Anyone ever thought of installing self host stuff into other people's house ? reddit / selfhosted ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Global_Shock_1511 · 2023-12-18 15:27 Anyone ever did that as a side hustle ? I'm curious. I've been playing with a lot of open source lately, immich, vaultwarden and the like. Feels like other people may be interested into self hosting but probably don't have the time or the skills. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- rymn · 2023-12-18 15:36 Yes ---------------------------------------------------------------------- d33pnull · 2023-12-18 15:39 yes, my 'homelab' is spread across 6 different households, all friends or family. Once agreed on the idea I buy the hardware, configure it to connect to the main wireguard network that connects everything together, and bring it to their place to be put to work. In most cases I get to have an UDP port forwarding to the system too, so the resilience of the VPN improves. This all gives me the ability to distribute workloads, store backups in multiple locations, and when it occurs also provide support with whatever the other person needs to achieve in their network (e.g. a personal blog, a Samba share or whatever). It's always very small (in terms of electricity consumption) stuff like raspberrypis or mini pcs, never going above 100Wh/day. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Global_Shock_1511 · 2023-12-18 15:47 Can you expand more ? How do you manage everything ? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Jonteponte71 · 2023-12-18 15:48 It feels like a fun idea. Until you realise that anything you install also has to be supported in some way. And unless you charge per hour for that support, your profit goes out the window. So unless you mostly do it for fun as a side hustle, I would be careful. I have installed a couple of friends wireless networks. And when it stops working, they basically call me in panic and I have to get over there the same day as their gen-z kids can’t actually survive without wireless. It’s at the bottom of the mazlow pyramid to them. Together with food and shelter 🤷‍♂️ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- rymn · 2023-12-18 15:50 I've thought about it. Never did it... Was thinking of putting a pi 4 with sufficient space to backup my nas and use syncthing to keep important files backed up. Instead of just made a copy of my array and put it in a lockbox across town ---------------------------------------------------------------------- sudonem · 2023-12-18 15:56 This is called being a “managed service provider”. Its definitely a thing - but I’d really recommend avoiding it unless you’re able to do it full time and you have people willing to pay a monthly service fee - because once you do that install you’re on the hook for the inevitable maintenance and tech support calls whether you like it or not. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- purepersistence · 2023-12-18 16:10 or the ability to properly maintain it without somebody like you with loads of time on your hands. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- zolakk · 2023-12-18 16:18 Exactly. Anyone that would pay you for that would most likely treat it as a toaster (plug it in and do as little maintenance as possible). I *might* don't for something low risk like Plex but I would never do it for something like vault warden because the risk is just way too high of them losing everything and blaming you for lack of patching, a drive failing, not making or testing backups, etc. It's the same reason it's one of the few things I don't self host for myself TBH, especially since it's free or nearly free ($10/year for paid) to have someone else do most of that worrying, with the exception of periodic manual backups. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- marvbinks · 2023-12-18 16:22 It's doable. But I imagine it would be a hell hole of users messing stuff up and then you having to fix it. Would need some hefty service fees to cover the call outs. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Expensive_Finger_973 · 2023-12-18 16:23 I don't do it for anyone but myself and the family that lives in my house. For 2 reasons: 1. I do "IT" for a living, so I don't want to deal with other peoples problems on my own time. 2. If I were to get hit by a bus having to unraveal what I did to their internet service, passwords, etc would be one more PITA for my family to have to death with. And I don't want to make that process even worse if it ever happens. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Simplixt · 2023-12-18 16:33 No, bad idea. Selfhosted apps need too much maintenance, and you don't want to risk your friendship because the baby photos or passwords are not accessible ;) And not any problem can be fixed remotely. But I have a server at my parents home as my private backup destination ;) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- sudonem · 2023-12-18 16:33 Right. It's basically the same as doing an install for your technologically inept family members. You're on the hook forever and all time. Not only for major loss of data, but also the smallest possible inconveniences. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- mrXmuzzz · 2023-12-18 16:42 I wouldn't do it for free Time = money ---------------------------------------------------------------------- rubenix_bcn · 2023-12-18 16:45 was thinking about it too but in case something goes wrong its easy to mantain if u have everything close to you...dont want to bother anyone...now just using an orangepizero2 1GB on my parents for daily offsite backup (db's, data, photos and compose files). enought for my use case. am hosting quite few apps with only 5 family users, not a big deal 👍 on the orangepi just hosting filebrowser, resilio-sync & fail2ban on debian. it powers on, receives the files and shuts down; configured to receive files to my host too ---------------------------------------------------------------------- fy_pool_day · 2023-12-18 17:12 This is what I’m doing. Remote machine auto connects to your home vpn? How did you configure that? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Fluffer_Wuffer · 2023-12-18 17:18 Expect to be receiving lots of complaints, such as 1. Why isn't it working? 2. Can you set it up, so there 200 friends can also access it? 3. They want a feature added, can you add it for them? 4. Why have you not fixed it? they reported a problem the problem 5 minutes ago And best of all... you set it up, and "they've changed their mind, they no longer needed" (i.e. they will not be paying you).. Selfhosting is fun and a good learning experience, but it's a whole different world when you do it for a job, and all software has a major bug which we kindly refer to as "end users". ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Oujii · 2023-12-18 17:32 You can configure WireGuard as a service that will run on startup to connect to your server. Could use stuff like Tailscale or ZeroTier too. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- olluz · 2023-12-18 17:32 The main reasons why people selfhost are: cost, privacy reasons and having fun in doing so. I guess there is not much of a market for this kind of service offering ---------------------------------------------------------------------- katbyte · 2023-12-18 17:42 its true, i had to help someone log into something the other day and sent then "user / password" where user was their name and the password had the word password in it. they put "user / password" into the user box and then i don't know what into the password box ---------------------------------------------------------------------- fav13andacdc · 2023-12-18 17:44 Man, your mom saying it was impossible to plug the HD back in is so relatable it hurts. “YOU MEAN IT’S IMPOSSIBLE FOR YOU” ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Justified_Ancient_Mu · 2023-12-18 18:27 People always forget continuity planning. Even for friends & family, do you have SOPs and trained cousins & friends that can assist while you're on holiday, vacations, ill or dead? It's one thing to lose consumer media (movies, TV, music), but if all your critical documents, family photos and videos are stored locally and only you know how it works, how will your bereaved access these assets? Do you make periodic backups that are easily understood and place them in a known location? There are obviously many people who have mixed feelings about commercial providers of cloud storage, but they do have options for claiming access after a loss of life. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- jmeador42 · 2023-12-18 18:29 It sounds fun until it isn't. I don't want to become anyone's managed service provider. The only thing I put in someone else's house is my secondary backup server at my parent's house. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- blind_guardian23 · 2023-12-18 18:31 hosting only works at scale, so using other peoples homes is not that great (upload limits, hardware maintenance etc.). Thats why companies use own or rented (Co-location) datacenters. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Jonteponte71 · 2023-12-18 18:36 I gave my parents their first computer over 20 years ago. To this day, neither of them has any clue where their files are on the disks. I have explained it hundreds of times through the years but it just never sticks. Because they know they can just call me and ask 🤷‍♂️ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- tribak · 2023-12-18 18:39 Wanted to add a small rpi abroad to benefit from VPN and share accounts while maintaining access to both libraries. That and to have an offsite backup in my parents house. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- wegwerfennnnn · 2023-12-18 18:41 She gave up after attempting the USB plug the second time. She hasn't learned you need to flip it three times. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- wegwerfennnnn · 2023-12-18 18:41 !remindme 3 weeks ---------------------------------------------------------------------- RemindMeBot · 2023-12-18 18:42 I will be messaging you in 21 days on [**2024-01-08 18:41:47 UTC**](ht tp://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=2024-01- 08%2018:41:47%20UTC%20To%20Local%20Time) to remind you of [**this link **](https://www.reddit.com/r/selfhosted/comments/18lbcqi/anyone_ever_t hought_of_installing_self_host_stuff/kdxbrah/?context=3) [**CLICK THIS LINK**](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=Remin dMeBot&subject=Reminder&message=%5Bhttps%3A%2F%2Fwww.reddit.com%2Fr%2F selfhosted%2Fcomments%2F18lbcqi%2Fanyone_ever_thought_of_installing_se lf_host_stuff%2Fkdxbrah%2F%5D%0A%0ARemindMe%21%202024-01- 08%2018%3A41%3A47%20UTC) to send a PM to also be reminded and to reduce spam. ^(Parent commenter can ) [^(delete this message to hide from others.)] (https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=RemindMeBot&subject=Delete %20Comment&message=Delete%21%2018lbcqi) ***** |[^(Info)](https://www.reddit.com/r/RemindMeBot/comments/e1bko7/remind mebot_info_v21/)|[^(Custom)](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?t o=RemindMeBot&subject=Reminder&message=%5BLink%20or%20message%20inside %20square%20brackets%5D%0A%0ARemindMe%21%20Time%20period%20here)|[^(Yo ur Reminders)](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=RemindMeBot& subject=List%20Of%20Reminders&message=MyReminders%21)|[^(Feedback)](ht tps://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=Watchful1&subject=RemindMeBot %20Feedback)| |-|-|-|-| ---------------------------------------------------------------------- phin586 · 2023-12-18 18:53 I refuse to setup things for others. I do not wish to support it. I tell them if they can’t figure it out, who are they going to call if it breaks? No thanks. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- d33pnull · 2023-12-18 18:57 I rent a dedicated server that acts as access pont for the hosts that are behind a NAT with no port forwarding available. The rest is all inter-connected. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- sitram · 2023-12-18 19:20 Thanks for making this thread. I was thinking to do this for a while now, but after reading all the replies here, I don't think it's such a good idea anymore. Actually I'll probably stop trying to convince my neighbors to make their own home lab either! 😁 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Square_Lawfulness_33 · 2023-12-18 19:21 My step father returned a Intel nuc, I bought them, with the cable modem when they needed to return it. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- unofficialtech · 2023-12-18 19:27 Used to do pihole (then shifted to adguardhome), and was set up in a way that if it was down or unplugged their internet still worked (just without ad filtering) but then moved over to just setting the routers primary dns to [1.1.1.2](https://1.1.1.2) or [1.1.1.3](https://1.1.1.3) pending which family and their preferences, and [8.8.8.8](https://8.8.8.8) as third dns for backup. Parents have a synology that has daily incrementals of paperless-ngx and photos, and a few other specific files that would help me recover in the event of a flood/fire/etc... as one of my pillars of personal backup. I pay them in lawn mowing and cupcakes. It's set up out of sight/out of mind so they don't think tinker with it and should never need to be moved (it's on a ceiling mounted shelf in the utility area of the basement). Anything family want access to is hosted at home, with no promises/guarantees on uptime. While I backup the data in my nextcloud instance, they are all advised to have their own backup as well of anything critical. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Expensive_Finger_973 · 2023-12-18 19:54 Yep. That is why I go over how to get at my passwords, etc with my wife, discuss mundane things about the finances, and generally operate as "cloud first" with the tech the family sees and directly interacts with. I want where things are, how to access them, and what goes on month to month to be muscle memory to them. A lot of my homelab is either transparent, a backup of the cloud stuff, or just for me and will make no different if it is inaccessible. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- JayDubEwe · 2023-12-18 19:58 I have installed things at other people's houses... for me: My DR site and backups over wireguard. :) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- koffienl · 2023-12-18 20:00 The moment you install a wifi router for someone, they will call you and hold you responsible for a flat tire 5 months later because they got new tires the dat you installed the router or server. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- superhotmodelgirljus · 2023-12-18 20:14 Sometimes 5 times. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Sudden_Cheetah7530 · 2023-12-18 20:21 Most of ordinary people would trust Google or MS instead of fully open sourced apps. If someone trusts Google, there are very little reasons left to self-host apps. So I never recommend open source things to the others. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- adamshand · 2023-12-18 20:26 I used to run ISPs back in the old dialup days. We used to do fun things like install UUCP servers at people's businesses. :-) Everything everyone says about it being a PITA is true ... when you're doing it in your spare time for free. But that doesn't mean that there isn't a decent business / side hustle lurking. You'd need to be realistic about the support requirements, be very careful about setting expectations with customers (response times, sla, backups etc), and probably do a lot of careful automation and testing. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- budius333 · 2023-12-18 20:27 You reminded me.... I used to have a Raspberry Pi with an HD for torrenting at my parents house cause their country is pretty chill with it and transferred back via SSH to me. That was before Tailscale made everything so simple. When their provider changed the router it stopped working due to Upnp shenanigans and I lost my SSH, which I would eventually solve, maybe when my brother would go there... Until the day my father's wife told me she thrown it away in the fucking garbage bin because according to me "it didn't work". A PI, power supply, SD-card (with URL and SSH keys to call back to my home server) and an old 80GB HDD, all in the trash. FML. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- budius333 · 2023-12-18 20:28 My fathers wife returned the router left at their place when the provider changed the modem. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- laser50 · 2023-12-18 20:32 Yeah nah, having to install that stuff, manage it, do maintenance and repairs. Not to mention some people are just not smart enough to have to handle these kinds of things, even though they think so. Take Nextcloud for example (google drive alternative you host at home), I am in the unofficial support discord.. The amount of super basic questions up to "please spoonfeed me every step of the way on how to install" while you could just find the 300,000 guides on google & youtube that show you the exact same thing. Especially for friends, that'll cost me the grand price of free time and no money :'( ---------------------------------------------------------------------- NullVoidXNilMission · 2023-12-18 20:52 For public stuff I would go with a cloud provider. For internal stuff, yeah, I'm trying to build a wireguard vpn between a friend and I. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- -my_dude · 2023-12-18 20:57 hell no, i do host a backup server at mum's house tho ---------------------------------------------------------------------- LidgChris · 2023-12-18 21:49 I never set up wireguard because im always either home, or at work, rarely anywhere else. I have so many Pi's sitting around untouched, like maybe 30, most of which are 3b+'s and 9 or 10 4's (all from my job, nobody used em once we change how we did the thing they were used for, so they were given to me just to goto waste lol). I think im gonna start setting up wireguard on them and shipping them to family to plug in when they need my help with their pc. Or just keep one in my bad that gives me access to my network whenever i plug it in. Thank you for the idea. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- mrhinix · 2023-12-18 21:58 You flipping 2 times to try three sides. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Mintfresh22 · 2023-12-18 21:59 no ---------------------------------------------------------------------- wegwerfennnnn · 2023-12-18 22:21 Ah you are correct flips == orientations-1 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Geoffman05 · 2023-12-18 22:54 I can relate. My mom kept moving their cheap TP link router into an enclosed entertainment stand with a glass window cause she didn’t like looking at it. This goes back and forth a few times. I eventually gave them one of my old APs I had laying around so they could keep the tp link hidden and “simply keep the flying saucer out in the open.” I’ve gone over twice to my mom unhooking things and putting them in random places…. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ExperimentalGoat · 2023-12-18 23:02 >Its definitely a thing - but I’d really recommend avoiding it unless you’re able to do it full time and you have people willing to pay a monthly service fee Yeah this sounds like a fun exercise when you're first getting involved with selfhosting/IT/networking.. But EVERYONE who does this becomes tech support for every device that the household owns, indefinitely. "Why does my TV remote not work? Must be the (NAS box you plugged into the ethernet port on the router). The TV didn't have problems until you brought it here". It can be cool to "conquer" things like this for a while, but you will learn to hate managing this stuff for other people, even for a little bit of money. Don't let people take the joy out of this hobby for you. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- isleepbad · 2023-12-18 23:27 Oof. Man I feel that pain. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- CrispyBegs · 2023-12-19 00:14 looool ---------------------------------------------------------------------- majoroutage · 2023-12-19 00:20 Sounds like making myself their tech support though. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- bummyjabbz · 2023-12-19 00:20 at that point you should just have your own VPS where you host their services for them for a monthly fee. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- jaredearle · 2023-12-19 00:33 I do it with fixed IPs, pfSense at both ends and IPSec tunnels. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- boli99 · 2023-12-19 00:34 >stuff into other people's house ? you know when they use that stuff? they use it all the time. early morning, late night, weekends, evenings - constantly. you know when you'll get a call about it if you installed it? all the time. early morning, late night, weekends, evenings - constantly. you'll get a call about all the things *near* it too - as well as anything that stopped working within a few days of your most recent visit to the place. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- LoPanDidNothingWrong · 2023-12-19 00:46 Only other technical friends for exchanging back up offsite and stuff. No support ---------------------------------------------------------------------- gotkube · 2023-12-19 01:23 Yes. Oh wait… you mean for *them*? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Business_Holiday_608 · 2023-12-19 01:31 I'm about three months out from releasing a magic bullet product for this and self hosting in general after working for four years in the space. Cloudron and umbrel are also competing in the space currently. Someone else posted about maintenance requirements and they're 100% accurate ---------------------------------------------------------------------- nurbleyburbler · 2023-12-19 01:40 Support risk. Just dont ---------------------------------------------------------------------- JudgeCastle · 2023-12-19 02:38 No. I get paid to support stuff in other peoples offices. I don’t want to do that in my spare time for people I know. There is one friend I will support and that’s because he’s technical enough to understand but doesn’t have the confidence to do setup without me there to intervene. Also gives us a reason to hangout. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- AvgCowEnjoyer · 2023-12-19 03:06 Wonderful in concept but never do this. They will always blame you for everything that goes wrong and not worth the stress ): ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Spirited_Paramedic_8 · 2023-12-19 03:17 Hahah. Thank you for this laugh. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Spirited_Paramedic_8 · 2023-12-19 03:32 Are there solutions that are low-maintenance and reliable? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- awpenheimer7274 · 2023-12-19 03:42 Buddy shut up... You're puttin my job in jeopardy ---------------------------------------------------------------------- MrBigPenisUSA · 2023-12-19 04:10 Maintenance for that play would ultimately land me in jail for mass homicide. You do you tho. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- kee02041 · 2023-12-19 04:37 yup, that is also known as virus. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- HighMarch · 2023-12-19 05:33 As someone who spent the better part of a decade doing help desk, and help desk adjacent work: Nope. Not even for a second. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- gromhelmu · 2023-12-19 05:38 I have my main server at my parents house, to which I connect to via IPSEC from my place. This setup has worked pretty well the last 5 years. Some benefits: - I have automatic offsite, offline backups (a NAS at my place) - I can use all my services internally, through split-horizon SSL/DNS - my place is too small to host a loud server; my parents have solar and a lot of space - I can use OpenVPN to connect to pfsense at my parents, should the IPSEC go down for some reason Caveats: - once in 5 years I messed up an upgrade of the firewall and had to drive the 120 km to repair it :( ---------------------------------------------------------------------- padmepounder · 2023-12-19 06:48 I do see some people listing services on fiverr ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Cybasura · 2023-12-19 07:41 No, because that way leads to neverending work that wont get you money unless you enforce per-work payment, and/or a warranty system then increase your prices 10 folds = destroying customer trust ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Several-Protection92 · 2023-12-19 07:49 I always put shortcuts to important directories on the Desktop of elderly people. It's the simplest thing I never thaught of but it helps my nerves a lot. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- thepenis_mightier · 2023-12-19 08:05 So just from your title - yes, at my dad's place, as a backup type thing for my own data. But he vetoed it, unfortunately. His network, his rules ¯⁠\⁠(⁠°⁠_⁠o⁠)⁠/⁠¯ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- nadmaximus · 2023-12-19 08:12 Form a selfhosting users group ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Geminii27 · 2023-12-19 08:19 I personally wouldn't. Not unless I wanted to be on the hook for everything that could ever go wrong. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Ravasaurio · 2023-12-19 11:09 It's not the most maintenance intensive service, but I actually just put a Pi Zero with Pi-Hole at my parent's home. My dad clicks on every ad that pops on his phone, and every once in a while I have to go through it, uninstall all the crap he installs while listening him say "I don't know what that is, I didn't click on anything". So I'm hoping the maintenance work I'll have to put into Pi-Hole will be less than trying to keep my dad's phone crap free. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- trisanachandler · 2023-12-19 13:35 Yeah, find a tech savvy friend, a parent is usually a poor choice. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- rithotyn · 2023-12-19 13:42 Set up a few raspberry pi / pivpn combos coupled with either wireguard desktop app / phone app or a travel router to the same effect. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- LutimoDancer3459 · 2023-12-19 13:56 >Like them pressing the power button on a NAS by mistake, even though you told them to never ever do that. Your fault to even plug it in /s but somehow true ---------------------------------------------------------------------- wickeddimension · 2023-12-19 13:58 There is a reason everything is SaaS. Commercial companies long discovered the nightmare of having to provide support for on premise installs with customers. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- wickeddimension · 2023-12-19 14:01 I put 3 folders on the desktop for them. Documents, Photos, Scans. it's the default directory for Word and for the printers scan software. They don't know where to find Explorer or how to navigate, now they can just boot the computer, click the according icon and scroll through their endless unstructured list of documents. The concept of subfolders is lost on them. But their physical archive is perfectly labeled with binders with dates, tabs and everything haha. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- entirefreak · 2023-12-19 14:29 Not the tyres man.. 😂 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Jonteponte71 · 2023-12-19 14:36 My friend with the wireless network dropped his router on the floor when cleaning his house. When he picked it up, he probably pressed the reset button. You’ll have to child proof everything if you want to be resonably sure :) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Jonteponte71 · 2023-12-19 14:46 My parents can get by with not knowing where the few doucuments they DO have are. But my mother will go into a full-blown panic attack if she cannot play solitaire and her online Mahjong games. I helped them move this summer and I was about to actually leave and go home in the middle of it because they did not understand or accept the fact that internet can take a few days to get working in a new place. It’s the first time I have actually had dark thoughts about my parents… It’s the same when they have issues with it. My mother calls and I have to listen to her almost panicing over it 🤷‍♂️ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- sjveivdn · 2023-12-19 15:15 Not a good idea ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Akuma-chan_cosplay · 2023-12-19 15:48 I put on my mom's computer a wallpaper that explains all the buttons 😂 where to find everything with arrows. 😂 I also set up all the short cuts. Changed the hard disk to a SSD. Installed some old games she enjoyed. At the end of the story she played 1 hour. That was five years ago 😂 setup time was bigger than use time 😂 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- aamfk · 2023-12-19 19:37 >My fathers wife returned the router left at their place when the provider changed the modem. > >I feel your pain I had paid $500 for a guy from F5 to help me with my network once upon a time. I can't even BEGIN to explain what I wanted. I had pfSense with a LAN for me, a LAN for my consulting clients, and then a LAN for my roommates (who liked to torrent and shit). One weekend, I was on a business trip, and my roommates called Comcast and complained that my quote 'router wasn't working' because they couldn't torrent, I guess, who knows what they were REALLY trying to do (hack me probably) So comcast came in, took my $500 router and replaced it with a typical router. I never got my home network setup like I had wanted. 5 public IPs with Comcast Business, I just wanted a subnet where I could plug in 'virtual routers' and be able to access them from my LANs (using 192.168.1.2 , etc) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- aamfk · 2023-12-19 19:38 that is why I lost my house. Because my asshole roommates attacked my LAN one weekend when I was gone. I just didn't want torrents on my LAN, when you're working for VERY high end clients, you can't take any risks with pirated windows, etc. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- MsRitaBook · 2023-12-19 20:52 Heck I would pay for someone to hop on a call with me and walk through stuff. I’m a total n00b and was looking into self-hosting my blink security cams and have no idea where/how to start (hence me joining this subreddit). But if a service like this existed I would def pay for it. At least for someone to show me the basics. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- esturniolo · 2023-12-19 21:56 Of course. And will work much more stable and reliable than my home. It’s a law. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- iuselect · 2023-12-19 22:41 This is a terrible idea imo. Just wait until some update is pushed to software they're hosting and it breaks functionality. Not only are you getting a call immediately, you're gonna have to spend time trying to figure out what is broken and why. No solution is bullet proof, software isn't perfect and you will have to fix random issues that crop up. The amount of time I spend on reading trace logs, troubleshooting and testing stuff is more than I'd like. I couldn't imagine how much time I'd spend trying to do it for others and all while keeping my patience with answering their never ending list of questions. People are going to ask you things like you wrote the software, they're hardly going to accept anything other than "I've fixed it" as an answer as well. Usually the people who don't understand anything about self hosting stuff services shouldn't even be self hosting them if they have no idea how to manage it or at least troubleshoot basic issues. When people ask about it, I usually try and gauge if they actually have a genuine curiosity in it, or if they just want all the benefits. Usually it's the latter, and I always tell them that there is no point of they're just going to text/call me if something goes wrong. I've always been the guy to call for tech support in my family and it's just a pain over the years. Save yourself the pain and don't put your hand up for that stuff. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- boli99 · 2023-12-20 05:06 > When asking my mother what had happened she claime - So. What changed? -- Nothing. We changed nothing. - Are you sure? -- Absolutely 100% sure. - So when I left it - the external HD was USB-C , and black. ...But now its USB2, and blue. -- We didnt change anything! I told you! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- gold76 · 2023-12-22 23:27 I’ve been thinking about this. The plan was a mini-pc with some attached SSD for a remote backup. How are you doing it? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Lanky_Information825 · 2023-12-23 04:52 Having seen some incredibly resilient solid-state Proxmox boxes, I'd say, this could work. Though you'd likely need more than one location to ensure availability - otherwise, you'd be at the mercy of FW updates, modem/router reboots, etc. I'm also thinking you'd need something like a tunnel/load balancer(script), to keep things up and running. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Global_Shock_1511 · 2023-12-23 14:12 Any hardware recommendations? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Lanky_Information825 · 2023-12-23 14:29 I really like nvme Proxmox w/Hypercard. Once you try one, you won't ever want to go back. That said, a 7900x w/128gb, and 4tb zRAID 10, is really hard to beat - can be packed in a small case, pretty much silent w/near instantaneous snapshots/vm creation etc. You could even throw - in a pair of 8tb drives for local backups without compromising on space or performance. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Global_Shock_1511 · 2023-12-23 14:33 I'll definitely check this out. Thanks! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- jmeador42 · 2023-12-23 19:38 I use an AOOSTAR R1 mini-pc running Ubuntu server with 2 full size 3.5" HDD's in a mirrored ZFS zpool. My primary Restic backup repository is stored on my workstation at my house, and gets rsynced over my Nebula network every night to the Aoostar. My parents live about an hour away, so this is an offsite backup that I could get my hands on relatively quickly if need be. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- gold76 · 2023-12-24 01:24 Awesome, thanks for the reply.