this post was submitted on 26 Oct 2023
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Why is starting with Self-hosting so daunting? (alien.top)
submitted 11 months ago by Ieris19@alien.top to c/main@selfhosted.forum
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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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[–] Wixely@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago

The amount of times I've completely rebuilt my home setups is... many. But to get where I am now, I would never have been able to plan it properly without the learning experience of "failing" so many times. And there will always be a better way to do it as things need upgrading so in a way it is perpetual. Start with the projects you want first. Get them working and make sure you can export the data properly before you begin to rely on them. Then once you have small bits done, add extras, like cloudflare, vpn, portainer, proxmox. There will be a lot of formatting and reinstalling and going back to the drawing board, just accept it as a learning experience but take each piece once by one. If there is a specifc

yet I can barely find info on HOW to set up this things.

There are plenty of guides out there that makes assumptions that you should already know things, which can be frustrating, I found this especially true with docker related documentation. If you find yourself on a github page, check the Releases tab. If it's still confusing there, check for a docker folder in the github and search "docker ". Start with popular more documented projects that will usually include beginner instructions that less popular software will omit. Even then if you keep looking you can usually fine one good doc that clears things up.

Also, in this realm, chat GTP excels at obscure configurations so it's worth giving it a shot when stuck.