This space host some setup and indications on how i manage my technological home setup. The scope is to share knowledge and experience, all for free, no ads no shits in the original meaning of “The Internet”. Something i experienced, enjoyed and thrived on back in time when i was younger and that great feeling existed.

I have fond memories of people opening up personal web pages, posting their links, stuff and hobbies for everybody to enjoy without the expectation to become a rich influencer or make money from a “side hustle”. Because life should not be about monetization but about enjoyment, fulfillment and enriching yourself and the society in which we live.

So please enjoy the information i share in these pages. Please contact me freely if you want to share ideas (shimitar@feddit.it), on Lemmy or you can send me an email from my main page here.

Everything shared here is provided without any warranty or expectation to be useful for you. This reflects my setup, my experiences and my view of technology.

Theory and goals:

• The Goal: What am i trying to achieve with self-hosting?
• Architecture: high-level description of my self-hosting architecture
• File Server Set-up a full fileserver for remote access (including browser based, NFS, Samba and WebDAV access)
• Photos Management Set-up a full photo management server for display (gallery), backup and organize photos
• Notes: Note taking made easy and shared between all your devices
• My Sailing Setup: some experiments i did in the past with the '*Arrs stack and friends
• Torrenting: access the Torrenting world
• Usenet: access the Usenet world

Introductory pages:

• Hardware selection: which hardware i am using
• Gentoo: how i install Gentoo on my home server.
• Storage setup: prepare your storage disks (DIY NAS) for data and services
• Reverse Proxy: setup a secure layer of protection to your future services connection to the home environment.

Home Router specific pages:

• Home server networking setup
• DNS and DHCP internal server
• AD blocking, because ADs are a malaware vector
• Network Address Translation: advance routing
• Multiple up-streams: more than one ISP
• Resillient SSH tunnels: Setting up a safe, encrypted and resillient external
• External server Setup: specific setup steps for the external server

The home WiFi approach:

• WiFi Planning: get the best out of WiFi at home
• WiFi setup: WiFi network set-up (f.t, 2.4/5ghz)
• Open WRT: own your WiFi Access Points

The services list i tried and keep updated:

• AudioBookShelf: Audio book (and podcast) management made easy
• Backrest: the web GUI for Restic
• Bazarr: Tool to fetch subtitles
• FileBrowser: web-based file manager
• Firefox: use your own browser… self-hosted!
• GITea: host your own source-code management tool
• HomeGallery: photo viewing & editing gallery
• JellyFin: open source media server
• Lidarr: Media tool to organize your music
• Monit: home server monitoring
• Navidrome: music streaming server
• Nzbget: the usenet downloader
• PiGallery2: a snappy web based photo viewer
• Prowlarr: Media indexer manager and search tool
• Radarr: Media tool to organize your movies
• Radicale: Radicale is a very simple yet effective CardDAV/CalDAV server to serve your calendars and contacts
• Readarr: Media tool to organize your books and audiobooks
• RomM: your own videogames ROMs manager
• SearXNG: the aggregating, privacy friendly search engine
• Silverbullet.md: the innovative note taking app
• Sonarr: Media tool to organize your TV shows
• Stirling-PDF: self-hosted PDF management tool
• Transmission: torrent downloader
• WeTTY: remote SSH access via https.

Services created by me:

• Simple Dashboard: the best and most effective Simple Dashboard (yeah, another dashboard)
• System Scripts: some system management stuff on your home server

More services i played with, but are probably not up to date:

• Damselfly: Advanced photo management
• Deluge: torrent downloader
• FileStash: web based file server
• Immich: manage and backup photos from mobile platforms
• Joplin: Joplin is an ecosystem of tools to manage personal notes everywhere (web included)
• LazyLibrarian: install an alternative tool to organize your books and audiobooks
• LibrePhotos: manage and backup photos from mobile platforms
• PhotoField: web photo viewer for your home
• Piwigo: photo viewing & editing gallery
• Podfetch: is a great tool to stay up-to-date with your podcasts
• TDarr Media conversion with TDarr
• Unmanic Media conversion with Unmanic
• SwingMusic: manage your music

More specific stuff, to dig deeper:

• Containers with Gentoo Using Podman instead of Docker on Gentoo
• Custom ebuild repositories Add your packaged software to Gentoo Portage
• Using PIP on Gentoo requires these simple steps
• Backup: Ensure you don't lose your data
• Resize your media: Optimize and make your videos more uniform
• Normalize audio: Ensure all your videos audio is normalized
• Build LineageOS on Gentoo: all guides are for Ubuntu, here is how to do it on Gentoo.
• SyncThing: setup SyncThing on Gentoo
• Service-separated PHP: How to separate PHP instances for multiple services
• MariaDB/MySQL: some cusotmizations to MariaDB/MySQL for my setup
• Custom user services: manage your own services easily