Hi, I’m looking for some recommendations, mostly looking for pointers of where to go and look at/research stuff as I have no idea what is good and what is just well advertised.
Intro: I have finally entered the world of (almost) Gigabit internet, which is opening up options with what I can host.
I currently have:
- Pi hole on an actual RP (will probably remain there because its easy)
- Inbound Wireguard VPN on my old router (will stop working when my old ISP stops service) EDIT: my new ISB gave me a router, but it doesn’t have VPN functionality
- Foundry VTT that I run up on my gaming machine when needed
I will probably also be upgrading my gaming PC in the next few months, so my current rig will probably be put behind the TV to use as a server and for couch gaming.
Info/recommendations I would like:
- VPN software (I want to VPN INTO my network) My goto would be wireguard, is that still a good option? (I assume I just port forward the VPN ports to the server?)
- Private cloud/File server: I both want to be able to occasionally (but permamently) host files publicly, but still have the main store be available on the local network only. Is that going to be two pieces of software, or just one?
- Is a local video streaming app actually useful for a rare watcher of movies etc, or can they be streamed directly from the file server? its something that I see a lot of people talk about, but don’t really understand why…
- Is Docker the way to go for everything? or just install on the machine directly?
- Piracy VM - Enabling the virtualisation stuff for Docker mostly breaks virtualbox (at least on windows) any recommendations for how to nicely run a VM alongside docker (if that’s the recommendation)?
- Should/Could I be hosting anything else? Foundry will probably be on there. I don’t feel like I have a use for smart home stuff, so home assistant wouldn’t be much use etc.
I’d figure out what exactly you’re wanting to do instead of just asking people what you should be doing. You’re going to get a lot of noise and subjective opinions just generally asking.
There isn’t anything you SHOULD be doing at all, just figure out what would be useful to you.
Just from the things you mentioned you were using, I’d suggest getting an OpenWRT router of some sort so you setup your VPN again. I recommend GL.inet Flint2 for those that ask, but looks like the Flint3 is coming out soon.
For the other stuff you mention…it’s all very subjective, and you’re going to get a lot of noisy opinions. Fact of the matter if you just do what you feel comfortable with. Maybe come back when you have a specific issue you want technical opinions or help with to make more informed decisions.
what benefit does a new router give over just putting the VPN software on the RP for example?
You said you have a router from your old ISP that is going away when that ends, or did I misunderatand that part?
An RPi can function as a router…sort of. It will not be a very good one though. Putting your network services on a device like the Flint I mentioned gives it all kinds of benefits over an RPi:
- many Ethernet ports
- ability to reassign hardware ports
- hardware acceleration for network traffic
- WiFi 6 (for that particular model, W7 for the newer)
I can go and on with that one. RPi just doesn’t have the power to give the same kind of performance, especially since you mentioned having gigabit internet.
ah sorry, my new ISP gave me a router, but it doesn’t have any VPN functionality on it (Edited OP to make that clear). My old one probably can’t support the speed, and for some reason doesn’t let me change its MAC address, so I can’t use it as the ISP facing device.
Wire guard is pretty easy to set up. Also Docker is great.
Docker + Caddy (for reverse proxy) fits most use cases IMO. I really like this person’s approach: https://github.com/DoTheEvo/selfhosted-apps-docker. They use Docker networks to avoid unnecessary port mapping - it’s a very clean method.
Here ya go: https://selfh.st/apps/
Will cover about 90% of your bases there. You can even look up proprietary software and it will show you self-hostable alternatives.
My goto would be wireguard, is that still a good option?
Yes.
Private cloud/File server
https://selfh.st/apps/?tag=File+Sharing
Is a local video streaming app actually useful for a rare watcher of movies etc, or can they be streamed directly from the file server?
You can do it any number of ways. I have it setup a pretty cool way, I think. I leave my PC on all the time. I also have a home NAS with all my media files on it. I host Jellyfin server on my PC and in the Jellyfin settings link to the network location of the files (
\\nas\media\tv, etc). Works great, especially for transcoding because I run the server on my Windows PC, it gets access to my GPU for transcoding. Really great setup I like to think. Only drawback being you have to leave your PC on all the time, which doesn’t bother me.Is Docker the way to go for everything? or just install on the machine directly?
There are alternatives to docker, like LXC but they’re not as widely used as Docker. So unfortunately…
Another option for you could be Hyper-V if you don’t mind using your PC to run containers. I like it better than running docker containers.
Here ya go: https://selfh.st/apps/
oooh, TY! Now to guess which ones will still be maintained in 5 years 😆
I guess I must as well have a play with some stuff like jellyfin to see if its useful. The ‘server’ in this case would have a 6 year old GPU in it, so should hopefully have enough grunt.
Thanks for the info!
