You can still edit titles you know

You are correct, there is a lot more to dive in like NAT, IPv6, static or dynamic address, UPnP, MAC address, subnet space etc.

But I wanted to keep it simple.

DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol ) is a communication protocol that is used to coordinate a network via a server. The server in most home cases is your internet router. It coordinates the network.

Think of your network as a town with streets, every street has a unique name aka network address. So when a new device gets into the town it gets a unique address in a certain format, when requested by the clients. Mostly IPv4 i.e. 192.168.178.20.

Second there are ports. Ports are the house numbers of the streets. So if two devices use the same IP they still can be differentiated by using different ports. To address a specific port you write it behind the IP, in our example 192.168.178.20:80. So we use port 80.

To come back to the beginning the router coordinates the IP addresses and the ports from your internal network via DHCP and makes sure every device is accessible and no doubles.

There is a lot more but very briefly this is it.

Check out FHEM, you connect them via MQTT

To report back, my system is up and running. Used my spare odroid xu4 with dietpi for it. Put it all in a case and attached a cheap Nooelec stick. Waiting for my antenna today and to decide where to put it under the roof.

Fine tuning for best reception location will be taking a while to be honest.

Uhh, this seems like a completely new rabbit hole to dive in.

For lurking without the need for an account I use this https://feddit.de/post/7289677 app on android