this post was submitted on 19 Aug 2023
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Selfhosted

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Ok, how do I start self-hosting? (sopuli.xyz)
submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/selfhosted
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I've been following this community for some time in order to learn about self-hosting and, while I have learnt about a bunch of cool web services to host, I'm still lost on where/how to start. Does anyone have, like, a very beginner guide that is not just "install this distro and click these buttons"? I have an old laptop that runs Arch (btw), but I'm not familiar with networking at all. So anything starting from "you can check your IP address using ip a" would be appreciated.

More specifically, I have a domain that I want to point to an old laptop of mine (I intend to switch to a VPS if/when I feel like the laptop is starting to lose it). How do I expose my laptop to the internet for this to work (ideally without touching my router, because I'll be traveling quite a bit with my laptop and don't mind the occasional downtime). I assume that once I'm able to type my domain name on my mobile and see it open anything from my laptop, I can then setup all the services I want via nginx, but that's step 2. I tried to follow a few online guides but, like I mentioned, they're either too simplistic (no I don't want to move to Ubuntu Server just for this) or too complex (no I don't know how DHCP works).

Thanks in advance

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Buy a Raspberry Pi or other SBC, firewall it from the open internet (so it's only accessible from your home LAN) and start installing stuff like nextcloud and jellyfin on it. See if you can access the files from your other devices. That might be a good start.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Going for a RasPi might be a bigger hassle for me due to the market, but I suppose I can try the rest on my laptop as easily. Thanks!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Np :) are Rpis still in short supply? There are other good SBCs, notably odroid. Rpi has excellent community and support but if you are after hardware power you'll be better off with other brands.

In terms of electricity- laptop is about 65W and SBC is about 4W. If you have a server that you never shut down, the difference will add up.

Gl, hf!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I think you can get the full Orange Pi kit (Pi + sd + power adapter + case) for around 60 bucks on Amazon. There's also the option of going with a mini PC, you could find them from around 120 bucks.

I know you're not asking for hardware recommendations, but using an old PC may increase your electric bill way more than any of these options, so that's something to bear in mind.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

That's fair too. I was just trying to get some use out of my old device, but I think it'll be better if I simply use to run some CLI tools via SSH that I don't want running on my main device :P