Before plugging in devices and setting IP addresses, it helps to step back and plan out your network. Even a small homelab can benefit from basic documentation and a network diagram. It doesn’t need to be perfect or professional. It just needs to make sense to you.

This guide walks you through how to think about your network, sketch it out, and document it in a way that makes scaling or troubleshooting easier later.

Why Planning Matters

A lot of people build their homelab one device at a time, which works—until something breaks, you run out of IP addresses, or you forget how things are connected.

Even a minimal plan can help you:

• Avoid IP conflicts
• Organize your hardware more cleanly
• Add new services without rewiring or reconfiguring everything
• Reduce guesswork when something goes offline

What to Think About First

Start by answering a few basic questions:

• What do I want to run?
  Media server? Self-hosted services? A hypervisor with VMs or containers?

• What do I already have?
  List your router, switches, Wi-Fi access points, desktops, servers, Raspberry Pis, etc.

• What IP ranges will I use?
  Many home networks default to 192.168.0.0/24 or 192.168.1.0/24. That’s fine, but consider:
  • Reserving static IPs for core services
  • Using DHCP for desktops, laptops, phones, etc.
• Do I care about isolation or VLANs?
  If not now, you might later—good to plan room for it.

Drawing a Simple Network Map

You don’t need Visio or fancy tools. A hand-drawn sketch or something made with draw.io or LibreOffice is more than enough.

At a minimum, your map should show:

• Core devices (router, switch, firewall)
• Connections between them
• Static IP addresses
• Device names and roles

Here’s a text-based example:

Internet
│
Modem
│
Router (192.168.1.1)
├── Switch
│ ├── NAS (192.168.1.10)
│ ├── Proxmox Host (192.168.1.20)
│ └── Media Server (192.168.1.30)
└── Wi-Fi Access Point (192.168.1.2)

You can expand this as you grow. Just keep it readable.

What to Document

You don’t need a wiki or a database. A plain spreadsheet or Markdown file will do. At minimum, track:

Save your documentation somewhere safe. If it contains credentials, encrypt the file or use a secure password manager.

Leave Room to Grow

Your network will probably grow, even if slowly. A little planning now makes it easier later.

• Leave gaps in your IP range for future devices.
• Use consistent naming (e.g., vm-web01, vm-dns01, srv-media).
• Back up configuration files and take notes after changes.
• If you’re thinking about VLANs, subnets, or separate zones for IoT or guests, document how you expect those to connect.

Helpful Tools

You can keep this simple or go deeper depending on your needs.

For diagrams:

• draw.io (now diagrams.net)
• LibreOffice Draw
• Pen and paper

For documentation:

• LibreOffice Calc or Excel
• Markdown files
• Git repo (if you want change tracking)

Optional (advanced):

• NetBox — for large or complex environments

Wrapping Up

You don’t need to be a network engineer to keep your homelab organized. Planning and documenting a few key details will save you time later when things change or break.

In the next guide, we’ll look at choosing the right hardware for your homelab—whether to go with pro-grade gear, consumer options, or a mix of both.