this post was submitted on 09 Sep 2024
123 points (93.6% liked)

Selfhosted

40198 readers
977 users here now

A place to share alternatives to popular online services that can be self-hosted without giving up privacy or locking you into a service you don't control.

Rules:

  1. Be civil: we're here to support and learn from one another. Insults won't be tolerated. Flame wars are frowned upon.

  2. No spam posting.

  3. Posts have to be centered around self-hosting. There are other communities for discussing hardware or home computing. If it's not obvious why your post topic revolves around selfhosting, please include details to make it clear.

  4. Don't duplicate the full text of your blog or github here. Just post the link for folks to click.

  5. Submission headline should match the article title (don’t cherry-pick information from the title to fit your agenda).

  6. No trolling.

Resources:

Any issues on the community? Report it using the report flag.

Questions? DM the mods!

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

I'm considering a business plan for people getting in to self-hosting. Essentially I sell you a Mikrotik router and a refurbished tiny x86 server. The idea is that the router plugs in to your home internet and the server into the router. Between the two they get the server able to handle incoming requests so that you can host services on the box and address them from the broader Internet.

The hypothesis is that $150 of equipment to avoid dozens of hours of software configuration is a worthwhile trade for some customers. I realize some people want to learn particular technologies and this is a bad fit for them. I think there are people out there that want the benefit of self-hosting, and may find it worth it to buy "self-hosting in a box".

What do you think? Would this be a useful product for some people?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Which problem(s) are you trying to solve? The networking issue of firewalls and port forwarding? The admin tasks of installing and configuring applications? The task nobody does of maintaining software and keeping it up-to-date?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Which problem(s) are you trying to solve? The networking issue of firewalls and port forwarding?

Within the scope of this question, yes. Also properly configuring IPv6, though that's just to achieve the same things that port forwarding enables.

The admin tasks of installing and configuring applications?

That's also on my list, but I was trying to keep the question focused. Do you think the answer makes a difference? In other words, if it was just networking would it be not worth it, but networking and application management would make it worth it?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

I don't think the networking part is part that needs solving. Modern AP/routers are pretty easy to configure and setup securely. Dunno - I'm definitely not in the target audience for what you're doing though.