What can the 'average Joe' start hosting, that will change their life?
What can the 'average Joe' start hosting, that will change their life?
I'm already hosting pihole, but i know there's so much great stuff out there! I want to find some useful things that I can get my hands on. Thanks!
Edit: Thanks all! I've got a lil homelab setup going now with Pihole, Jellyfin, Paperless ngx, Yacht and YT-DL. Going to be looking into it more tomorrow, this is so much fun!
As far as changed your life, there are not too many that i really love, that made a massive difference to how i do things. But there is one:
Paperless_ngx
ALL of my paper work, receipts, transcripts, tax, shares, council rates. Everything goes in there. We no longer have paper lieing everywhere (well, my wife is another matter, still keeps grocery shopping reciepts...). when i get soimething in the mail, i used the paperless app to "scan" it, upload it, then bin the paper.
An actual life change that i didn't know i needed.
Honestly Plex/Emby/Jellyfin whichever you prefer is a gamechanger because if you have a large library of content then it just cuts the cord from the subscription services.
I've always been happy to pay for them until I went on holiday last January and realised that none of my services were working due to going to a country that was out of the way and the only way to access them was to use a VPN.
So having my own Netflix is a great thing.
Tailscale while doing the above is also really cool
For me it's 100% Nextcloud. It was a pain to get working at first (and I'm dreading the day it breaks, if that happens). But it is so much more than just a self-hosted Dropbox solution:
- Maps
- Calendar
- Markdown editor (I'm using this to try and replace Google Drive for collaborative document editing with my friends; most of what we need can be achieved with Markdown formatting)
- I haven't tried it but there is a Talk plugin that allows for video conferencing in browser;
- a bunch of other stuff I've never played with like mind maps, PDF conversion, music player, etc.
Stay away from Plex, if you like to go with Free and Open source.
I'll start with Jellyfin, and Arr family (sonarr,radarr,prowlarr or Jackett), Vaultwarden and immich
Edit: Learn to spin up docker instances first, as above services would be easier to manage in docker containers and for back ups I prefer Duplicati. And if you run it 24x7 add AdguardHome or PiHole to the mix
Edit1: if you are extremely new to docker instances and find it hard to learn, just spin up CasaOS and you'll be good to go as it makes spinning up docker containers so easy.
Actual Budget I use to track my finance.
Duplicacy for backups to OneDrive and Backblaze
Photoprism as Google replacement
Portainer - For docker containers.
AdGuard Home on 2 separate Raspberry Pi Pico W.
HomeAssistant on its own hardware. Home automation
SearXNG - private search.
Whoogle - private search.
Shaarli - Bookmarks.
youtube-dl - downloading videos.
PaperlessNGX - document storage.
Trilium Notes - notes app
These are the ones I can't live without. All docker containers running on a NAS.
An RSS reader (I use Miniflux), ended up being extremely useful
- Almost every piece of software worth selfhosting has an RSS feed for updates (e.g., every GitHub releases page has an RSS feed). I started selfhosting a good deal more after setting up Miniflux.
- Like omg there is this whole internet out there outside of Reddit/Twitter/etc that does RSS. The vast majority of blogs have RSS (e.g., Wordpress and Substack). I wish I had discovered RSS decades ago, so many websites I've forgotten because I would check updates manually and eventually just forget. I even host a personal Nitter instance so I can follow Twitter people in Miniflux.
Exactly a couple of things that we (me and the wife) use really often:
- AdGuard Home is IMHO so much easier to use, although it has been a while since I've used Pi-Hole.
- CouchDB for the Obsidian LiveSync plugin
- Immich for a self hosted Google Photos alternative
- Nginx Proxy Manager for exposing all of my services
- Vaultwarden is invaluable for us
For me it’s a HomeAssistant instance. Great product that has some very tangible use cases that can benefit ones household in terms of being able to implement nice automations etc, and also a great hub in that it supports such a broad range of products and services. As an Apple user in particular its one of the great ways to get non HomeKit certified devices working with Siri/Homekit on my other Apple products.
It also makes installing addons a breeze including other products people have mentioned here such as AdGuard Home (as a PiHole alternative) and the like.
A few years ago I’d say it wasn’t for the average Joe, but I think the product has really matured and is much simpler than it used to be. There’s a strong community out there too.
For multimedia I’d say Plex personally, but Jellyfin would be another option. Good way to manage personal media libraries.
Nextcloud to replace Google drive/docs. Jellyfin or plex for media. The arrs to aquire media (if you have the patience). A blog? A game server to play with friends.
I suggest using docker and docker-compose as it makes everything way easier. It does still take time and it can be frustrating but it is very rewarding.
Crosspost from the duplicate
Home Assistant is nice! Have it integrated with some smart lights and smart plugs. Makes it easy to monitor and control everything locally.
We have it set up in our room so that one widget controls the lights, one controls the fans, one controls the monitors, then there's a master button that we use to turn off everything that doesn't need to be always on whenever we leave the room.
Want to play with some fancier stuff with it too, but that alone is incredibly convenient.
- Pi hole
- Syncthing(was able to replace Dropbox for my keepass database when they decide to limit number of devices for free tier) - perfect for regularly updated files and backups for photos, etc.
- Audiobookshelf - great way to manage audiobooks, also has a nice android app plus can turn each audiobook/series/collection of books into RSS and put in your favorite podcast app
- Plex/Jellyfin for media collections
I started with Plex, but I would say it wasn't until I spun up Nextcloud and got it running that I really would say my life changed. My entire family now has Nextcloud accounts, a family calendar, instant upload of pictures from my phone, all my recipes, and I even have OnlyOffice document server running for editing documents in Nextcloud.
I have a PiHole, my own EdgeRouter that is behind the Verizon router, a UPS, a wired switch, a SiliconDust HD HomeRun to convert my cable to a stream, my Hue controller, my Camera DVR, and a Pi4 hosting network storage.
It all fits neatly in a 6U closet rack. I use the EdgeRouter to host a VPN I can connect into to manage things for the house, and also use it to dial out to a VPN, so I can connect the TVs in the house to a VPN abroad.
I also have a Smart Garden powered by a raspberry pi, connected to a rain barrel, a water pump, some solenoids, and some moisture sensors.
The one that was lifechanging for me is audiobookshelf. I LOVE having full ownership and control over all of my audiobooks, and the ability to enjoy them on any device I choose.
We recently set up a magic mirror (showing public transport connections/time/calendar/weather information) on a raspberry pi 3b. But it involved some more fiddling with electronics and software.
(Maybe an alternative would also be possible using small oled (128x64 pixel) screens)
Would be my suggestion if you are up for a challenge =)
We also used to host our own nextcloud, but decided to move it to hetzner as the pricing was unbeatable..
Else a pihole would also have been my suggestion. Maybe a Kodi mediacenter is also worth looking into.
I’d recommend you to look up *arr stack and Jellyfin. Good start is Trash guides. It will guide you step by step on how to properly set it up. It can completely replace Netflix and all other streaming services and its all free.
These are some things I recommend. Vault warden. (paswoord manager). Jellyfin. (a great web based media player).. Portainer
Not exactly a "life changing experience", but using blocky instead of pihole or adguard. It's basically "the same thing" but with way more customization features -- and the "cherry on top" of setting it as user nobody instead of root or your current one.
A CCTV system. That directly affects the safety of yourlifee
Let me throw in Paperless NGX, https://github.com/paperless-ngx/paperless-ngx
PhotoPrism is a really big one for me. You will need some computing power and storage, but being able to run your own Google Photos is amazing. Including AI features like object and face detection (if you want).
syncthing works on every device and substitutes for cloud storage services. pictures taken with a phone end up quickly in the shared folder on my desktop. etc.
Also interested, after all the *arr apps I would say:
- EDIT: I forgot about PiHole !
- IRC bouncer - ZNC for example
- Minecraft (fabric with phosphor and sodium plugins for performance)
- Picoshare or Sharry (eikek/sharry on gh)
- Libreddit
Also a neat web tool for messing with data there is cyberchef.
Thanks to this post I realized there is really only one or two services I really use or need haha (ZNC and the other one is a web tool for a popular ttrpg ->pm).
All of this and more is inside docker containers so if you don't know that I would highly recommend it.
Nextcloud-snap is surprisingly easy to setup.
snap install nextcloudis all you need to have a functioning setup. Then run a second command to setup HTTPS and you're good to go :DSearxNG for search: https://docs.searxng.org/
You can try it using a public instance if you like, but since installing it is easy and painless, just go for it.
Meth labs. That will definitely change anyone's life.
ActualBudget. If you don't already budget, ActualBudget is a remarkably nice budgeting tool that will change your financial life for the better. actualbudget.com/
So, if you don't know yet what you're doing, I wouldn't host anything critical yet, but I'm using:
And so far, very few troubles. It's a layer on top of Debian to ease self-hosting. Comes by default with email and XMPP server. You can add Nextcloud and many other services as you wish.
For me, it was a wiki/knowledge base - I've had dozens over the years as I've tried to find the 'right' one, but I'm currently a fan of @bookstack@fosstodon.org. My brain's not always the most reliable, and so my wiki becomes my 'external brain'. A lot of people are using things like Obsidian/Notion/etc in the same way.
Since no one else has mentioned it, I’ll give a shout out to documentation engine Outline, which allows for self-hosting. Definitely on the trickier side to set up (requires three auxiliary services to be configured) but creates great looking docs that share easily, allows for collaboration and is super fast.
Is very nice as a personal messenger for friends and family.
Does a pihole setup not slow down your connectivity? Been looking into it but I'm very much a novice with my raspberry pi. I do want to use it for something cool other than just sitting around.
And my question is only deepened by the fact that I have a synology box as well. I could use pihole on that instead of my raspberry pi, right?
If you are into RPGs Foundry VTT is a great replacement for roll 20 or any of the other virtual tabletops.
@jaackf
SyncThing. It's the best sort of selfhosted program. You set it up once and then never think about it because it just keeps quietly doing what you wanted.Wikis can be great if you've got a few folks that need to coordinate information.
An RSS reader/aggregator.
It depends on what you use on your daily basis. There's a lot of stuff, but what do you use normally? Are you a Netflix user? More of an audible guy? Evernote/notion? Maybe we can then recommend something that's useful for you
a tor exit node :P /s
Plex
-Adguard Home -HomeAssistant
So many good comments and stuff to try out. Gonna safe this for later and research a bit more!
What about hosting a web server, would it not be quite a change too?
Portainer and a decent docker lab box. I use a template list from https://raw.githubusercontent.com/xneo1/portainer_templates/master/Template/template.json as a base kit, but beyond that creating a pile of compose scripts and having the ability to put up and down services from a fairly simple GUI just to test them out is amazing. It's the simplest way I've found to just try an app, and either keep or toss it with minimal cleanup and reset of a box.
Matrix so you can chat privately
I'll throw in: Archiveteam Warrior. I leave it running on a VPS somewhere. When a website says they're shutting down, or going private or something, they step in and write code to archive the website (usually via sending it to archive.org).
A catch-all email server. I have a limitless amount of mail addresses going to me and my wife's mailboxes. When an address gets leaked or start receiving spam I immediately know what company is to blame.