Screw it, I’ll host it myself • Hacker News Board

Re: Screw it, I’ll host it myself

#461

Post by bmh100 » Thu, Apr 08, 2021, 4:07 PM UTC

clairity wrote: post #38

FunnyLookinHat wrote: post #4

The diagram alone is more than enough of an argument to dissuade me from giving this a shot right now - it's simply too complicated and too much to manage for the amount of time I can dedicate to it. BUT - I'm really thankful for people who keep posting and sharing these sorts of projects; they're the ones iterating the process for the rest of us who need something a bit more turn-key. I'm excited to see this eventua…

i've actually daydreamed about starting a computing appliance company that would make a variety of services plug and play for consumers and small businesses, from email to storage, to networking, to security, and to smart home. it's actually the direction apple is headed, but they're encumbered by the innovator's dilemma, which leaves an opportunity for an upstart. google and facebook are similarly too focused on adt…

I'd be willing to pay for a little consulting time about how to set up everything.

Re: Screw it, I’ll host it myself

#462

Post by bmh100 » Thu, Apr 08, 2021, 4:07 PM UTC

zolland wrote: post #137

clairity wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i've actually daydreamed about starting a computing appliance company that would make a variety of services plug and play for consumers and small businesses, from email to storage, to networking, to security, and to smart home. it's actually the direction apple is headed, but they're encumbered by the innovator's dilemma, which leaves an opportunity for an upstart. google and facebook are similarly too focused on adt…

I've wanted to make something like this too. After years of iteration, my self hosted setup is now completely automated and the automation itself is super simple and organized. It would be pretty simple to setup a simple web app that allows users to simply apply the same automation steps onto their own VPSs. Hardest part would be setting up a secure process for managing user secrets to be honest. Business wise, I'm n…

I'd be willing to pay for a little consulting time about how to set up everything.

Re: Screw it, I’ll host it myself

#463

Post by lytefm » Thu, Apr 08, 2021, 4:46 PM UTC

ololobus wrote: post #449

The main thing about building all these private cloud setups, that bothered me most of time is security. It is not a big deal to take from GitHub and run all these bricks of your infrastructure, but how to maintain? Everything should be updated regularly, otherwise you risk to get your data dumped and leaked by some automatic crawler or home-grown hacker, once new vulnerability is discovered in any part of your tech…

Yeah this sounds like way too much maintenance overhead. I've opted in for a middle ground: I don't use FAANG/MS for anything critical and choose other hosted solutions instead.

Posteo was already mentioned, Mailbox.org is also nice for E-Mail with an own domain. I only had to set up the DNS records once and rarely have delivery problems.

Nextcloud doesn't need to be self-hosted either, there are many good providers.

Re: Screw it, I’ll host it myself

#464

Post by slenk » Thu, Apr 08, 2021, 4:58 PM UTC

1vuio0pswjnm7 wrote: post #415

slenk wrote: post #400

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your definition makes routers sound pretty smart, not dumb? Cheap, yes.

Gateway, not router. I personally do very few and simple things on the gateway. Way less than what an average default-configured router running OpenWRT does.

Ah, yeah my bad.

Re: Screw it, I’ll host it myself

#465

Post by ocdtrekkie » Thu, Apr 08, 2021, 5:10 PM UTC

johnx123-up wrote: post #460

ocdtrekkie wrote: post #277

Earlier quoted context omitted.

:) Always glad to see Sandstorm fans here. FWIW, there are places Sandstorm could improve here. Probably the biggest one for me is that Sandstorm backups do not happen automatically in the managed space. (You could automatically back up your Sandstorm server with another utility, and you can manually backup/restore individual grains in the web UI, but there isn't yet a really clean integrated way to restore grains in…

If you're from Sandstorm, can you please add Restyaboard?

I'm a contributor, I wouldn't say I am "from Sandstorm" though. I actually looked at Restyaboard packaging a couple times, but the roadblock I hit is that there is currently no working example of a Sandstorm app running Postgres as the backend. I believe another contributor managed to get an app running using Postgres, but I don't know how they did it. I think there's some aspect of the Sandstorm sandbox that throws Postgres for a loop, and you have to kinda hack around it.

Re: Screw it, I’ll host it myself

#466

Post by gorgoiler » Thu, Apr 08, 2021, 5:32 PM UTC

GordonS wrote: post #447

gorgoiler wrote: post #411

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don’t even need Docker. Another great technology to learn is LXC and driving it from the CLI / a script. All my hosts run a default OS with a 20 line firewall and a bridge. The top level host has a zpool backed by a blank file in /tank.device. The actual work is done by a bunch of LXC hosts all cloned from a standard base installation. Anything persistent goes in a per container zfs filesystem mounted in each con…

I personally found Docker and Compose pretty simple to learn, and after years working with them I'm pretty well acquainted, but am interested to learn if there are any tangible benefits of using LXC instead of Docker?

Docker has nice image caching and fetching. It’s all about deploying and containerising in one step, usually a one line shell script alongside the container config.

LXC is more like deploying disposable OS instances and then having to deploy your app yourself, separately. It’s more bare metal but has fewer surprises in terms of supporting IPv6 and not having any inscrutable iptables magic happening on the host OS.

Docker is IKEA. LXC is hiring a joiner. (Not a value judgement.)

Re: Screw it, I’ll host it myself

#467

Post by 1vuio0pswjnm7 » Thu, Apr 08, 2021, 6:09 PM UTC

1vuio0pswjnm7 wrote: post #414

nine_k wrote: post #391

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't use such a browser then! Firefox is pretty good. An on-device firewall can firewall individual processes and applications. An upstream / gateway firewall does not have such fine-grained control. That was my point. Running stuff on my router is entirely possible, but I limit it to routing and running a wireguard endpoint. I prefer to run my private stuff in the confines of the home LAN.

"Don't use such a browser then!" Never said that I did! :) I use a text-only browser for reading HTML. Many times I do even use a browser for making HTTP requests. Truly one can use all these strategies, application-based, router-based, gateway-based, if they are available. They are not mutually exclusive. Personally I just would not feel like I can rely on extensions or other solutions tied to some software I do not…

s/do even/do not even/

Re: Screw it, I’ll host it myself

#468

Post by 1vuio0pswjnm7 » Thu, Apr 08, 2021, 6:20 PM UTC

slenk wrote: post #464

1vuio0pswjnm7 wrote: post #415

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gateway, not router. I personally do very few and simple things on the gateway. Way less than what an average default-configured router running OpenWRT does.

Ah, yeah my bad.

No worries. Usually they are the same. The terms are probably interchangeable. The point I was trying to make is that the gateway does not necessarily have to be a pre-packaged router with a difficult-to-manage, complex configuration. It can be the computer over which the user feels she has the most control.

Re: Screw it, I’ll host it myself

#469

Post by squarefoot » Thu, Apr 08, 2021, 6:21 PM UTC

shaan7 wrote: post #446

nicbou wrote: post #305

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FolderSync is another excellent option that might mesh better with your existing setup.

I second this. I use FolderSync Pro to sync with Nextcloud. Straightforward setup and quite reliable.

How does it compare with the Syncthing companion app, which is 100% open source and ad free?

Re: Screw it, I’ll host it myself

#470

Post by 1vuio0pswjnm7 » Thu, Apr 08, 2021, 6:44 PM UTC

speedcoder wrote: post #453

1vuio0pswjnm7 wrote: post #414

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Don't use such a browser then!" Never said that I did! :) I use a text-only browser for reading HTML. Many times I do even use a browser for making HTTP requests. Truly one can use all these strategies, application-based, router-based, gateway-based, if they are available. They are not mutually exclusive. Personally I just would not feel like I can rely on extensions or other solutions tied to some software I do not…

What text only browser do you use?

I have always aimed to try them all and I will always try any new one I become aware of. I used Lynx from 1993 through the early 2000's, but since then I prefer Links from Charles University in Prague, with no graphics. It has the best rendering of HTML tables of any text-only browser, IMO. It has been the most stable for me at run-time and it is the source code I am most comfortable with, compiles quickly. There is a recent fork of Elinks 4.x someone has started that I have been watching. (Elinks is a fork of Links.) Not sure if it has been posted to HN yet. Currently it crashes too easily but some of the features he has added are good ideas, IMO.