I am somewhat late into the Linux-verse (three years in now) and want to move into self-hosting to do two things:
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Host my own Jitsi server and sessions. (or any other open source solution)
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Host my own solution to privately and securely share photographs of my kids and life here with my family abroad.
At some point, I want to host my own little static-website about myself which should “replace” having to give people a LinkedIn account or something.
The thing is, I know nothing about owning domains, etc. I have never done this before. I have been lurking around this forum to learn some of the basics, but would really like a more tailored reply (is possible). I am working in Europe.
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Which computer should I use? I want to host everything on my computer at home. I don’t want to go the VPS route.
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Where can I buy an inexpensive domain(s)? I assume I only need one.
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What other things do I need to consider? My current broadband is IPv4 only.
Sorry man, I am on mobile so I keep missing parts.
As for hardware, I would recycle anything you have at home if it has at least 8gb ram and a network card. Specially laptops (low watts consumption and built-in battery in case of power outage) are my favourites. But if you want to spend for new stuff, the low power N100 are all the rage nowadays.
For storage, go with at least two disks or ssds or nvme in RAID1 (and keep in mind that is not backup, which you should plan to do), they can be external USB drives as well, provided you spend some good money and don’t go cheap on the USB enclosure. Mine have been working perfectly for the last decade.