this post was submitted on 03 Oct 2025
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Hi there! This is a video that I made that I'm hoping can act as a beginner friendly entry level point to the world of self hosting and running a homelab. Just thought I'd share in case anyone is interested, and I hope it can be a resource to share with noobies. I don't claim to be an expert at all so I'd also love some feedback. Thanks!

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[–] Darkcoffee@sh.itjust.works 59 points 1 week ago (3 children)

That's a welcomed thing, often it's daunting to do it from scratch when all guides assume you're a masters student in computer science lol

[–] bpt11@reddthat.com 18 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Yeah as someone that was just getting into it not that long ago I definitely kinda struggled through it even though I'd feel pretty confident saying I'm a bit more technically literate than most. Figured I'd try to help others with the process as much as I can! I appreciate the validation lol

[–] bear@lemmy.blahaj.zone 9 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Thanks! I've been wanting to set up something like this

[–] bpt11@reddthat.com 5 points 1 week ago

You're so welcome friend I wish you the best of luck :)

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[–] Saarth@lemmy.world 47 points 1 week ago (23 children)

I want a future where communities self host their media and circumvent media companies like Netflix and Disney. Local film clubs, TV clubs, hobbyists, etc. can come together and host as a collective bringing down costs and making this more accessible.

[–] cyberpunk007@lemmy.ca 25 points 1 week ago

Like ham radio ppl

[–] Auli@lemmy.ca 10 points 1 week ago (8 children)
[–] boonhet@sopuli.xyz 13 points 1 week ago

Okay, so you don't even need a socialist system for this, just a moderately sane government. Even here in Estonia, the government hands out funding for cultural projects. Now this is still a capitalist society, so you likely can't get full funding for a big project.

In an actual socialist economy, the government will give you full funding for projects. The actors and everyone else working on a movie or TV show have guaranteed income that's enough to live their lives, guaranteed living accommodations, etc, so they're more likely to do it as a passion project, but they could still be paid as extra motivation. Funding is still required for equipment, etc. Unless you go fully money free as a society, in which case you ask the government to assign equipment to you.

[–] themurphy@lemmy.ml 10 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Sometimes it's hard to imagine a reality outside our own.

[–] LeroyJenkins@lemmy.world 8 points 1 week ago (2 children)

imagine it for us then. what would this model look like and be sustainable?

[–] themurphy@lemmy.ml 7 points 1 week ago (4 children)

Sure.

The premise is to bring down costs, and not be free. This is a reality where we can share media we buy, because we own them again.

So you can kind of imagine the world 20-30 years back with VHS and DVDs. Just in the digital world.

Fewer people would buy the content, and less shareholders will be rich. Actors will also not go for multi million dollar salaries. But actors would still exist.

You can argue that this will bring down the number of movies, but most likely there will just be alot of small studios making movies instead of Netflix and Disney controlling the market from start to end.

There will be a much larger varaity in movies, and not that many reboots of past succes from the VHS/DVD age.

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[–] Saarth@lemmy.world 7 points 1 week ago

There are a lot of independent creators out there too.

[–] surph_ninja@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

The same people who already make the media. Just cut out the corporate middle-men & shareholders, who soak up all the profit and contribute nothing to the content.

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[–] thatradomguy@lemmy.world 45 points 1 week ago (3 children)

We should have never lost the capability to have LAN parties for all games.

[–] Zink@programming.dev 10 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Just yesterday I wiped the drive and installed Linux on the 3rd old PC for the LAN setup I'm putting together, literally "for the children!"

It's an i7-920 from 2008. It has TRIPLE channel ram, baby. I installed Linux Mint Cinnamon and it was as quick and painless as usual.

I already get the warm fuzzies when I walk into the room and find my 3rd grader playing on my PC instead of their tablet or even the console. Our first LAN party is gonna be sweet.

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[–] bpt11@reddthat.com 10 points 1 week ago

You're spitting rn

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[–] amotio@lemmy.world 27 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (10 children)

Started my own home server about a year or so ago. Currently hosting Immich for me and my gf. Jellyfin for archiving movies shows and downloaded YT videos. Forgejo for local git where I backup my work. Homeassistant to manage lights in the appartment and some other small stuff. Linkwarden to archive important websites and links I might need in the future (docs for work, how-tos for the server itself so I dont loose all that setup kbowledge). Syncthing to sync files between multiple devices - which is awesome, easy to setup and pair folders. Seafile to share files.

It has been great, it draws around 20-30W idle.

I am currently in search for Obsidian and Bitwarden self hosted alternative that can be run in docker container - if anyone has some ideas I am all ears.

[–] Serinus@lemmy.world 16 points 1 week ago

Vaultwarden is what you're looking for.

[–] freeearth@discuss.tchncs.de 11 points 1 week ago

Instead of Bitearden you can use Keepass and share db file with syncthing

[–] DevOops@piefed.social 9 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I'm syncing the files from Obsidian using Syncthing as well, works fine.

[–] NOPper@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 1 week ago

That's the primary draw for plain text files for me!

[–] 0x0@lemmy.zip 6 points 1 week ago

Joplin is a good Obsidian alternative.

[–] Frey@jlai.lu 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Trilium is nice as an obsidian alternative

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[–] Auli@lemmy.ca 5 points 1 week ago

You can selfhist bitwarden. Or use vaultwarden.

[–] Jayjader@jlai.lu 4 points 1 week ago

I often see LogSeq, and to a lesser extent Silver Bullet, mentioned as self-hostable alternatives to Obsidian that people actually appreciate using.

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[–] paequ2@lemmy.today 24 points 1 week ago (3 children)

I have my own server and it's great, but the real product these streaming services sell isn't access to content—it's discoverability and recommendations. We need a better solution for that!

[–] Aneb@lemmy.world 14 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Yeah I use jellyseerr with jellyfin and they work great together

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[–] solrize@lemmy.ml 20 points 1 week ago (16 children)

This is a 32 minute video that starts with a text card and robo voice. Is there any kind of summary? I don't have a home server and don't know what I'd do with one if I had it tbf. I have several vps and other hosted servers and find them much less hassle than a home server. But, maybe I'm missing out on something.

[–] amotio@lemmy.world 18 points 1 week ago (5 children)

The main difference is that having a home server means You are in complete control over Your data. You can run home server and isolate it from the internet, running only on local network. Great for privacy and You are not relying on some external provider being reliable and available.

It also has it's downsides. You have to maintain the server, keeping it up-to-date. Checking if some components need upgrading or replacing - which is mainly about having healthy drives so You do not loose all Your data.

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[–] egrets@lemmy.world 9 points 1 week ago (4 children)

Persist with the video! The text-to-speech is only for a couple of quick screens - the rest is very personal, and they cover a bunch of use cases.

If you really don't want to, the server OS they recommend around two-thirds of the way through is YunoHost, a beginner-friendly way to run services as containers on any capable spare computer. The YunoHost website has a bunch of use cases that are also covered in the video.

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[–] Reygle@lemmy.world 20 points 1 week ago (4 children)

My entire life is Linux and self hosted, aside from Email. I may get to that one day too. Love my Plex server, even with the more recent baloney the company's apparently been up to.

I should be using Jellyfin but once I get home from work I don't want to tinker any more, I just wanna play a game or dick around.

Agree with the message in the video, these companies should be told to pound sand the minute they do a single anti-consumer thing.

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[–] quick_snail@feddit.nl 13 points 1 week ago

Thanks for using peer tube

Having my own server is sooooo cool. There are so many services I’m running for my friends and family that are just incredible. That includes this piefed instance! Which is public if anyone wants to register here

[–] mrl1@jlai.lu 10 points 1 week ago

The first disclaimer in the video is the most relatable thing I've read in a while

[–] AA5B@lemmy.world 10 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Hosting email just saved the day! My ex got locked out of her email account and password resets were blocked. However she still had one “home” forwarding email configured as a recovery address, so we were able to redirect it somewhere accessible and unlock her email account!

[–] masterofn001@lemmy.ca 9 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

I just have my old PC's running Linux connected directly to the tv or projector.

I use a super basic webdav server or free ^arr^ ^matey^ streaming sites.

I sometimes sftp into devices.

That's my setup.

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[–] Olgratin_Magmatoe@slrpnk.net 9 points 1 week ago

Agreed. It's time my occasional minecraft/PZomboid server got a nextcloud upgrade.

[–] Signtist@bookwyr.me 7 points 1 week ago (2 children)

How beneficial is connecting via ethernet instead of wifi? My wifi mesh pods only have 1 ethernet out port, so I use it for my desktop. Not sure if I could split it or not, but I imagine if I did it'd slow down my desktop's internet connection, which I'd rather not do.

[–] Zortrox@lemmy.sdf.org 15 points 1 week ago (2 children)

I can't be sure since technology has so many different factors, but splitting a single Ethernet out into multiple with a network switch won't really affect it much if at all. Cat5e cable/jack (common for most cables) gets 1 gigabit, so unless you have a gigabit connection and maxing out the connections already, you shouldn't notice it.

As for WiFi, even though a lot of newer technology is great, it's not going to beat Ethernet.

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[–] Evotech@lemmy.world 11 points 1 week ago

A switch won't slow anything at home.

It's super cheap and literally plug and play.

[–] AntiBullyRanger@ani.social 6 points 1 week ago (2 children)

I’d urge u to retitle to:

How I host my home server

I had PTSD over that phrase, and how many naïve self starters got doxed, swatted, murdered, thrashed, DoS, pwnd, bitlocked, sued, deISPd, excomm.d, raided, wormed, subpoenaed, etc., etc..

And with fascist laws being enforced, basic guides need extreme darknet praxis updates.

[–] JustEnoughDucks@feddit.nl 11 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

I would be interested to see a figure of people with home servers that have had that happen to them. DoS & pwned yes, especially 15+ years ago before there were good resources, TLS, reverse proxies, or authentication front ends.

I would be very interested to see any stat whatsoever of selfhosters that have gottened murdered specifically because of their server.

It is extremely important to note that in those days, people just opened their, often out-of-date, servers completely to the internet via a DMZ or port forwarding, let ssh be open to the internet, didn't harden ssh at all, and most people didn't use a VPN for downloading.

That is literally like saying that people who light wall torches in their wooden home burned their house down, so let's not use lightbulbs or electricity.

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[–] TrickDacy@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago
[–] Anomnomnomaly@lemmy.org 6 points 1 week ago

I pay for netflix... dumped prime a couple of years ago and got given disney+ for free for 12 months. I have my own server and am on version 3.2 of it after my first dedicated one I built in 2009. I've kinda had others before then, but it was an old PC I hooked up to my old CRT tv in about 2002 which struggled to play some mpeg2 content due to the weak single core CPU it had in it.

Now it's running on an AM4 setup with a Ryzen 5 5600G, so I can use the PCIE socket that used to have a GPU in it for a SATA expansion card, so that I can triple the number of HDD's it could hold. I'm slowly going through it once a year replacing the oldest 6TB drives (without about 80,000+hrs of uptime on them) with 14TB archive drives I rip out of seagate external drives. 4 more to go... to add to the 4 already done.

I think my first dedicated server had 3TB of storage (2x 1.5TB) and I still have one of those drives in an external drive that I use occasionally to fill with movies and shows when I go away and take one of my shield tv boxes with me... but mostly I take an external 500gb ssd as it doesn't require a power supply and I rarely have enough time to watch 1TB of movies and shows whilst away.

Over the last 15yrs, it's been rebuilt a few times and upgrade many... adding extra drives, swapping out CPU's and so on. 3 ground up builds with the last one being built in 2020... Normally when I build a new system for myself, the mediaserver gets upgraded with my old parts... Hence the last one being on windows 7 and an AMD FX 8350 with DDR3 ram until mid 2020.

Currently about 70TB capacity.

My next one will have a dedicated raid setup with parity... it's the one thing I've never been able to do with such a random collection of different size drives... hence normalizing them all to the same kind of 14TB ones.

[–] LoafedBurrito@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (5 children)

I set up my home server, then realized my Internet is shit and my upload speeds can't even steam 1 4k movie, let alone several at once.

I am not excited to triple my monthly Internet bill for better upload speeds, but it will have to happen soon.

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[–] jaybone@lemmy.zip 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

That’s a pretty vague title. What kind of server? I run emby. I also run a ton of other servers.

[–] thedirtyknapkin@lemmy.world 8 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (19 children)

did you try clicking the link? titles aren't meant to convey all relevant info.

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[–] myfunnyaccountname@lemmy.zip 4 points 1 week ago

Every time I spin one up. I spend weeks setting things and playing with it. And then never use it again until I get bored and rebuild it.

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