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Screw it, I’ll host it myself

markozivanovic.com

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Re: Screw it, I’ll host it myself

#321

Post by TameAntelope »

markozivanovic wrote: post #312

Hi, I'm the author, Thank you all so much for your comments. I didn't expect this will be this high on HN. I'm aware there are more simple solutions for self-hosting, even partially. I'm also aware that my setup is not perfect - that's why this post was created. I was hoping to get some feedback. Not from that many of you, but some friends. :) Ask me anything you like, I'll try to answer every question.

The article sounds like you enjoyed building the system you put together, and I think that's probably a seriously undervalued aspect of why someone might take on this kind of work.

Re: Screw it, I’ll host it myself

#322

Post by megous »

grep_name wrote: post #178
megous wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, I use wireguard to link VPS with an array of computers in my home via point to point tunnels. This solves the "my home IP not being completely static" problem, because wg handles roaming quite gracefully. And then I just use either DNAT or nginx reverse proxy to proxy https to some http ports at home, depending on the service.

Interesting! I've never used wireguard before. When you link it with the VPS, is it able to behave as if ports from your home network are running natively on the VPS? I'll look into using DNAT/nginx, but I really do like having everything in a format where all the configuration is self contained in code and can be spun up / down easily, and I'm not sure if I can accomplish that using those tools

You'll see a wireguard network interface on all the connected devices, and you can configure some private address subnet on it, like 192.168.1.0/24 and give the devices some addresses from this range.

Then you can just talk between any of the devices via this subnet. Wireguard will securely tunnel the traffic.

https://www.wireguard.com/

DNAT is just a concept https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_address_translation

You can set it up using iptables or nftables.

You don't need to use nginx, use http reverse proxy you know.

Re: Screw it, I’ll host it myself

#323

Post by hashkb »

coldtea wrote: post #266
papaf wrote: post #261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These systems cruise along for years, and when something finally does go belly-up, I can't remember how I set it up in the first place. This happened a few times to me over the years and then I was lucky enough to go on a packer/terraform course. Now everything is scripted and stored in git. A Gitlab job rebuilds the VMs from scratch every two weeks to include the latest bugfixes and updates. It was a lot of work at…

Now you have N problems... What happens when those images are not available, terraform/packer change APIs, etc?

You can store packages, cache images, and freeze versions of things like Packer/tf.

Re: Screw it, I’ll host it myself

#324

Post by therealx »

clairity wrote: post #145
elliekelly wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> there are actually tons of companies in this space already making money (e.g., wyze), but it’s highly fragmented and none have a unified vision or product strategy yet. so yes, they’re vulnerable to the behemoths right now, but those dynamics aren’t locked in yet. I also think it's still a little too nerd-focused for the average consumer. I'd say I know far more about security, networking and hardware than the aver…

i think you need to go up a level of abstraction from this perspective to see the utility for the average consumer. we each have computers all around us, phones, tablets, tv's, and increasingly everything else. it's so hopeless to manage, much less understand, these mysterious machines for more and more people. what you want is a company you can trust to manage these things for you but gives you the ultimate, yet cog…

It's not "hopeless to manage", learn some networking and be forever rewarded. Same with learning to manage devices, servers, etc. I develop now but I'd be much less valiable without that background.

Re: Screw it, I’ll host it myself

#325

Post by markozivanovic »

TameAntelope wrote: post #321
markozivanovic wrote: post #312

Hi, I'm the author, Thank you all so much for your comments. I didn't expect this will be this high on HN. I'm aware there are more simple solutions for self-hosting, even partially. I'm also aware that my setup is not perfect - that's why this post was created. I was hoping to get some feedback. Not from that many of you, but some friends. :) Ask me anything you like, I'll try to answer every question.

The article sounds like you enjoyed building the system you put together, and I think that's probably a seriously undervalued aspect of why someone might take on this kind of work.

Thanks. It is kind of a show-off of what I built for myself. That's why I put that little disclaimer into the post, that it's not for everyone. I do have strong opinions about a lot of the things regarding where I hold my data, but I don't want to strong-arm anyone in doing the same thing.

Re: Screw it, I’ll host it myself

#327

Post by syshum »

dr-smooth wrote: post #189

The problem I have always had when building elaborate home server setups is the "set it and forget it" nature of the systems I've installed bites me in the ass. Since it's not my full-time job to manage these systems, I'm really not familiar with them the way I might be with the systems I manage at work. These systems cruise along for years, and when something finally does go belly-up, I can't remember how I set it u…

I guess this goes back to if you are DIY person or not.

For me i treat that just like I do any service in my home. I am the type that will tear about my Dryer to fix it vs buying new or bring in a repair person.

I repair my own car, appliances, etc. For me the Home server is the same.

Re: Screw it, I’ll host it myself

#328

Post by ajcp »

markozivanovic wrote: post #312

Hi, I'm the author, Thank you all so much for your comments. I didn't expect this will be this high on HN. I'm aware there are more simple solutions for self-hosting, even partially. I'm also aware that my setup is not perfect - that's why this post was created. I was hoping to get some feedback. Not from that many of you, but some friends. :) Ask me anything you like, I'll try to answer every question.

I really enjoyed the read, thank you!

You're system architecture is very clean and understandable. I spend a lot of time marveling at the beautiful but often overly complex diagrams on r/homelabs, which more often than not dissuade me from actually having a go at it. Your explanation made it feel very approachable.

That being said... > Some people think I’m weird because I’m using a personal CRM.

This strikes me as incredibly...German, hahaha! Is there any reason your Contacts solution doesn't/can't provide this functionality?

Re: Screw it, I’ll host it myself

#329

Post by deckard1 »

clairity wrote: post #159
mikepurvis wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"a company you can trust to manage these things for you" "automatically segregated into its own vlan" Aren't these goals fundamentally at odds? I would imagine that Joe consumer (if they care at all about any of this) would be rather more inclined to entrust the role of orchestrating/segregating their home network devices to an entity like Google than to some random startup.

the average person doesn't even know what these things are, which is partially why there is a market opportunity here. what they know is that companies like google and facebook are not entirely trustworthy but they have no alternative. it's hopelss, until an entity comes along and gives them some hope in the form of an alternative. basically all of the things we talk about around preserving privacy and security on th…

You're getting into Ken Thompson's "Trusting Trust" territory here.

When you lose trust you end up with your crazy uncle leaving Fox News for Alex Jones and YouTube. You have people becoming QAnon followers.

I say this not to make a political point, but that the problem is fundamentally hopeless and I see no way out. You end up landing on one side of the fence or the other. You either just don't think about it and continue to use Google and Facebook and remain ignorant of the problem, or you spiral down the never-ending hole of despair.

We have seen articles recently that tell us not even Signal can be fully trusted. Whether or not it's true is beside the point. The point is, not even the HN crowd is safe from the cliff of paranoia. The seed of doubt has been planted.

Is someone going to trust a small tech startup in 2021? No, not like they would have in 1997. The market for trust has effectively been sealed off today. Because, paradoxically, the Googles and Facebooks ruined it all. They stripped us (all of us, not just HN) of our innocence and naivety. We know not to trust Google, but they are also a known known. A small tech company is a total unknown. We're familiar with how Google is going to bend us over. So if someone is going to do us dirty, it may as well be a known entity. Or... you go and build a cabin in the woods and start writing manifestos.

Re: Screw it, I’ll host it myself

#330

Post by Skunkleton »

bachmeier wrote: post #151
planb wrote: post #9

Funny headline, because every time I try to self-host anything important like mail, I learn how deep that field is and how little I know and that I'll probably need many many hours to do everything right and in a secure way (and my mails would still have a higher probability to be classified as spam). Then I think: "Screw it, I'll just use GMail"

> self-host anything important like mail Email is basically pointless to host yourself from a privacy perspective. Every email has one or more people on the other end that also get a copy. Privacy and email are mutually exclusive. That said, the alternative doesn't have to be something like gmail, where they can do whatever they want with your data. I use Fastmail and that's "sufficiently private" for my needs.

I use Fastmail + a custom domain. Because fastmail is the provider, I am not on any spam lists. My emails make it through. My service is very reliable, so I always get my emails. If fastmail decides to hate me, I can just point my domain MX records somewhere else.

TODO: need a non-fastmail backup of my email

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