My non-profit the Rebel Tech Alliance is working on a series of blog posts that will look at self hosting for begginners. If you sign up for the blog you’ll get them when they’re published:

https://blog.rebeltechalliance.org/

Or our main website is at https://www.rebeltechalliance.org/

But really what I’ve got going (if you exclude Transmission) is the simplest stuff. Jellyfin, Calibre and Syncthing are just ‘click and install’ - they are all self contained so they don’t need all that Docker stuff. I suggest just tinkering with them.

Also running Calibre, Syncthing, Transmission and Filen. all on Linux Mint.

I can’t cope with TUI-only OS’s - the command stuff makes no sense to me at all. I’ve learned some of it, and am trying to get Nextcloud running in Docker behind Nginx Proxy Manager, but I can’t work out DDNS yet so… 😂

I was keen on Proxmox or Yunohost, but put off by the fact that they totally replace the OS. I’d be more comfortable with something that runs on the OS, like Docker does.

https://www.gmktec.com/products/nucbox-g3-plus-enhanced-performance-mini-pc-with-intel-n150-processor

This is going well for me - Jellyfin etc

Thank you for your help!

We have fixed it - the problem was that I had already set up DNS records so that Tuta could send emails using our website domain. This was blocking the proper set up of mailgun/transactional emails.

So we worked out how to set up emails for the business separately using the SMPT email server of our web hosting provider - et voila! Email set up works!

If only. Most people I know have never heard of F-Droid… Only privacy-savvy people have.

I’d be more worried about having to send gov ID docs - more creepy control by Google.

Contact your representative. And here’s F-droid’s article about it (including how to find your representative at the end of the article): https://f-droid.org/en/2025/09/29/google-developer-registration-decree.html

This is pretty good value https://www.gmktec.com/products/nucbox-g3-plus-enhanced-performance-mini-pc-with-intel-n150-processor

I bought one for self hosting and flashed it with Linux.

If I install ddclient on my mini-pc is that what you mean by having a server with ddclient?

My Asus router is not shown in their docs as supported - does that matter?

Also - can I just keep using my current domain name registrar, and not use Cloudflare?

That doesn’t seem to be appropriate for a specific domain. Unless I’m reading it wrong.

We need to expose the Ghost blog on a specific subdomain of the domain we own ( blog.ourdomain.org )

doesn’t Tailscale Funnel assign a funky domain name rather than let you use your own?

Hi, I’m using Docker - one container for Ghost and one for Nginx Proxy Manager.

I’ve decided to go with DDNS but am having trouble choosing a reliable free provider. I’ve seen Dynu.com recommended but that is not available in the dropdown list of servers in my router’s section on DDNS. Is that relevant?

Or would I just ignore the router settings and set it up some other way?

Wouldn’t that be just for me - in my Tailnet - rather than to the general public?

You can use Tailscale to access your stuff from outside the house.

There’s also a self hosted open source alternative but I’ve forgotten what it’s called.

yeah fair play - I’ll go that route. Do you happen to know any content creators who explain stuff well in this area?

(Context - our self-hosting is part of a wider project to make self-hosting easier, on the cheap, for normies)

Does anyone know of a short course I could do/attend that teaches the basics of this networking stuff?

I was going to use Cloudflare to sort this, but I’m uncomfortable how big they are getting / lack of competition in that part of the market. So we looked at Pangolin as an alternative, but it’s a faff to self host.

Hence why we’re back at exposing it straight out the back of Nginx Proxy Manager.

My router says it has NAT enabled (in the WAN settings section - for the internet connection)

Thank you for your replies everyone!

I’m looking into DDNS. Before I go with a provider, I notice that my router has this functionality built in. Should I use that?

(It’s an Asus RT-AX86U Pro - so fairly chunky in terms of spec)

For reference, the set up is:

Docker containers for

1. Ghost
2. Nginx Proxy Manager

Great list - thanks for sharing! I hadn’t heard of Inkscape - that’s a good find.

More alternatives here in the Alternatives menus of this site: https://www.rebeltechalliance.org/stopusingbigtech.html

As long as software is available in the Software Manager to be installed that way… I don’t care what format it’s in.

But don’t make normies go to the terminal. It’s inhumane, and really does not help the masses get away from big tech - which is a worthier goal than keeping your software terminal-only.