A Bit About Timothy Hamilton

After more than 15 years in healthcare, I decided to make a career change. In January of 2021 I began taking computer related courses at the State College of Florida. To supplement my coursework I began building a home lab. I started small by building a desktop computer which eventually became a server housing a few virtual machines.

When that no longer suited my needs, I built a tower server. The tower server allowed me to run a bare metal hypervisor and create several more virtual machines. I elected to use Proxmox as the hypervisor and then I created a Windows domain with Windows Server 2019. My Active Directory forest contained Windows 10, 11, and Ubuntu clients. I configured the routing service in Active Directory to allow all of the clients to access the internet through the Domain Controller.

I then began experimenting with Docker containers. First, I created a Docker container to run Adguard, which I still use as a DNS based ad-blocker. The second project I completed with Docker was a container running Apache Guacamole. Guacamole is an application that allows for remote access via a web browser. My initial configuration was not ideal because port forwarding was required to access the machines from outside my home lab. Once I learned about Cloudflare zero trust tunnels, I was able to use Guacamole without opening or forwarding any ports.

In April of 2023 I began working in IT full-time in a help desk role. I then moved into a desktop support and systems analysis role. Aside from the normal desktop support functions, I work with end users to evaluate and implement systems to improve workflow. Upon completion of the Computer Information Technology program at the State College of Florida, I plan to further by education my obtaining industry certifications.