this post was submitted on 26 Oct 2023
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Why is starting with Self-hosting so daunting? (alien.top)
submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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I’ve been a Software Engineering Student for 2 years now. I understand networks and whatnot at a theoretical level to some degree.

I’ve developed applications and hosted them through docker on Google Cloud for school projects.

I’ve tinkered with my router, port forwarded video game servers and hosted Discord bots for a few years (familiar with Websockets and IP/NAT/WAN and whatnot)

Yet I’ve been trying to improve my setup now that my old laptop has become my homelab and everything I try to do is so daunting.

Reverse proxy, VPN, Cloudfare bullshit, and so many more things get thrown around so much in this sub and other resources, yet I can barely find info on HOW to set up this things. Most blogs and articles I find are about what they are which I already know. And the few that actually explain how to set it up are just throwing so many more concepts at me that I can’t keep up.

Why is self-hosting so daunting? I feel like even though I understand how many of these things work I can’t get anything actually running!

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (14 children)

Part of working with tech is knowing what to search for und using the right keywords. If you could give an example what guide / information you are unable to find, someone could give you an example how to search for it. I personally know a few junior devs and junior devops which use llama2 / chatgpt since they dont know how to search for it or read the docs.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (13 children)

I actually hate GPT, dislike it’s answers and find myself knowing better than it most times.

I’ve been trying to setup a DNS server to create my own domains internally within my VPN but I keep finding info on how DNS servers work, and how to make a records on registrars, but nothing on what I actually need to install and run to have my own DNS for example. Same thing goes for many other services, but that’s the one bugging me for the longest time because it should be so simple.

I’ve found plenty of tutorials on how to make a cache DNS, just not an authoritative name server btw, and I’ve searched for both DNS and name server to no avail. If it was Linux I’d write some custom rules in my hostfiles and be done with it, but it’s so much harder to do on Windows and that’s my daily use OS for now…

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

"self hosted DNS server" is what I searched for, but I also knew what I was looking for "Unbound" with PiHole is what I use.

Also, Windows has a host file that it uses. %windir%\System32\Drivers\etc\hosts

%windir% is the environment variable for your windows install directory. Usually C:\Windows

You can add your entries in there, just like Linux, though I am sure the syntax might be slightly different. I really haven't played with host files on Linux, yet.

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