You say that, but I’ve seen so many dodgy iot devices… Specially deploying PiHole you start to see so much random traffic from stupid stuff like a smartplug or a TV box

I recently finished something like this at home, npmplus+pihole. I’ll never do it again, and the moment it breaks I’ll go back to just using Tailscale’s MagicDNS

If you can overcome the first kinda large step of setting up a basic install of Proxmox + ZFS pool, you’ll love it. You can try shit out and nuke it if you don’t like it. Helper Scripts from here are also a great way to try stuff without breaking anything you already have. each container gets its own IP so you don’t have to juggle stuff with a reverse proxy (which is a PITA to set up properly) and with TailScale on the host, you can pretty much access everything from anywhere, without exposing it to the wider internet.

Creating a ZFS pool is also rather nice, because you can keep adding new disks to the pool when you’re running short. Ideally you’d use some mirroring for security. Backups are also nice with proxmox, as long as you don’t give every LXC a giant size quota.

Last thing, DO get an UPS, even if it’s a small consumer grade one that lasts 5 minutes. Make sure it has some sort of conectivity (network or USB) and it’s linux compatible. I’ve lost a lot of time rebuilding a 2yo NextCloud install that went all wonky after a blackout.

So in a detailed summary from your points:

1. Proxmox makes it easy to make, test and restore backups, even if it’s for a spare drive or across the network. Setting up a /mnt/usb mountpoint for an external USB drive by UUID is one way of having it available when needed, and kept offline for safekeeping
2. Frigate NVR. Lightweight, can integrate with HomeAssistant for automations and alerts. Try getting “dumb” IP cameras, most of the smart IoT stuff will try to upsell you on crap and might end up bricked by the company down the line.
3. Nextcloud for your PC backups and Immich for your phone photos. NC also has an android and iOS app that can sync folders you tell it to.
4. Look up “YAMS”. I’d recommend running the whole YAMS stack + portainer on a separate Proxmox LXC so you can easily put the whole thing on a separate VPN instead of relying on the provided gluetun package
5. For quick One-offs, portainer is more than enough. There’s Pterodactyl and Pelican for more in-depth server hosting but I found it too cumbersome
6. PiHole LXC on a fixed IP and set your devices (or better yet, your router/AP if you can) pointing to it’s IP as the primary DNS server
7. not really sure what you mean here, wired connections tend to be the best, maybe get a Pi or a small android box that supports ethernet.
8. HomeAssistant (use the VM helper script for full HAOS!)
9. HomeAssistant again, try getting a smart meter that doesn’t rely on shitty APIs like Tuya, unless you’re willing to dive into hacking with tasmota.
10. ProxmoxLXC, there’s already a helper script for it.
11. Kiwix-server has a docker image, easily hostable and it takes Wikipedia’s offline archive files.

Good Luck and Have Fun!

I finally made it work last week. I was overcomplicating, as usual: nextcloud AIO includes all the requirements to run Talk, I just had to modify the config file to point at my domain and add a new entry at :8081 on my reverse proxy. Hosted a 2 hour video call with 3 friends without issues!

I didn’t start with a spare, so by the time I was semi-reliant on my self hosted stuff, a breakage was an issue. Also I started with bare Linux, then CasaOS. There was no easy rollback from snapshot/restore backup like on proxmox

Good luck!

I will probably get flogged by this answer but here it goes:

I’d throw you right into the deep end: get a spare machine (an old laptop or PC) and install proxmox on it. Play around, breaks shit, delete the container/VM and start over.

Grab stuff from the Community Helper Scripts and see new stuff, try alternatives, see what works for you and don’t be afraid of breaking stuff.

It takes a bit longer and some basic concepts might fly over your head, but the stuff you learn like this, you learn by heart.

It’s been a few years since I started tinkering with a laptop with a busted video output circuit. Now I serve NextCloud and Immich to my family, keep receipts and documents neatly organised on Paperless, have a decent arr stack and a bunch of extra goodies. All from “a PC without video? Might as well make a server” now with a proper machine with several drives on ZFS pools, health checks and redundancy.

Its a helluva rabbit hole.

If you already have HomeAssistant

https://github.com/ad-ha/kidschores-ha

I loved the idea behind Funkwhale but damn it was such q a chore to set up I ended up spinning up 4 navidrome instances lol

No joke here, try (internet) radio. You’ll discover stuff you’d never get on algo-based recommendations. I might be biased by growing up with Winamp’s shoutcast

I kinda use most of proton’s stuff. Also I’m not on the us so no idea what the second part means

It’s on my to-research list. I heard some rumblings that tailscale might go IPO. Not that’s bad by itself but I have been burned by stuff like that leaving me stranded once they “pivot their operations to maximize investor satisfaction” (aka enshittification)

Thats what Felix said, im personally a fan of OrganicMaps

Articles too much time too, so I made you this

• Google bad, tracking sucks
• Android -> graphene
• Keep -> joplin
• Docs -> nextcloud
• Gmail -> proton
• GMaps -> car GPS
• Tailscale
• Selfhosted on SteamDeck

Jellyfin user here, glad I dodged the bullet when I had to pick between it and plex.

Tl;dr you want something like plex to:

• manage your media files for you
• get metadata for extra features (eg. show me similar movies, select an actor from the cast and see all your media with that actor, etc)
• track your watch progress
• play on several devices (tv, mobile, pcs consoles)
• transcode media to a compatible format for your client device
• share your media library with your family
• get notified of related media being released (new season of a show or new movie onba series)

And the biggest one for me

• tidy up ripped dvd/br movie collection, download missing CC or subtitles
• create a self-hosted alternative to shitty subscription services

Have you tried Synching? If you only need transferring files back and forth and no version control or snapshot-like backups, that might be even simpler

Tried OCIS a while back and its way faster than NC syncing files, even the initial sync was so fast I didn’t trust it was fully done (but it was).

That being said, OCIS is missing several key features I daily use: namely proper DAV support (contacts, calendar, todo, journal, etc) as well as integrations for stuff like SeedVault for mobile backups.

Here’s an idea: on your android device use something like Insular to create a work profile, that way you get its own VPN slot, add your selfhosted-related apps there along with Tailscale. You can keep ProtonVPN on for your other apps, while using TS for your “LAN away from home” stuff. Since Tailscale already encrypts all traffic, you don’t have to worry about HTTPS, certs, et al.

Oh no, don’t take it as “don’t reinvent the wheel”! I meant it in the true sense that sometimes we spent so much effort and focus building something, just to post about it somewhere and getting a reply “Oh nice, it’s exactly like X project!”.

Currently I’m running NextCloud on prem, so DavX5 and JTXBoard cover most of my note taking and todo tasks, and I guess one could deploy the server-side encryption module on a NextCloud AIO on a VPS and keep everything (probably) safe and private. I’m kinda lazy too, that’s why I liked the hands-off maintenance of NC-AIO. I get notifications to update stuff, and I get regular security audits from NC itself.

BTW, never take that “doing stuff already done” is in detriment of helping FOSS projects. There are tons of examples of people randomly tinkering around and accidentally finding some huge fix for other projects. Off the top of my head, some weeb wanted to play Nier Automata at decent framerates on wine and a few years later, here we are with DXVK and all the proton stuff making most stuff playable!

Really interested on seeing this, although if I could make a suggestion, start by scouting around and see if you can adapt FOSS apps, maybe fork them and add/remove features to please your objectives and tastes.

Although I’m eager to see these through, I like projects like murena (/e/OS) that cobble together good Foss projects into a single cohesive ecosystem (without making the word ecosystem gross and vendor locked in like in most cases)