard
1001 2nd Ave
Evansdale, IA 50707 US
319-830-5414
alex@shephard.cc

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Certifications

Course Careers is an online certification that outlines entry level IT stuff and does lots of practice labs and handling of tickets. I scored a 94% on my final exam and completed the class in just a couple weeks.

TryHackMe is a website that I purchased a membership for to understand the basics on cybersecuirty. Its hands-on and is a platform which you can learn at your own pace. They offer "paths" that consist of lessons and vulnerable computers that you learn how to eploit and hack.

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Skills

I use Debian/Linux as my primary operating system and rarely find the need to switch. Using a Linux desktop daily has made me comfortable navigating through the system via the command-line interface (CLI).
I have extensive experience with virtualization in my personal homelab, where I regularly build virtual machines (VMs) with appropriately sized specs, necessary hardware passed through, and correctly configured IP settings.
While automation and scripting are not my strong suit, I often rely on tools like ChatGPT to help fill in the gaps and generate code when needed. Although I can read and understand code, I’m still working on writing it from scratch.
My time on TryHackMe has provided me with a solid foundation in creating secure systems and avoiding exposed services. I have a basic understanding of how to exploit vulnerabilities, which has reinforced the importance of properly configured firewalls and security measures.
I have some experience with configuring Active Directory and setting up Windows Server. While I am more comfortable with Linux, I can navigate the Windows operating system with ease.
My homelab, detailed below, highlights my strengths in network configuration and management.

Linux
Virtualization
Automation and Scripting
Security Management
Windows Serverr
Networking

My Homelab

My homelab contains a server made out of some old hardware I had laying around and an old laptop that I have plugged in under my desk running quietly away. The server has an old 3rd gen i7 processor, 12tb of storage, and 16gb of DDR3. The goal is to eventually get an identical 12tb hard drive to run them in RAID 1. My server is running Proxmox Virtual Environment for its OS. Within it I have 4 main VM's/LXC's that I run. They are Docker, Tailscale, TrueNAS, and Windows. I also tend to have a separate Debian VM when I am testing.

Docker Containers:

FreshRSS: RSS newsfeed. Gives me all the news I want and none of it I don't.
Full-Text RSS: Allows me to read the full text behind RSS feeds that are otherwise behind a paywall.
Nginxproxymanager: Redirects traffic to assigned domain and gives them an SSL certificate. Allows me to view everything with a domain name rather than remembering IP addresses with port numbers.
Internet Speedtest: Runs regularly scheduled speed tests on my network to make sure everything is running smoothly.
Homepage: Dashboard configured through .yaml files that brings all my services plus a few other things to my default homepage of my web browser.
Tailscale: Tailscale is run on all of my devices to allow things to be accessed remotely through a VPN.

TrueNAS:

Plex: Self-hosted media server with movies and TV shows that can be watched from anywhere.
Netboot.xyz: Allows me to PXE boot new devices and VMs to download new Operating systems.
Immich: Automatically backs up photos from linked accounts for my wife and I. This replaced Google Drive/Photos for my family.

My laptop is running Prowlarr, Sonarr, and Radarr alongside qBittorrent. I use these applications to torrent public domain music, movies, TV shows, as well as ISO files. I use the laptop mainly for extra horsepower because my main server is pretty old and needs an upgrade to run many more applications. It also has the benefit of being able to connect with NordVPN and keeping my other server available to local clients.

I have a domain registered through Cloudflare which allows me to host my website as well as have a custom email address. My website is hosted on Github, but I have future plans to self-host my website on a Raspberry Pi through a reverse proxy on its own VLAN for security reasons.

I have older security cameras that have reached EOL so the ethernet cable has been pulled on those and are for local viewing only now. In the future I will have security cameras running on their own VLAN as well.

Another addition I will have in the future is IoT smarthome devices. These will include power monitoring, HVAC control, light switching/dimming, and blinds. These will be on a separate VLAN as well. They will also be hosted with Home Assistant to have everything in one place.

My Unifi Cloud Gateway router also serves as my firewall and DNS server. I have an ad blocker and pretty standard firewall rules in place and several domains are routed through there to my reverse proxy in order to resolve the IP:port into a domain.