I am interested in tech and would say I have more knowledge about networking than the average person, but there’s still a lot that’s way above my head. I’ve played around with Pis a little and have set up things like home assistant and foundry VTT before.

I got my hands on an old machine from work and want to upgrade it with some of my spare hardware, and ideally have it set up as my single home server. I would like to host plex, a few foundry servers, home assistant, and use it as a NAS. Basically combine everything I have right now into one more powerful machine.

Thing is… It feels really overwhelming to try and start. I’m not sure really sure how to go about the whole endeavor. What OS do I use? Do I use VMs, docker containers, is there pro or cons one way or the other? How can I make sure they’re all accessible from the web securely?

Is there anything you guys can tell me to get me started? Some resources to walk me along setting a multipurpose home server?

  • Eddie@l.lucitt.com
    1·
    1 year ago

    I’m kinda in the same boat. Super into tech and computers and know my way around Windows, Mac, and a fair understanding of Debian based Linux… But self hosting still holds many questions to me.

    Today, i just discovered that you can use CloudFlare VPN tunneling to basically “convert” a local ISP provided IP directly to a public IP without the need for a dedicated IP. I’m still at work but I’ll probably start tinkering with it once I get home. Would love to host Mastodon and Lemmy at home instead of paying a monthly fee just for some light to moderate social media use.

    I also want to run some home automation stuff as well as a few static html websites. I know currently what is possible and the basic understanding of how it works, I just need more time to practice!

    Feel free to hit me up in DMs if you have any questions or want to exchange notes. Seems like we’re both in a similar place rn.