I am somewhat late into the Linux-verse (three years in now) and want to move into self-hosting to do two things:

  1. Host my own Jitsi server and sessions. (or any other open source solution)

  2. Host my own solution to privately and securely share photographs of my kids and life here with my family abroad.

At some point, I want to host my own little static-website about myself which should “replace” having to give people a LinkedIn account or something.

The thing is, I know nothing about owning domains, etc. I have never done this before. I have been lurking around this forum to learn some of the basics, but would really like a more tailored reply (is possible). I am working in Europe.

  1. Which computer should I use? I want to host everything on my computer at home. I don’t want to go the VPS route.

  2. Where can I buy an inexpensive domain(s)? I assume I only need one.

  3. What other things do I need to consider? My current broadband is IPv4 only.

  • ShimitarEnglish
    2·
    8 months ago

    More.

    I agree nextcloud might be a very good solution.l, specially because all the service you might need are there. The fun factor decreases tough.

    Also, while cloudflare is heavily sponsorized in this community I disagree. It’s probably the easiest approach but you end up depending on a specific service. Renting a cheap vps (virtual private server) and setting up a VPN or ssh tunneling is the best approach, but slightly more complex. In exchange you are free to migrate to a different vps at any time with basically zero downtime.

    Using a VPN is clearly the safest approach but has two limits:

    • more complex setup for you users
    • cannot expose public services (like sharing photos with friends outside family, or sharing your resumee)

    Using ssh tunnels to make your internal server accessible on port 80/443 of the vps instead gives you the maximum freedom, but you run higher risk unless you secure it properly (service separation, https with let’s encrypt, strong authentication and so on…)