Builder energy meets practical guides. I curate resources, run projects, and share the playbooks behind LANs, servers, and creative tech.
TekTinkers has gone through many names, revisions and changes. These have all had a significant impact on learning how to make the next version better. Starting as just a basic white html page to give my kids and their friends links to resources and notes, like how to log into the Garage LAN’s Wi-Fi, TekTinkers now highlights a collection of resources and activities that have been added over the years.
All of this really started with Minecraft.
Use left/right arrows to navigate slides.
Being the single parent that dismissed Minecraft initially, 3 keys were bought to play Minecraft Java. One for each of my kids and my key actually came later. Both kids were playing for a few days and wanted to play together, only the world was not available 24/7, only if one kid had their world online from their PC. They begged for a world that could be online 24/7 and my key was used for that, only I had to be online. Being inconvenient for myself, trying to do work with a Minecraft world running in the background, it was time to build a server.
After dusting off an old PC, learning windows, security, networking and basic router functions, the Minecraft server was up and running. The kids begged to make the Minecraft server so their friends could join from school and from all over the world. Learning more about advanced networking, security, routing and DNS, we had our first public server. Not having a way to communicate with their friends, another smaller PC was configured to host a TeamSpeak server. Lastly, Minecraft gaming parties were requested and with some help from my mentor at the SBA (Small Business Administration), the garage was volunteered as LAN Center.
Future challenges including constantly working with Network Lag for the players within the LAN and outside the LAN from across the world. Hardware issues, what is better to run Minecraft on, Windows or Linux, what distro and what flavor of Minecraft is used, Network issues, the ISP only providing 35Mbps Up / 250Mbps Down, newer technologies that can be utilized and implemented to make the experience better, were sought out constantly.
Minecraft and the Garage LAN directed me to go to school. Signing up for classes in Network Administration, anything learned in class was implemented in the Garage LAN and toward the Minecraft server, to include all other servers running, since things had grown. Classmates came to the Garage to learn, Professors asked to take field trips to the Garage so the students could see a piece of the Cloud in real time.
Being fascinating and fun, it is time to finish up my education, get that Diploma and pursue a career in IT while keeping a Minecraft server online and further developing this webpage.
On November 2, a team of gamers ran a 10-hour Twitch livestream playing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and raised over $72,000 for the non-profit organization, Boot Campaign.
Gaming marathons to benefit children’s hospitals via Extra Life.
Setup, administration, and teardown for an overnight eSports fundraising event at Horizon Church.
Nov 2017 — Setup, administration, and teardown for a weekend gaming fundraiser and Star Wars Battlefront II release party at Mango’s.
Volunteered to setup, run, and teardown 100–500 person LANs with LANFest. Helped raise money for Make-A-Wish.
2017 — Repainted a graffiti-covered wall near the school to clean up the area. Invited the artists to help and contribute positively to the community while the “Gaming Garage” was open.
Razer reached out and offered a sponsorship to help reduce overall costs of our favorite peripherals.
The Sincerest Thank You of all!
After asking where to purchase a fridge to put in the Garage LAN for my kids and their friends to grab drinks from, Coke replied, “Hold my Coke” and sent one!
Thank You So Much!
Join Community