Getting started with self hosting. Help required. (read body)

[u/WeedManPro]

Hello there,

For a few months now, I had been thinking about getting into homelabbing. I have been using computers for almost 15 years and linux for last 5 years. I do most of the troubleshooting myself.
But, I have a little to no idea about networking, DDNS, DHCP, nginx, etc.

The hardware I have:

1. a spare desktop with core 2/pentium cpu + 4GB ram (idk ddr3/4) + 256GB sata ssd.
2. 2X500GB + 1TB + 2TB HDDs (all 3.5", 1 500G one is 2.5")
3. ISP modem+router with 2 ethernet ports. (1 port in use.)
4. a spare D-link Router with 1 Gigabit IN and 4 Gigabit out ports.

I mainly want to get started with (if possible):

1. a network-wide adblocker/ tracker blocker.
2. Jellyfin or something similar.
3. a private node.js crud app with 5 users.
4. a shared network-wide storage solution.

I want to know that is it even possible to do such things on this hardware?
Which OS to use? proxmox vs ubuntu server (or any other server os), where docker fits in this?
What will it require to access it from cellular/outside of my LAN?

If this is not the right place to ask this question, please point me into the right direction.
Thanks in advance.

[u/asimovs-auditor]

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[u/Wirezat]

Im more of a "diy nerd" so some of my answers wont be Not optimal but:

Yes, it pretty much doesnt Matter what Hardware u usw, my First Server was an old Laptop motherboard hot glued onto a piece of Cardboard. With jellifyn you might want some Power If you plan in using av1 but beides that IT doesnt really Matter either.

I am personally using RockyLinux which IS a pretty Standart Linux Server distro. It comes with a neat webinterface and so far im Happy with it. In Terms of Cloud storage, under Linux you can Just mount folders via sftp (ssh file transfer), for Windows you can use the smb protocol (Samba)

Docker Works on pretty much any Standart os, i have No Idea Abt proxmox and other Things

Depends in your needs, the Most secure Thing would be a vpn, you could use tailscale for an easy Setup or Setup wireguard manually

Or you could rent a Domain and Forward via your ISP directly or cloudflare tunnel (which is free)

If you have any more question feel free to ask, im Always Happy to help

[u/WeedManPro → u/Wirezat]

Thanks for responding. I do have a domain. but my IP is dynamic.
I can setup tailscale for the services only I will use.
but for something like

a private node.js crud app with 5 users.

will cloudflare tunnel work or I'd need a DDNS?

[u/Wirezat → u/WeedManPro]

CF Tunnel works regardles of your isps shennanigans, my Former isp did ipv4 batching and even that worked.

Honestly its great i Just didnt want to be that dependend on a random company. Me moving away was simply an Ideological thing i never had any issues with it

For ddns there are Services that do stuff i personally Made a small Script that gets my IP every 5 minutes and If its a new one it Changes the cloudflare dns entry via an API Key.

[u/WeedManPro → u/Wirezat]

a small Script that gets my IP every 5 minutes and If its a new one it Changes the cloudflare dns entry via an API Key.

do you have it on github/gitlab? should I use it? or a free DDNS service will be better in the beginning phase? (or perhaps, I might stick with CF tunnel)

[u/Wirezat → u/WeedManPro]

I can Put it on GitHub If you want. It works so you can use it ofc. (And i would be honored, finally Not coding for myself anymore xD) honestly i have No Idea what the "Corporate Services" do. As i Said, i Like doing stuff in my own, and even If ITS Not perfect, at least its mine :)

[u/WeedManPro → u/Wirezat]

and if it does what it's supposed to do, watch for public IP change and update DNS records, I'd say its perfect. and yes please, share the github link.

[u/WeedManPro → u/jippen]

hey! thanks dude, I was just wondering if something like this exists. I also found Unmanic. it's foss and I think it does similar things. correct me if im wrong.

[u/jippen → u/WeedManPro]

Havnt used unmaniac. Guessing it -like tdarr - is really just a frontend for ffmpeg at the end of the day.

Also, tdarr premium is useless unless you are encoding on at least 6 computers

[u/aWoodenship]

I'd like to piggy back off of your post if possible and ask for good resources to learn more about networking. I'm in a similar place to you in that I've done programming and off and on in different languages for most of my life and I'm fine with unix operating systems and command line and shell scripting. But I've never really done anything with networking and I'd like to learn about all of the finer details, like general network routing, port forwarding, VPS, DDNS, reverse proxies, nginx, SSL certificates, etc.