Hey guys,
after reading up on selfhosting for weeks now I finally decided to take the plunge today and tried setting up my own nextcloud & jellyfin instances. For this purpose I am using a mini PC. (similiar to an Intel NUC)
Now I would like to make both services available to the internet so I could show images to friends while I’m at their place / watch movies with them.
The problem is I am currently not very educated on which security measures I would have to take to ensure that my server / mini PC doesn’t immediately become an easy target for a hacker, especially considering that I would host private photos on the nextcloud.
After googling around I feel like I find a lot of conflicting information as well as write-ups that I don’t fully grasp with my limited knowledge so if you guys have any general advice or even places to learn about all these concepts I would be absolutely delighted!
Thank you guys sooo much in advance for any and all help, the c/selfhosted community has been nothing but a great resource for me so far!!!
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I am using Tailscale.
In the spirit of selfhosting, you can also host headscale. Its an open source implementation of the proprietary tailscale control plane.
It allows you to get over the
5device limit (different depending on tiers), as well as keep your traffic on your devices. And, imo, it is pretty stable.The only issue is that the control plane (by nature) has to be publically accessible. But imo it’s way less of a security target than a massive app like nextcloud.
Edit: device limits were wrong
Duckdns.org for dynamic dns. You can get a domain name like example.duckdns.org for free.
Caddyserver.com to reverse proxy to your running docker services. You’ll be able to set up jellyfin.example.duckdns.org
Crowdsec.net to secure the network
Tailscale for access to running docker services that you don’t need to share with friends.
My approach was to set it all up internally, create a wireguard VPN accesspoint and only open that up. That way I don’t have as much to worry as much within the network (still use generated passwords for things) and able to access it anywhere.
Granted, you asked about opening up to the www. I’d suggest buying a domain through cloudfront, setting up an nginx instance that proxies traffic (think nextcloud.mydomain.com), and have it only accept connections from cloudfront servers.
That allows you SSL termination, pretty good bot coverage, and a nice domain name to share as needed.
I went for wireguard VPN instead of exposing services. Its much more safe afaik, but you have to configure each device you want to give access (aka scanning QR code). You also dont need to buy a domain for that. Exposed services would be easier to use, especially if you want to use it on many devices