Alwyn Soh | Blog

Why I Built FoodieTrack

Sat, 27 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

FoodieTrack is a Telegram-based meal tracker built to make logging meals quick, simple, and effortless.

🌐 https://foodietrack.com
🤖 https://foodietrack.app

The Problem

Most meal tracking apps have one thing in common: they ask you to do too much.

Open the app.
Wait for it to load.
Search for the food.
Choose the correct entry.
Adjust the serving size.
Save it.

Repeat that for every meal, every day.

Eventually, many people stop logging—not because they don’t care about their health, but because the process becomes too much work. That’s why I built FoodieTrack.

How to Set Up OpenClaw — Your Personal AI Agent

Sun, 05 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

OpenClaw is an open-source AI assistant that runs on your own machine, connects to messaging platforms, and can automate tasks, check emails, manage calendars, and more. Unlike cloud-based AI assistants, OpenClaw runs locally — giving you control over your data and flexibility in how your AI assistant behaves.

In this guide, I’ll walk you through setting up OpenClaw on a Windows machine (though it supports Linux and macOS too).

🧰 What You’ll Need

A computer (Windows 10/11, Linux, or macOS)
A Telegram account (for bot integration)
An API key from a model provider (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, etc.)

⚙️ Step 1: Install OpenClaw

The installer script automatically detects your OS and installs Node.js if needed.

How to Secure SSH with Tailscale on a Linux VPS

Tue, 10 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Your Linux VPS is probably one of your most exposed assets. It’s constantly scanned, probed, and targeted by bots running brute force attacks on port 22. In this guide, I’ll show you how to restrict SSH on your Linux VPS so it’s only accessible via Tailscale — keeping port 22 closed to the public internet.

🧰 What You’ll Need

A Linux VPS running Ubuntu, Debian, or AlmaLinux/Rocky
Tailscale installed on your VPS
SSH access to your VPS
Another device with Tailscale to test the connection

⚙️ Step 1: Install Tailscale on Your VPS

Ubuntu/Debian

curl -fsSL https://tailscale.com/install.sh | sh

AlmaLinux/Rocky

curl -fsSL https://tailscale.com/install.sh | sh

Start Tailscale

tailscale up

Log in with your Tailscale account when prompted. Once connected, your VPS has a Tailscale IP address (typically in the 100.64.0.0/10 range).

How to Secure SSH with Tailscale on Synology NAS

Sun, 25 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Exposing SSH directly to the internet is risky. Even with a strong password or key-based auth, brute force attacks are constant. In this guide, I’ll show you how to restrict SSH on your Synology NAS so it’s only accessible via Tailscale — keeping port 22 closed to the public internet.

🧰 What You’ll Need

A Synology NAS running DSM 7+ (or DSM 6)
Tailscale installed on your Synology NAS
Admin access to Synology (for firewall configuration)
Another device with Tailscale to test the connection

⚙️ Step 1: Install Tailscale on Synology

Open Package Center on your Synology NAS
Search for Tailscale
Install the Tailscale app
Log in with your Tailscale account (or create a free one)

Once connected, your Synology NAS is now part of your tailnet and has a Tailscale IP address (typically in the 100.64.0.0/10 range).

Tailscale vs Cloudflare Tunnel: Free Tier Comparison

Tue, 20 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Both Tailscale and Cloudflare Tunnel (cloudflared) offer free tiers that are popular among self-hosters and home lab enthusiasts. But they work differently under the hood, and each has its strengths. In this guide, I’ll break down the key differences so you can pick the right tool for your setup.

🧰 What You’ll Need

A service or device you want to expose remotely (NAS, home server, IoT devices)
A domain (optional but recommended for Cloudflare Tunnel)
Basic comfort with command line / Docker

⚙️ How They Work: Architecture

Tailscale — Mesh VPN

Tailscale creates a mesh VPN — a virtual private network where devices connect directly to each other peer-to-peer. Traffic flows encrypted from device to device, without passing through a middleman. Tailscale uses WireGuard under the hood for end-to-end encryption.

How to Install Nginx Proxy Manager on Synology NAS (DSM 7.2+)

Sat, 15 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Nginx Proxy Manager (NPM) is a free, open-source reverse proxy tool with a powerful web interface. It lets you expose your self-hosted services to the internet with free automatic SSL certificates — without needing to know Nginx configuration syntax.

In this guide, I’ll walk you through installing Nginx Proxy Manager on your Synology NAS using Docker.

🧰 What You’ll Need

A Synology NAS running DSM 7.2+ (or Docker for older DSM versions)
Container Manager installed (from Package Center)
SSH access to your NAS
A domain pointed to your home IP (via Cloudflare or similar)

⚠️ Important: Nginx Proxy Manager requires ports 80 and 443. If you have Web Station or DSM’s built-in web services using these ports, uninstall them first.

How to Set Up IMAP in Outlook (Windows / macOS)

Wed, 24 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol) keeps your email synced across all your devices. Read an email on your phone? It’ll show as read on your laptop. Delete something? Gone everywhere. It’s the superior choice for anyone using multiple devices.

In this guide, I’ll walk you through setting up IMAP in Microsoft Outlook on both Windows and macOS.

🧰 What You’ll Need

Your email address (e.g. you@example.com)
Your email account password
IMAP server settings (hostname, port, encryption)
SMTP (outgoing) server settings
Microsoft Outlook installed

💡 If you don’t know your IMAP/SMTP settings, check with your email provider — most list them in their support documentation.

Maintenance Page with Cloudflare Workers

Sun, 21 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Sometimes you need to take a service offline — upgrades, migrations, or just fixing the mess you accidentally deployed at 2 AM. Instead of letting users hit a broken site, you can drop in a lightweight maintenance page using a Cloudflare Worker. No servers, no Nginx rewrites, no duct tape. Just edge logic.

Why use a Worker?

Always on edge – served before any origin call, so downtime at the backend doesn’t matter.
Simple rollback – one click deploy/remove in the Cloudflare dashboard.
Cheap – Workers free tier covers most maintenance use cases.

The Worker script

Here’s a minimal example:

Access Synology NAS Securely Using Cloudflare Tunnel

Fri, 04 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Exposing services like Synology DSM, File Station, or Photos should never mean opening ports to the internet. In this guide, I’ll walk through setting up Cloudflare Tunnel on a Synology NAS the easy way — no port forwarding, no headaches.

🧰 What You’ll Need

A domain managed in Cloudflare
Cloudflare Zero Trust enabled (free tier works)
SSH and Docker access on your Synology NAS (DSM 7+ preferred)

⚙️ Step 1: Create the Tunnel in Cloudflare

Log into Cloudflare Zero Trust
Go to Access → Tunnels
Click Create a Tunnel
Give it a name like synology-nas
For the connector, select Docker
Copy the generated docker run command — it includes your tunnel ID and credentials

💡 Keep this tab open. You’ll run the Docker command on your NAS in the next step.

Why I Chose Cloudflare Pages Over Netlify

Sun, 29 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Both Netlify and Cloudflare Pages are excellent platforms for deploying static sites. After testing both for my personal blog and projects, I chose Cloudflare — here’s why it won me over.

🧰 What You’ll Need

A domain (managed in Cloudflare recommended)
A static site generator (Hugo, Astro, etc.)
GitHub or GitLab repository for CI/CD

⚙️ Why Cloudflare?

🔗 Built-in DNS Integration

My domains were already managed through Cloudflare DNS, which means full control with fast propagation, CNAME flattening, and tight integration. Keeping everything under one roof reduces friction.

Firefox Browser in Synology Docker

Tue, 28 Feb 2023 05:58:40 +0000

Purchases made on this page help support my site. I may earn a small commission when you purchase through links on our site.

Why would you need a functioning web browser in your Synology? Aren’t we already using a web browser when accessing the Synology?

Easy, at times you need a web browser which is on your LAN, maybe to manage local services when you’re remote. It’s not exactly the same as using a VPN service, especially when you are working from a borrowed/work PC that has web filtering in place.

Pixelfed🇸🇬 is now Live!

Fri, 24 Feb 2023 02:05:58 +0000

Pixelfed.SG instance is Live but Pixelfed is technically still a v0. During our beta launch, we’ve taken the time to learn how Pixelfed ticks. And we are satisfied to go live.

We’ve been listed on Pixelfed.org!
https://pixelfed.org/servers/41/pixelfed.sg

Servers listed are required to adhere to the Privacy Pledge:

No analytics or 3rd party trackers
User data is not sold to any 3rd parties
Data is stored securely in accordance with industry standards
Admin accounts are protected with 2FA
Follow strict support procedures to keep your accounts safe
Give at least 6 months warning in the event we shut down

In the back, we can see that a Pixelfed instance doesn’t require much CPU or RAM.
At least for a small instance, but we have the resources to scale up (maybe to about 1k+ active Users).

Redirect Backblaze B2 not_found with Cloudflare Worker

Wed, 22 Feb 2023 10:14:21 +0000

Backblaze combined with Cloudflare seems to make the most sense if you’re selfhosting, that’s because Cloudflare is Backblaze’s Bandwidth Alliance partner.
What that means is that we can take advantage of Cloudflare’s performance and free data transfer between Backblaze B2 and Cloudflare. Mainly because of $0 Egress fees.

Now you’ll notice when accessing the B2 path that no longer available or invalid you’d see this:

{
  "code": "not_found",
  "message": "File with such name does not exist.",
  "status": 404
}

Doesn’t look very nice does it? Now insert Cloudflare Worker to the picture. Using the worker, we can automatically redirect the User when they encounter the Error 404.

Experimenting Pixelfed

Fri, 17 Feb 2023 02:54:29 +0000

Ever since working on Mastodon.SG, I’ve noticed Pixelfed and it’s potential. So I’ve decided to selfhost another decentralized social platform.

Welcome Pixelfed🇸🇬!

Pixelfed.SG is hosted in Singapore and it serves as a replacement to Instagram. The difference is, privacy. Pixelfed will not dump ads on you. We will not collect & sell your information.

The infrastructure is hosted together with Mastodon.SG, domain (pixelfed.sg) recently purchased, using SMTP2GO for emails, Backblaze B2 for object storage and Cloudflare for CDN.

Crosspost From Mastodon To Twitter or vice versa

Sat, 11 Feb 2023 02:00:08 +0000

Some still have lives in Twitter and find it hard to let go, they might want to keep followers from both sides updated as well.

There are tools like Moa and Crossposter. But these services are shutting down ever since Twitter decides to limit their API and start charging it.

Why not just “do it yourself” and use IFTTT? IFTTT free plan allows you to create 2 apps. Which is perfect for what we want to do here.

Mastodon v4.1.0 is out!

Sat, 11 Feb 2023 01:23:01 +0000

Mastodon has just released v4.1.0 stable version and there are tons of features and fixes to it. Here are some of the noteable features and fixes.

New Features:

Add option to make the landing page be /about even when trends are enabled
Add tootctl accounts prune, delete any remote account that is never interacted with local
Add support for importing/exporting server-wide domain blocks
Add setting for status page URL
Change API rate limits from 300/5min per user to 1500/5min per user, 300/5min per app

Fixes:

Generating a Token on Mastodon

Fri, 10 Feb 2023 05:00:53 +0000

Mastodon is very flexible and useful, there are plenty of APIs available to play around with.
To make use of most of the APIs, you’ll need to generate a token and grant specific permissions to it.

Here’s how you do it:

Login to your Mastodon instance, ie. https://mastodon.sg
Go to Preference -> Development, click on New Application.
Enter the name of the Application and modify the scopes required.
*It is not recommended to give read:all or write:all

How to setup WordPress on Synology Docker

Wed, 08 Feb 2023 04:00:09 +0000

WordPress is the easiest blogging platform to host, so why not selfhost and use your own domain without paying extra for that feature?

Synology has an existing package for WordPress, should you use that? Or what if you have more than 1 webpage to host? You might even consider using the new mulit-site feature on WordPress.
Otherwise, here’s how you can set it up on Synology Docker.

Prerequisites

Go to Package Center and install Docker

Tapbots Releases New Ivory Beta v1.0.2

Mon, 06 Feb 2023 23:57:44 +0000

Guys at Tapbots has just released a new beta v1.0.2 (10200) for Ivory which has a whole slew of yummies!

What’s new:

Edit Profile. You can now edit your profile within the app by going to your account settings or from the profile tab.
Follow Request Actions. Private accounts can now approve or deny follow requests from the notifications tab.
“Read More” posts within a post thread are now automatically expanded.
“View Faves” and “View Boosts” added to the “long press” menu of their action icon.
Better indication that a timeline filter is active when you switch to a tab with an active filter. (Filter name will be displayed momentarily at the top of the timeline.)
Fixed issue where the “Filter User from Home” option was grayed out in iOS15 when adding someone to a list.
Fixed the quality of custom emoji displayed as a badge next the avatar. (Adding a custom emoji after your display name makes it an avatar badge in Ivory)
When replying to a content warning post, the preview of the post you are replying to will now be displayed in the compose view instead of hidden.
Fixed issues with the notification setting “All, People You Follow…”
Various other small bug fixes.

How to setup Ghost on Synology Docker

Mon, 06 Feb 2023 14:49:57 +0000

Ghost has recently started to support MySQL and dropped support for SQLite.

Here’s how you can set it up on Synology Docker.

Prerequisites

Go to Package Center and install Docker
Go to File stations and navigate to Docker folder
Create two folders, ghost-app and ghost-db
Open Docker on Synology and select Registry tab
Search for Ghost and MySQL, download both with latest tag
Buy me a drink on Ko-fi :)

How to update IP address on Cloudflare

Wed, 01 Feb 2023 13:13:00 +0000

Hosting your services from home? But ISP is providing Dynamic IP Address?

In my scenario, I’ll be using a Synology’s Task Scheduler and Cloudflare.

You’ll need to get all the details for the following variables

 #Email associated with your Cloudflare account
 EMAIL=""
 #Global API Key
 KEY=""
 #Unique ID provided by Cloudflare
 ZONE_ID=""

To get your KEY, go to your Cloudflare Profile > API Tokens and copy your Global API Key

How to self-host WriteFreely on a Synology

Tue, 31 Jan 2023 16:00:00 +0000

While most guides focuses on installing WriteFreely on Ubuntu or Docker (docker-compose), I could not find one that simply uses Synology with Docker.

And here’s how you do it:

Install Docker for your Synology.
Search and download algernon/writefreely.
Create a container with that image:
1. Select bridge network
2. Enable auto restart
3. Set your desired port, leaving the container port as 8080
4. Create a folder on your NAS and attach the folder here pointing to /data
5. Declare these two variables: WRITEFREELY_ADMIN_USERNAME and WRITEFREELY_ADMIN_PASSWORD
6. Start container
Buy me a drink on Ko-Fi :)