Available for collaboration

koalatech

Richard M. Pabelona Jr.

Network Engineer Professor Homelab Runner Smart Home Enthusiast

I run a homelab, tinker with smart home tech,
and publish setup guides for networking & home automation.

Explore Homelab Setup Guides
About me

Networks, Homelabs & Smart Homes

I’m Richard M. Pabelona Jr. — a networking technology enthusiast, homelab runner, and an associate professor passionate about tinkering with things, making sure those things work, and sharing that knowledge in the classroom and beyond.

My work sits at the intersection of hands-on networking, virtualization, and applied research. Whether I’m routing packets, spinning up VMs, or writing lecture materials, I’m always looking for the elegant solution underneath the complexity.

I run a homelab that mirrors real-world enterprise topologies — a testbed for learning, experimentation, and fun. My networking stack includes MikroTik, Cisco switches, and TP-Link gear, with simulation via Packet Tracer and GNS3.

I’m also deep into Smart Home technology — I have an existing smart home setup with various smart appliances and lighting, running Home Assistant on an LXC container, Google Home, Tuya / Smart Life, and Samsung SmartThings. I write setup guides covering all of these platforms.

Teaching

Associate Professor bridging theory and hands-on practice in networking and systems and other related courses.

Networking

Routing, switching, firewalls, and network automation in real and virtual environments.

Homelab

Self-hosted stack that evolves with every new technology worth exploring — and documented with step-by-step setup guides.

Smart Home

Home Assistant LXC, Google Home, Tuya, Smart Life, and Samsung SmartThings — smart appliances and lighting automation at home.

Skills & Focus

Areas of Expertise

  • Routing & Switching

    OSPF, BGP, VLANs, STP, and enterprise switching architectures.

  • Virtualization

    Hypervisors, VMs, containers, and software-defined infrastructure.

  • Network Automation

    Scripting, Ansible, Python automation, and infrastructure-as-code for network configs.

  • Security Basics

    Firewalls, ACLs, VPNs, DNS filtering, and network hardening fundamentals.

  • Teaching & Curriculum

    Designing courses, lab exercises, and learning resources for networking and systems and everything related to technology.

  • Smart Home

    Home Assistant, Google Home, Tuya, Smart Life, and Samsung SmartThings — smart appliances, lighting, and full home automation setups.

  • Setup Guides

    Step-by-step guides for networking gear (MikroTik, Cisco, TP-Link), simulation tools (Packet Tracer, GNS3), and smart home platforms.

My Stack

Homelab & Smart Home Stack

Networking gear, virtualization, and smart home platforms running in my home infrastructure.

  • Proxmox VE

    Open-source hypervisor platform running KVM virtual machines and LXC containers. The backbone of my homelab compute cluster.

    Hypervisor KVM LXC

  • Pi-hole

    Network-wide DNS sinkhole for ad and tracker blocking. Provides visibility into DNS queries across all devices on the network.

    DNS Ad-blocking Security

  • MikroTik CHR

    Cloud Hosted Router running RouterOS in a VM — used for advanced routing labs, MPLS experimentation, and firewall rule testing.

    RouterOS BGP MPLS

  • Alpine Linux

    Minimal, security-oriented Linux distribution used for lightweight containers and service VMs where footprint and attack surface matter.

    Linux Minimal Security

  • VMware Workstation

    Desktop hypervisor for rapid prototyping and pre-production testing of lab topologies before deploying them on the Proxmox cluster.

    VMware Desktop Prototyping

  • Home Assistant LXC

    Open-source home automation platform deployed as an LXC container on Proxmox. Central hub for all smart home devices, automations, and dashboards.

    Smart Home LXC Automation

  • Smart Home Platforms

    Google Home, Tuya, Smart Life, and Samsung SmartThings integrated throughout the home — controlling smart appliances, lighting, and other IoT devices.

    Google Home Tuya Smart Life SmartThings

  • Cisco Switches

    Cisco Catalyst switches for layer-2/3 enterprise switching labs. VLANs, STP, inter-VLAN routing, and access-list configurations on actual hardware.

    Cisco IOS VLAN STP

  • TP-Link Gear

    TP-Link access points and switches for Wi-Fi coverage and home network segmentation, complementing the MikroTik routing layer.

    Wi-Fi Access Points Switching

  • Packet Tracer & GNS3

    Cisco Packet Tracer for teaching and classroom simulations; GNS3 for advanced multi-vendor topologies mirroring real production environments.

    Packet Tracer GNS3 Simulation
Work in progress

Projects, Labs & Setup Guides

Selected repos, lab write-ups, setup guides, and ongoing experiments.

  • Public

    koalatech.github.io

    This site — personal landing page and portfolio built as a static GitHub Pages site with a dark network-themed aesthetic.

    View on GitHub
  • Coming soon

    Network Lab Topologies

    Documented GNS3 / EVE-NG topologies for OSPF, BGP, MPLS, and more — used in classroom demonstrations.

    Work in progress
  • Coming soon

    Homelab Ansible Playbooks

    Idempotent playbooks for provisioning and configuring Proxmox guests, Pi-hole, and network devices.

    Work in progress
  • Coming soon

    Lecture Notes & Resources

    Open teaching materials covering networking fundamentals, protocols, and hands-on lab guides.

    Work in progress
  • Coming soon

    Smart Home Setup Guides

    Step-by-step guides for Home Assistant LXC, Google Home, Tuya, Smart Life, and Samsung SmartThings — covering setup, integration, and automation.

    Work in progress
  • Coming soon

    Networking Setup Guides

    Practical configuration guides for MikroTik, Cisco switches, and TP-Link — plus simulation walkthroughs using Packet Tracer and GNS3.

    Work in progress
Get in touch

Contact & Links

Reach out for collaborations, questions, or just to talk networking.