I think of myself as technically inclined. I have installed Linux multiple times and have basic command line knowledge, and I’ve programmed in many languages, with the most experience making a static website game using HTML/CSS/JS.

Additionally, I own the superspruce.org domain (my registrar is Dynadot), but I don’t really know how to wield the power of owning a domain. I also have some spare computers to be used for hosting, a 2009 laptop running Lubuntu and a 3900X+32GB RAM desktop other running KDE Neon, but I’m also open to experimenting with cloud hosting too (I know, sacrilege here).

However, I don’t know much about the TCP/IP protocol or other networking protocols. I’m happy to learn, but the curve would need to start gently.

I would want to try hosting my websites, and also a personal non-federated Lemmy instance to serve as a archivable forum for my games. Even if it’s not very useful, it’s great experience.

  • constantokra@lemmy.one
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    4 months ago

    Everyone else is telling you to stay local, which is great advice, as far as it goes. But you said you want to host your website publicly available, so i’d recommend getting a cheap vps and starting there. It’s not on your network, so if you screw up with security, worst case is you start again from scratch. I’d recommend the cheapest virmach VM you can get, with Debian or Ubuntu, if you like snaps.

    First things first, set up ssh with key based logins, with a passphrase on a non standard port (doesn’t provide security, but it will keep your logs from getting innundated immediately). Install UFW, and block all incoming traffic, allow all outgoing traffic, and limit traffic to your ssh port. Install docker and add your user to the docker group. Start learning how to use docker, compose, and as your first container, set up duplicati to back up your docker directory (including all your volumes, which I would store as folders inside your docker directory) somewhere else. I’d set it up to run every evening after you go to bed, and i’d also set a cron script to bring down all your containers before you back up, then bring them back up. Just in case.