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.

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.
• Single Sign On: setup (or try to…) a way to authenticate once for all services.

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!
• FitTrackee: Fitness tracker for outdoor activity
• Forgejo: host your own source-code management tool
• JellyFin: open source media server
• Lidarr: Media tool to organize your music
• Monit: home server monitoring
• Navidrome: music streaming server
• Nzbget: the usenet downloader
• PhotoView: a public facing photo gallery
• 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
• ScanServJS: share your scanner
• 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
• Technitium DNS: The definitive DNS resolver & forwarder
• Transmission: torrent downloader
• TubeSync: download and search You Tube videos
• 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:

• BookStack: personal knowledge management
• DailyTXT: Daily blog
• Using DNSMasq as DNS and DHCP for the internal network
• Damselfly: Advanced photo management
• Deluge: torrent downloader
• FileStash: web based file server
• HomeGallery: photo viewing & editing gallery
• GITea: host your own source-code management tool
• 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
• MonicaHQ: Life management tool
• PhotoField: web photo viewer for your home
• PiGallery2: a snappy web based photo viewer
• Piwigo: photo viewing & editing gallery
• Podfetch: is a great tool to stay up-to-date with your podcasts
• Synapse: Matrix chat server
• TDarr Media conversion with TDarr
• Unmanic Media conversion with Unmanic
• SwingMusic: manage your music
• WGer: WGer sport tracker

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