Tutorials/Shelter defense

Non- explosive resistant houses
If your house isn't made of one, you should always have a Moat, Man Made Lake, or something of that sort around your shelter to protect from creepers.

To make a Moat you can dig a 2 wide and 3 deep row that stretches along the perimeter of your house. Depending on how deep your moat is, as well as the availability of water (which should be available), sometimes it is not a good idea to fill your moat with water. Mobs can swim, making your work useless. You could also fill your moat with Lava, but lava is a bit expensive (due to availability and you cannot make an infinite lava source) and you will lose all mob droppings in the lava. It can also be dangerous for yourself, if you somehow fall in.

Alternatively, make a fence with iron bars; it defends the house and catches the explosion.

Explosive resistant houses
Explosive resistant houses are fairly easy to build, and aren't extremely expensive. However, they can be time consuming, depending on the materials used. Stone or Cobblestone is an easy, cheap way to build a home, but it can be destroyed by an explosion close by. A home made out of Bricks is extremely effective against explosions, but is expensive and very time consuming. Clay, Wood and a Furnace are required to make bricks, but you must have a good supply of Clay and Wood to consider. It's not a bad idea to use Bricks at the base of your home, then Cobblestone. Obsidian is another bast-resistant block, but is extremely expensive and hard to modify your house once built. Explosive resistent houses can be pointless if your house is small and you have a good supply of light for the area.

Other houses
You should have many windows, so as to be aware of any Mobs around. Light your houses and surrounding area well! It is suggested to have a Automatic Door or Minefield surrounding your house.

Security
It can come in handy if you have some security systems up. Here are some ideas:

•	Alarm, to make a alarm you will need: at least 1 pressure plate, a lot of redstone dust, and at least 1 note block. First put pressure plate(s) around the location you manly go, try to keep them separated as much as possible (optional). Then put the note block(s) inside your location and attach the note block(s) to the pressure plate(s) with redstone wire and you are done so whenever a mob or a player walks on a pressure plate then the note block(s) will make you aware of it.

•	A self destruct system might be useful, to prevent others in SMP from stealing things. For this to work, the TNT has to be concealed in a wall, and there should be redstone (that is concealed) attached to a button to activate the TNT. It is also recommended that you have a blast-proof room where you store/hide in before you activate the self destruct. The button should also be in this room.

Snow golem towers
To prevent any mobs getting near you, you can put some towers with snow golems behind a hole with lava, the snow golems will throw snow balls to the mobs and they will fall into the lava. this will NOT work with skeletons because they don't need to be near in order to fight