Hello! I’m new to self hosting and networking stuff. I do use only Linux and have experience with Debian, Ubuntu, Mint, and have settled with Fedora and Bazzite on KDE on the home computers/laptops.

I got a GMKtec NucBox G9 Mini PC Intel® Twin Lake N150 recently and wireless keyboard with touchpad, installed Fedora Kiinoite on it and have so far only added VacuumTube. I don’t have much experience with the terminal and I’m not sure what step to do next or how.

What I want to do is set up an Arrstack, and I know I need to put Docker and maybe Portainer? I have no experience with Docker though. I also want to put some basic things I and others can access remotely like a shopping list program, photo backups, period tracker, and DnD software. But I’m very afraid of exposing the server to the internet and it being hacked or such. I know there’s something called Tailscale but I’m not sure if that’s what I need. And I don’t know what order I’m supposed to put any of this.

I’ve tried searching the internet for guides but haven’t really found anything except one that’s for Yunohost and it’s not really self hosting because they set it up on a cloud. All advice is appreciated. Thank you!

edit: I wanted to add I also want to use this as a htpc and it’s connected to the TV, so that’s why I want a GUI mostly - because it makes it easier to control from the couch

  • irmadlad@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    3 hours ago

    Hello! I’m new to self hosting and networking stuff.

    Welcome to the club! Explore, learn, have fun on your selfhosting journey.

    But I’m very afraid of exposing the server to the internet and it being hacked or such. I know there’s something called Tailscale but I’m not sure if that’s what I need.

    What I have done is use Cloudflare Tunnels/Zero Trust free tier and Tailscale as an overlay on the server. With Cloudflare Tunnels/Zero Trust, you don’t need to fiddle with NAT, UFW, or any of that. You install it on your server and it punches through all of that and creates a tunnel between your server and endpoint. You will need a FQDN that you can change the nameservers on to the ones Cloudflare will assign you. Cloudflare will sell you a domain name, but I know a lot of folks use NamesCheap or Pork Bun.

    As far as consulting AI for help, and at the risk of being down voted, I would utilize it for basic things you might need some clarification on. I would be very cautious of copying and pasting code generated with AI as sometimes it can be in error. Plus, you should really never rip code from the internet and deploy it on a production server until you really get some experience and time under your belt in order to be able to spot problems with AI code. Claude is good, Grok and Lumo are decent.

    As far as the arr stack, I’ll leave that to others.

    ETA: Get in the habit of documenting everything you do on your server. All the commands, everything. It will save your butt in the long run. I usually open Notepad ++ and write everything there. Afterwards, I clean up the notes and transfer them to Obsidian for archival and future reference. Do not get suckered into the idea that you will remember everything you’ve done 6 months down the road. You probably won’t and it will be frustrating troubleshooting.