[NaXal]

Hello,

Thank you for your replies and respective views,

Originally Posted by jalsa777

While i was a DIY guy when in school/college, overtime i've come to appreciate advantages of a good, reliable, hassle-free paid service. While i would still love to DIY, it's just not worth it anymore for me personally in the pleasure-money-time matrix. I'd rather spend the time saved with family or at work which will yield overall better returns on all metrics.

You are absolutely right sir.

It is actually same with us all, convenience of offloading / outsourcing a task and using the spare time & energy with who we love & our hobbies. But people are different, so are their hobbies and here, technologies / computers / gadgets and automobile happen to be mine.

But still everyone needs a tipping point before thinking DIY. Some may call it ego, but I would like to call it self respect.

What ever it was, got hurt when Google pulled the plug with Google Photos. I was really committed to this platform and trusted them when they used those “never again” type words with their unlimited backup for life keynote announcement.

These data mining companies are taking my data, using it for their own profit and wants me to keep on paying a subscription for that. Although reluctantly, but I accept the first two. Since there are no free meals, but when they want me to pay a subscription on top, that is my tipping point.

Technologies that they use for this cloud thing aren’t that alien or rocket science and once setup up, its simply like fire and forget. So why not my own cloud?

Originally Posted by clevermax

But you could talk to your ISP to get yourself a public IP. My ISP gave me one for free, upon asking.

Point taken.

I shall try talking to my local ISP for a public IP.

Originally Posted by siddhant

Correct me if I'm wrong but I think this means even if you are at home, connected to your WiFi and want to sync some files with your server, the files will be transferred via internet rather than your local network. Having an option to bypass the VPN and directly connect to your sever over your LAN (when you are at home) would be a great addition to your setup.

You are partially right.

Actually the server is accessible & works via its local NAT Static IP (192.168.1.xxx). I personally do the same if or when I need to do some heavy lifting (upload / download) for taking advantage of Gigabit LAN Speeds.

But there are few issues,

1. It's complicated for my home users to keep on changing the LogIn URL of NextCloud app in their phones / iPads or laptops.

2. I have a subdomain under one of my TLD to access the service. Just to ensure the friends from outside internet doesn't need to remember some stupid looking IP address. My SSL is from Let's Encrypt, issued for that subdomain. So even if someone does change the LogIn URL at home, accessing the server via IP starts to through up nasty SSL warnings and requires further clicks or taps to proceed.

Secondly, bottleneck is my Laptop Home Server HDD. It falls short with its HDD read/write speed. So in real world performance, as soon as the Radius Server (a feature of nextcloud) RAM cache runs out, the transfer speeds are way low for taking advantage of Gigabit LAN.

Originally Posted by rnkgrg

I had also set up a home server last year, albeit for a different purpose. I set up a Plex server with almost 2TB of movies and series, hoping that it would substitute my requirement for a Netflix subscription but boy was I wrong. As the content increased, the cost of the set up shot up, and subscribing felt like a more prudent decision.

I had the exact same thought & question when I planned my setup. How practical and prudent it would be cost wise.

So I have taken every decision with cost being the most important factor in selection of hardware and software.

Everything is FREE with this setup apart from the electricity. There too, I have made compromise while selecting the CPU. Its underpowered but when at idle, the entire system is around 12-15 watts (when lid / display is closed).

I have given that streaming a thought but didn't add it to this server for cost over-run issues. I don't like plex, its not free. I use Jellyfin but in both cases, I need more storage and much powerful CPU.

My Jellyfin server is a VM running at my Desktop. So when I or my family needs to stream something (downloaded content) in our TVs or in our personal devices (phone or tabs), I can simply start the desktop and the VM. Practically speaking, I don't need this streaming server to be in a physical internet enabled 24x7 server. It will be a waste of electricity since VM just works fine on serving the purpose.

Thanks.

[atulsian]

Originally Posted by NaXal

Conclusion

It was really easy to setup. Just finding the right tutorials and simple copy paste job.

Rather than making e-waste, I get to reuse and repurpose my old computers and have complete freedom from all these data mining companies and their monthly fees

Its been 3/4 months since I am running this setup and many friends are coming onboard after liking this setup. We are now thinking of making a pool to arrange for more powerful hardware and share the electricity / internet (higher speed) bills for the project.

Thanks.

P.S.

Here is my Internet enabled NextCloud Home Server located at a corner of my storage room. Gathering some surface dust (last cleaned it a month ago), but working flawlessly.

Attachment 2254459

I forgot to add this image, so mods, kindly merge the post.

Thanks.

Very nice setup. If you are looking for a new hardware, you can go with this

https://www.fabtolab.com/hardkernel-...core-processor

You can have a raid setup and install next cloud or open media vault. It has option of installing two HDD or ssd and hdd.

Also, for vpn you can look in to wireguard, way faster than openvpn and easily configurable.

[clevermax]

Originally Posted by atulsian

Also, for vpn you can look in to wireguard, way faster than openvpn and easily configurable.

The only catch is that Wireguard is over UDP.
In all probability, you need to have a public IP assigned to the WAN interface of your router for it to work.

If your ISP assigns your WAN interface with a private IP and then uses DMZ to have a public IP forwarded to your router, then UDP may not work.

My previous ISP did it that way. My router's WAN interface got a private IP through CGNAT, and then I had a public IP visibility too, via DMZ. They DMZ'ed one of their public IP to my router's internal IP. In this setup, OpenVPN over TCP worked well. But Wireguard did not work.

My current ISP directly assigned a public IP to my router's WAN interface. UDP works and so does Wireguard. The speed is excellent. I have a 100 Mbps connection, and VPN speed is also around 100 Mbps!

[atulsian]

Originally Posted by clevermax

The only catch is that Wireguard is over UDP.
In all probability, you need to have a public IP assigned to the WAN interface of your router for it to work.

If your ISP assigns your WAN interface with a private IP and then uses DMZ to have a public IP forwarded to your router, then UDP may not work.

My previous ISP did it that way. My router's WAN interface got a private IP through CGNAT, and then I had a public IP visibility too, via DMZ. They DMZ'ed one of their public IP to my router's internal IP. In this setup, OpenVPN over TCP worked well. But Wireguard did not work.

My current ISP directly assigned a public IP to my router's WAN interface. UDP works and so does Wireguard. The speed is excellent. I have a 100 Mbps connection, and VPN speed is also around 100 Mbps!

I meant seting up wireguard on AWS instance which I believe Naxal is already using to run openvpn instance. Setting up wireguard server at home with cgnat is pain.

[NaXal]

Hello,

Thank you for the replies and your respective suggestions,

Originally Posted by atulsian

If you are looking for a new hardware, you can go with this

I haven't yet thought of anything. I don't want this project to spiral out of control from its initial objective.

1. FREE
2. Practical in long run.

Since few of my friends are now involved, few over enthusiastic ideas are coming in. Like for example, a friend is having access to a 2016 provisioned Lenovo X3100 M5. His company is in process of scrapping it (a perfectly working server) for newer hardware as per their lifecycle business policy.

Although it's very tempting, but power budget is too high for it. As per documentation, this server is 102W at idle with 2 7200 RPM 3.5inch HDD.

I am very strict with my power budget, around 20/25W idle under headless server operation mode.

Now that off-course brings up the R-Pi or these ARM boards, but I wish stay with x86 platform. Mainly with consumer end regular hardware.

Reason?

1. I am more comfortable with x86
2. Consumer end hardware has easier & cheaper replacement parts availably in longer run.

So I am still waiting to stumble upon something FREE or dead cheap meeting my requirements.

Originally Posted by atulsian

Also, for vpn you can look in to wireguard, way faster than openvpn and easily configurable.

I meant seting up wireguard on AWS instance which I believe Naxal is already using to run openvpn instance.

Yes, I have tried WireGuard while building this setup.

I haven't noticed any speed or performance difference between OpenVPN or WireGuard. They both are well suited for this specific task.

However, personally I felt more comfortable with OpenVPN and its configuration process so I went with OpenVPN.

In anyway, these are one time setup job, since for years to come, I may never have to touch the backend.

Thanks.

[parag.agrawal]

While this is an extremely useful and interesting setup, I would recommend you keep a close eye on your AWS bandwidth costs.

Considering that all your data passed through an AWS EC2 instance, it consumes AWS bandwidth (inbound and outbound both in your case) and gets pushed to your local setup.

The bandwidth cost may start pinching heavily once you are over your free tier usage limit.

[NaXal]

Hi,

Thanks for the comment,

Originally Posted by parag.agrawal

I would recommend you keep a close eye on your AWS bandwidth costs.

Till date, its all 0.00

The bandwidth cost may start pinching heavily once you are over your free tier usage limit.

Do you have any AWS documentation links on Free Tier EC2 T.2 Micro usage allowances?

I don't see anything about bandwidth restriction.

I have installed vnstat - a network usage monitoring tool in AWS EC2 VPS and logging my usage details since late Dec 21.



The server setup is running since last 4 months, and with similar usage as above screenshot, till date they haven't charged me anything.

Thanks.

[binand]

Originally Posted by NaXal

Do you have any AWS documentation links on Free Tier EC2 T.2 Micro usage allowances?

They have a 9 cent/GB cost for data flowing out of a VPC to internet. Didn't think it came under free tier, but you are obviously not being charged.

I have a similar setup except that I don't have EC2 in-between, instead I connect directly to my home server (a Liva Z) using a DynDNS service. The Airtel 300 Mbps connection is ample for all my purposes (except that I originally wanted to do IPSec but Airtel seemed to be blocking ESP and AH so I too had to rely on OpenVPN).

[car_addict]

To learn a new skill-set during the 2020 lockdown, I got heavyily into self-host (/r/selfhost). I am currently running:

1. Nextcloud
2. Jellyfin
3. Sonarr, Radarr, Prowlrr and Jackett
4. Vaultwarden
5. Pihole/Adguard DNS
6. TTRSS
7. Paperless-NG OCR
8. Snapdrop
9. Uptime Kuma
10. Webtop
11. Syncthing
12. Librespeed Test
13. Flame
14. Nginx Proxy Manager/ Traefik/Letsencrypt
15. Wireguard
16. VPS passthrough

I bought a domain name with Cloudflare. All of these are running on a 4x 2.8 Ghz ARM CPU's , 24 GB of RAM & 250 GB SDD free of cost in Oracle Cloud with Always Free Tier. The link is also a 1 GBps Unlimited connection. This is one of the best ways to self-host and the free tier is always free. I have been using this setup since the first lock-down and never had even a single day of downtime.

All the apps are running in docker & backup'ed on a nightly basis to my Pi4 in my house.

The only issue is that these are ARM CPU's. But as I am on docker, I have been able to find a ARM64 docker image for every one of the programs I use without issues.

[NetfreakBombay]

Originally Posted by binand

The Airtel 300 Mbps connection is ample for all my purposes (except that I originally wanted to do IPSec but Airtel seemed to be blocking ESP and AH so I too had to rely on OpenVPN).

off topic : Airtel sells a dedicated IP for 100 Rs / month. This IP does not block incoming connections on common ports.

[binand]

Originally Posted by binand

I originally wanted to do IPSec but Airtel seemed to be blocking ESP and AH

Originally Posted by NetfreakBombay

Airtel sells a dedicated IP for 100 Rs / month. This IP does not block incoming connections on common ports.

ESP and AH are protocols specifically designed to enable IPSec. "Port" is a software construct that is not applicable at the level they operate.

[Sheel]

I am not a tech geek, professionally too, I have nothing to do with computers save for accessing my corporate bank account, casual browsing etc. I save photos of my kids / rides / special occasions. A combo of Google Drive and iCloud works for me.

Today everything is about subscriptions, you name it, Amazon, You-Tube, every little thing, you have to pay up, of-course nothing comes for free so there is a a choice and fee. I am happy with free Google Drive & paid iCloud subscription.

[warrioraks]

Originally Posted by NaXal

Off late, just after Google backstabbed us by breaking their promise with Google Photos Unlimited backup storage, I started to tinker with various self hosted solutions to take advantage of the super fast fiber optics home broadband internet options.
.....
However, present broadband Internet penetration is excellent, specially with these no data cap, fiber to home connections, we have plenty of bandwidth to host our own cloud server right at home.

This DIY is highly ingenuous. Thank you for sharing with the forum.

Small doubt - Is there any redundancy included here? What happens if the laptop (home server) crashes? Are all the files lost?

[NaXal]

Hello,

Originally Posted by warrioraks

This DIY is highly ingenuous. Thank you for sharing with the forum.

Thanks for the comment.

Small doubt - Is there any redundancy included here? What happens if the laptop (home server) crashes? Are all the files lost?

I have highlighted the subject in my post with one of the caveat.

2. My choice of a laptop platform, eliminates the option for a RAID setup for data safety. I have to use manual snap backup command to generate the backup and push it to my desktop HDD via my internal network. Easy one command job but have to do it once a week to ensure data safety (in case the laptop or HDD fails)

As you can see, with present setup, I don't have any active redundancy. I have to depend on the passive redundancy as in form of weekly manual backup of the snap installation.

So in case of hardware failure (HDD or entire laptop), at max, I am going to loose 7 days worth of data.

Electricity consumption is primary selection factor for me, so I have selected this ultra low powered laptop over other available option (like my old Core i5 1st Gen PC).

I am in lookout for something (FREE or dead cheap) ultra low powered in desktop form factor, as that would allow me to run a RAID 1 setup for a headache free active redundancy setup.

In case of NextCloud as software, it does allow high availability same or multi location (network) clustering but for a personal setup like mine, it is wastage of resources.

Thanks.

[warrioraks]

Originally Posted by NaXal

I have highlighted the subject in my post with one of the caveat.
...
As you can see, with present setup, I don't have any active redundancy. I have to depend on the passive redundancy as in form of weekly manual backup of the snap installation.

Sorry I missed this reference in the original post. Thank you for highlighting again.

One week's data is not much considering most users can leverage the 5 gb free cloud storage backup as a redundancy against this limitation. Let me say again, this is a great practical setup. Nice of you to share with everyone.