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CLI agents make self-hosting on a home server easier and fun

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Re: CLI agents make self-hosting on a home server easier and fun

#191

Post by CGamesPlay »

Imustaskforhelp wrote: post #166
thrownawaysz wrote: post #126

I went down the self host route some years ago but once critical problems hit I realized that beyond a simple NAS it can be a very demanding hobby. I was in another country when there was a power outage at home. My internet went down, the server restart but couldn't reconnect anymore because the optical network router also had some problems after the power outage. I could ask my folks to restart, and turn on off thin…

Hey, if tailscale is something you are worried about. There are open source alternatives to it as well but I think if your purpose is to just port forward a simple server port, wouldn't ssh in general itself be okay with you. You can even self host tailscale via headscale but I don't know how the experience goes but there are some genuine open source software like netbird,zerotier etc. as well You could also if inter…

Thanks for the shout-out! If you have any experiential reports using QTM, I'd love to hear them!

Re: CLI agents make self-hosting on a home server easier and fun

#192

Post by Jach »

SchemaLoad wrote: post #72
drnick1 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd rather expose a Wireguard port and control my keys than introduce a third party like Tailscale. I am not sure why people are so afraid of exposing ports. I have dozens of ports open on my server including SMTP, IMAP(S), HTTP(S), various game servers and don't see a problem with that. I can't rule out a vulnerability somewhere but services are containerized and/or run as separate UNIX users. It's the way the Inter…

If you expose ports, literally everything you are hosting and every plugin is an attack surface. Most of this stuff is built by single hobbiest devs on the weekend. You are also exposed to any security issues you make in your configuration. My first attempt self hosting I had redis compromised because I didn't realise I had exposed it to the internet with no password. Behind a VPN your only attack surface is the VPN…

I have a VPS with OVH, I put Tailscale on it and it's pretty cool to be able to install and access local (to the server) services like Prometheus and Grafana without having to expose them through the public net firewall or mess with more apache/nginx reverse proxies. (Same for individual services' /metrics endpoints that are served with a different port.)

Re: CLI agents make self-hosting on a home server easier and fun

#193

Post by megous »

My idea of fun is deeply tied to understanding how things work—learning them, then applying that knowledge in my own way, as simply as possible. That process gives me a sense of ownership and control, which is not something I get from an approach where AI does things for me that I do not understand.

Re: CLI agents make self-hosting on a home server easier and fun

#194

Post by rootusrootus »

zrail wrote: post #163
thrownawaysz wrote: post #126

I went down the self host route some years ago but once critical problems hit I realized that beyond a simple NAS it can be a very demanding hobby. I was in another country when there was a power outage at home. My internet went down, the server restart but couldn't reconnect anymore because the optical network router also had some problems after the power outage. I could ask my folks to restart, and turn on off thin…

My spouse and I work at home and after the first couple multi-day power outages we invested in good UPSs and a whole house standby generator. Now when the power goes out it's down for at most 30 seconds. This also makes self-hosting more viable, since our availability is constrained by internet provider rather than power.

Yeah we did a similar thing. Same situation, spouse and I both work from home, and we got hit by a multiple day power outage due to a rare severe ice storm. So now I have an EV and a transfer switch so I can go for a week without power, and I have a Starlink upstream connection in standby mode that can be activated in minutes.

Of course that means we’ll not have another ice storm in my lifetime. My neighbors should thank me.

Re: CLI agents make self-hosting on a home server easier and fun

#195

Post by TOMDM »

SchemaLoad wrote: post #156
copperx wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apparently I'm ignorant about Tailscale, bacause your service description is exactly what I thought Tailscale was.

The main issue people have with Tailscale is that it's a centralised service that isn't self hostable. The Tailscale server manages authentication and keeping track of your devices IPs. Your eventual connection is direct to your device, but all the management before that runs on Tailscales server.

Isn't this what headscale is for?

Re: CLI agents make self-hosting on a home server easier and fun

#196

Post by Imustaskforhelp »

numpad0 wrote: post #189
Imustaskforhelp wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly I think that there must be adapters which can use unlimited 5g sim's data plans as fallback network or perhaps (even primary?) They would be cheaper than starlink fwiw and most connections can be robust usually. That being said, one can use tailscale or cloudflare tunnels to expose the server even if its behind nat which you mention in your original comment that you might be against at for paranoid reasons a…

Some SOHO branch office routers like Cisco ISR models can take cellular dongles and/or SIM. Drivers for supported models are baked into ROM and everything works through CLI.

man I have this vague memory that I was at a neighbour's house and we were all kids and internet wasn't that widespread (I was really young) and I remember that they had this dongle in which they inserted an sim card in for network access. This is why this idea has always persisted in my head in the first place.

I don't know what's the name of dongle though, it was similar to those sd card to usb thing ykwim, I'd appreciate it if someone could help find this too if possible

but also yeah your point is also fascinating as well, y'know another benefit of doing this is that atleast in my area, 5g (500-700mbps) is really cheap (10-15$) with unlimited bandwidth per month and on the ethernet side of things I get 10x less bandwidth (40-80mbps) so much so that me and my brother genuinely thought of this idea

except that we thought that instead of buying a router like this, we use an old phone device and insert sim in it and access router through that way.

Re: CLI agents make self-hosting on a home server easier and fun

#197

Post by newsclues »

thrownawaysz wrote: post #126

I went down the self host route some years ago but once critical problems hit I realized that beyond a simple NAS it can be a very demanding hobby. I was in another country when there was a power outage at home. My internet went down, the server restart but couldn't reconnect anymore because the optical network router also had some problems after the power outage. I could ask my folks to restart, and turn on off thin…

I have a desktop I use but if I had to start again, I’d build a low power r pi or n100 type system that can be powered by a mobile battery backup with solar (flow type with sub 10ms switching and good battery chemistry for long life) that can do the basic homelab tasks. Planning for power outages from the get go rather than assuming unlimited and cheap power

Re: CLI agents make self-hosting on a home server easier and fun

#198

Post by NewJazz »

Etheryte wrote: post #96
drnick1 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd rather expose a Wireguard port and control my keys than introduce a third party like Tailscale. I am not sure why people are so afraid of exposing ports. I have dozens of ports open on my server including SMTP, IMAP(S), HTTP(S), various game servers and don't see a problem with that. I can't rule out a vulnerability somewhere but services are containerized and/or run as separate UNIX users. It's the way the Inter…

Every time I put anything anywhere on the open net, it gets bombarded 24/7 by every script kiddie, botnet group , and these days, AI company out there. No matter what I'm hosting, it's a lot more convenient to not have to worry about that even for a second.

This is a good reason not to expose random services, but a wireguard endpoint simply won't respond at all if someone hits it with the wrong key. It is better even than key based ssh.

Re: CLI agents make self-hosting on a home server easier and fun

#199

Post by [deleted] »

thrownawaysz wrote: post #126

I went down the self host route some years ago but once critical problems hit I realized that beyond a simple NAS it can be a very demanding hobby. I was in another country when there was a power outage at home. My internet went down, the server restart but couldn't reconnect anymore because the optical network router also had some problems after the power outage. I could ask my folks to restart, and turn on off thin…

[deleted]

Re: CLI agents make self-hosting on a home server easier and fun

#200

Post by ekianjo »

thrownawaysz wrote: post #126

I went down the self host route some years ago but once critical problems hit I realized that beyond a simple NAS it can be a very demanding hobby. I was in another country when there was a power outage at home. My internet went down, the server restart but couldn't reconnect anymore because the optical network router also had some problems after the power outage. I could ask my folks to restart, and turn on off thin…

> I was in another country when there was a power outage at home.

If you are going to be away from home a lot, then yes, it's a bottomless pit. Because you have to build a system that does not rely on the possibility of you being there, anytime.

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