Tutorial series for self hosting beginners?
I've been dabbling with selfhosting for a bit now (home assistant and nextcloud), but it's clear that I lack a fundamental understanding of networking. For example:
- I've got OpenWRT on my router, but no idea what I'm doing when it comes to firewall settings, DNS, DHCP, etc.
- I've got a domain thru Porkbun, but no idea how to properly setup my DNS settings there to route to my local machine.
- I've got NGINX running in a docker container in a VM and can get to the UI on my local network, but no idea what I'm doing wrong with my attempts at a reverse proxy.
Does anyone here have links to a good in-depth tutorial series for learning about securely selfhosting?
This entry was edited (12 hours ago)
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phanto
in reply to anticonnor • • •theit8514
in reply to anticonnor • • •NetworkChuck
YouTubeanticonnor
in reply to theit8514 • • •hoppolito
in reply to anticonnor • • •When I was stumbling on some of his output it unfortunately felt very click-baity, always playing on your FOMO if you didn't set up/download/buy the next best thing until the other next best thing in the video after.
In other words, I think he's cool to check out to get to know of a thing, but to get a deeper level of understanding how a thing works I would recommend written materials. There are good caddy/nginx tutorials out there, but a linux networking book will get your understanding further yet.
If it has to be video, I would at least recommend a little more slowed down, long-form content like youtube.com/watch?v=kivVSxFxIK….
- YouTube
www.youtube.comabeorch
in reply to theit8514 • •Selfhosted reshared this.
Nephalis
in reply to anticonnor • • •Well my first reply is: setting up yor own router is like to learn driving with a touring car. You just need to know a lot to set up/handle everything properly. Its just not easy and in m opinion the most wrong point to start.
DNS-wise I would like to recommend something like pihole. To me it was my first thing I installed and used until this day and also the handling of DNS is quite easy. Maybe you should consider lerning other things before setting up your own router.
abeorch
in reply to Nephalis • •2) start with something more packaged that provides more guidance on delivering services 'out of the box' like yunhost - which can provide some things off the rack services and with a templated approach - that then allows you to play around a bit while you learn the basics
Selfhosted reshared this.
abeorch
in reply to abeorch • •Selfhosted reshared this.
monogram
in reply to anticonnor • • •Alphane Moon
in reply to anticonnor • • •I am relatively sophisticated on LAN/local services (been running Raspberry Pi since 2018 or so), I was never able to setup a reverse proxy to get a true self-hosted system (i.e. remote access); got roadblocked by nginx and setting up letsencrypt with reverse proxy support.
In general, true remote access is IMO exponentially more difficult and demanding than getting things running on your local network.
For anyone starting out with self-hosting, I would strongly recommend LAN/local services where you can relatively easily deploy multiple very useful and powerful services (SMB/NAS, Jellyfin, Pi-hole, Qbittorrent-Nox).
I would suggest looking into DietPi, it's IMO the best RaspberryPi/SBC distribution there is if you want things to just work and not bug you. Very helpful developers and community too. Excellent, user friendly CLI management tools for headless operation.
Derpgon
in reply to Alphane Moon • • •Alphane Moon
in reply to Derpgon • • •LycaKnight
in reply to Alphane Moon • • •Derpgon
in reply to LycaKnight • • •mic_check_one_two
in reply to Derpgon • • •SomeDudeFromSpace
in reply to anticonnor • • •Check FUTO’s guide. It’s great for beginners:
- YouTube
youtu.befoggy
in reply to anticonnor • • •Idk of any good series but techno Tim has a great video on using cloudflare and traefik to get wildcard letsencrypt ssls for your docker services.
youtu.be/n1vOfdz5Nm8
- YouTube
youtu.besem
in reply to anticonnor • • •I am saving this thread to try and find a good tutorial for myself. That said, I have had a great experience on #networking on libera.chat, which is IRC. They have been very patient with me and often willing to go into detail in a beginner-friendly way.
Unfortunately, they are not accessible via the web chat, so you have to use an IRC client and register and account, which is relatively painless, but might take 10 to 15 minutes to get started.
libera.chat/guides/connect
Connecting to Libera.Chat
Libera ChatdriftWood
in reply to anticonnor • • •frongt
in reply to anticonnor • • •Jakeroxs
in reply to anticonnor • • •SimpleHomelab | Simplifying Homelabs, One Step at a Time! (previously SmartHomeBeginner)
SimpleHomelabirmadlad
in reply to anticonnor • • •In the past, I've found a lot of valuable resource at
One thing you really need to establish right from the start is the habit of taking detailed notes. It's tedious, bothersome at times, but the ability to backtrack something that may not have deployed quite like you wanted, is invaluable. It will also save your ass in a month when you've forgotten everything you did before.
Take notes!
SimpleHomelab | Simplifying Homelabs, One Step at a Time! (previously SmartHomeBeginner)
SimpleHomelabmic_check_one_two
in reply to irmadlad • • •PlexSheep
in reply to anticonnor • • •Grass
in reply to anticonnor • • •mic_check_one_two
in reply to Grass • • •