A place to share alternatives to popular online services that can be self-hosted without giving up privacy or locking you into a service you don't control.
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We welcome posts that include suggestions for good self-hosted alternatives to popular online services, how they are better, or how they give back control of your data. Also include hints and tips for less technical readers.
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I currently have 2 Root Servers and 1 Storage Server with Netcup for quite a while now. I haven't had any issues so far. RS 1000, RS 2000 and S 1000.
Now for your questions.
Yes you can use Let's Encrypt with the server.
As far as I know you can set up a mail server on there. Maybe write the support team or ask in the forum if you wanna be 100% sure it works.
Thanks for the answer, how do you find the performance on those root servers? Is 2000 worth it? Or should I save a buck and go with 1000? I mean I would like to run a container or two in the future but that is all a big question if I actually will...
I run Matrix/Element on my RS 1000, and it is more than I need. Only uses about 4 GB of RAM at most. On the RS 2000 I currently run 44 Docker containers with no problem.
But to come back to your question, if it is worth saving the buck, then for your use case of 1 or 2 containers, it will probably be fine.
Do you maybe know... is it worth registering a domain with them or should I register it somewhere else?
I don't have a domain with them. I use Namecheap. But I have heard from colleagues that use Netcup for their domains that it is quite cheap for some tlds.
I mean I just have a .com
You can check the price on the site. If you already have one, it depends on whether you want to transfer it to them, so you can manage everything in one place.
Do you think I could buy like 1 month of 2000 and in a day or two of using it expand to yearly?
That should work as you have a satisfaction guarantee for the root server. Support will probably be able to change if for you.
I run some of my servers on a linux VPS, with the cheapest tier having 2GB ram, 1 CPU core, 50GB storage and unlimited bandwith for rougly €5 per month. It satisfies all my needs since I tunnel most heavy duty to my homelab. The provider is called Vimexx.
And did you ever had any issues with them? Also do you happen to know... when they say cores do they really mean cores or are they threads... the root server with dedicated cores I am looking at says 6 or 4 for the cheaper
I've never had an issue so far. I think it's a virtualized core, but it functions a fully working cpu with the loads i've thrown at it. I do run some light services only, but it works for me.
Netcup is quite cheap, but worth the price. Only thing I had issues with is how they were billing partial months. Basically if you rent a server for a day, they bill you for the whole month and then give you credit for the rest of the month if you cancel early. Hetzner does this better imo, they bill you at the end of the month.
Also backups are better with hetzner.
I used their 8GB Root server for a month a while back. I was happy with it :)
Great to know
Before i switched to the Hetzner Server Auctions i was a big netcup fan.
Especially when they have their christmas offers in december.
With root access to a server you can achieve everything, free SSL Certificates with let's encrypt as well.
I have a mail server and Proxmox mail gateway there. No problems whatsoever. Initially the gateway IP was on one blacklist and blacklisted (or not explicitly white listed) at Microsoft and German Telekom. But it was no hassle to get it unlisted. Make sure to configure everything properly. I can only recommend running a gateway so that you can run your Mailserver from where you want from and can easily move it if necessary
IMHO with netcup you get a lot for your bucks. I'm running a RS2000 and I'm running a mail server on it. However, this was quite some work as some IP ranges may be burnt by spammers and you might need to deal with some DNS blocking lists to get yours removed. In the end it works fine if you do all the stuff with DKIM,DMARC, SPF etc. and have IPv6 configured for your MTA.
What do you guys think, is it worth it? Any better alternatives for similar performance for the price? I am from Slovenia, and I am looking at a max budget of around 16€ after tax per month...
You are going to have a hard time finding a dedicated server for under €16/month. You might be able to get some cheap Intel ATOM boxes from OVH or Online.net. I believe OVH's N2800s are slow AF, while Online.net C270 Avatons "feel" anecdotally better.
But this price range is fairly low.
The good news is that you can get a lot of VPS servers for that budget. I would recommend using lowendbox/lowendtalk to look for deals in the field. Wait a few months for Black Friday and try to get on an annual deal.
Would I be still able to have the free SSL via Let's encrypt?
Yes. No matter what marketing gimmicks people use, Let's Encrypt certificates come from Let's Encrypt, not a special feature of the provider. So, if you can serve a file over HTTP or publish a TXT record to your DNS zone, you can have free SSL certificates from Let's Encrypt or any other ACME-compliant provider.
Could I set up the right things to have a mail server set up, so it doesn't go to spam?
Short answer: yes. Long answer: it takes effort. Some things to look out for: