How I Broke My Own Wi-Fi

It all started as a simple home project—optimise the network, tighten up security, and get smarter about device management. What actually happened? I accidentally knocked every device in my flat offline.

The Plan

I'd just picked up a Raspberry Pi and decided to repurpose it as a network controller. The idea was solid: better security and more control over all the IoT devices cluttering my Wi-Fi.
My plan looked like this:

• Run a local DNS server
• Set up static IPs via DHCP for known devices
• Segment the network using VLANs

What Went Wrong

Here's where things unravelled. I made two rookie mistakes:

1. I forgot to document my router's original config
2. Enabled the Pi's DHCP server *without* turning off the router's DHCP

Result? IP address chaos. Devices didn't know where to connect, and the entire network crashed. No internet. No smart lights. Not even Spotify.

Recovery Mode

After a short panic, I got to work:

1. Powered off the Pi, which disconnected it from the network
2. Hard-reset the router
3. Reconfigured everything from scratch

Lesson learned?

Don't wing critical settings changes without backing up your config first.

One small misconfiguration for a man, one giant mess for my entire flat.