Glad to help!

Glad I could help

Glad it helped.

@@GaryExplains Gary do you mind me asking, what is your professional background?

I have an honors degree with a major in computer science. I worked for 10 years as a software engineer before moving to writing and content creation.

@@GaryExplains Excellent, I work at an Australian University and was an electronics tech before moving to PC support. Never lost my love of doing this stuff. I am the only one in our orbit that knows anything about analogue, and the newer kids don't even try. Not their fault, just that everything else is now modular and easy to jig together. I have had a wonderful life doing this stuff. OK, all the best and will look you up on your site. Again, best wishes from Oz and Happy Easter.

MARK ‼️

I'm using a PI 3 and NodeRED. My sensor is a BME280 which does temperature, humidity and pressure.

Have a look at the MQTT topic standard for publishing data for home automation. So you don't get a flat topic structure, which isn't that efficient.

Using a VPN is indeed a safe and relatively easy way to make it accessible. Setting up a reverse proxy with Apache httpd or NGINX needs a bit more care to keep it safe.

I did. It is in my GitHub repo.

In my GitHub repo. Just Google "Gary Explains GitHub"

I don't understand the question, why does my choice of microcontroller board elicit a "why not use X" question? Why not use a Pico W? Why not use a ESP32-C3? You can use whatever controller you want, that is why I wrote the code using Arduino. Your choice.

@@GaryExplains both are supported by arduino IDE, one have native Wi-Fi support the other one does not. One is cheaper etc

Now I am even more confused. What was the exact purpose of your original question?

Why on earth use the ESP8266? Because it is what you have at home? Well, then use that. No one stop you, and this will still be useful for you, if you chose to do so...