Understanding Docker networking is essential for any homelab. After running 150+ containers across 4 Proxmox hosts, here is what I learned about bridge vs overlay networks.
Bridge Networks
The default bridge driver creates an isolated network on a single host. Containers can talk to each other by name, but cannot reach containers on other hosts without port mapping.
docker network create --driver bridge myapp-net\ndocker run -d --network myapp-net --name app nginx\ndocker run -d --network myapp-net --name db postgres\n# app can ping db by nameOverlay Networks
Overlay networks span multiple Docker hosts using VXLAN tunnels. This is how Docker Swarm connects services across nodes — each container gets an IP in the overlay subnet regardless of which physical host it runs on.
Pro tip: avoid overlay networks unless you are running Swarm. For multi-host homelab setups, just expose ports and use a reverse proxy like NPM or Traefik.
Leave a Reply