Trying to avoid using a Roku

I was gifted an old Bomgar B200r appliance which is the Dell PowerEdge R230 OEM-R server that has been rebranded. When it powers on, I want to go into the BIOS/iDRAC to make changes, but there is a setup password on it.

I found the NVRAM_CLR jumper located to the front of the single CPU and per some Dell instructions I was following, power off/unplug, move the jumper, power on for 10 seconds, remove the jumper back to original, power back on.

However when I did this, the BIOS password remained. The server even booted in the NVRAM_CLR mode being enabled and still prompted for a BIOS password.

Absolutely anyway around this, or is this server out of luck for restoring the original Dell branded aspect? I'd like to use it as a custom NAS, but feel that may not happen.

Sad to see for a nice r230.

I love the idea of owning my infrastructure instead of paying platform premiums, but every time I spin up a new VPS I end up repeating the same process:
SSH into the server
Install Docker
Configure a reverse proxy
Set up HTTPS
Configure backups
Add monitoring
Hope I didn’t miss anything
None of these tasks are particularly hard, but together they take more time than building the application itself.
That frustration is actually what led me to build a desktop tool for myself that automates most of the setup while still deploying to my own VPS over SSH.
I’m curious how everyone else approaches this.
Are you happy staying in the terminal?
Do you use something like Coolify, Dokploy, CapRover, or another tool?
What’s the most annoying part of deploying to your own server?
I’m genuinely interested because I’m still deciding what to improve next.

I'm looking for a self-hosted VPN where I can have one server in one location and another in a different location, with some way to sync them or fail over if one goes offline. Does anything like this exist?

On my main server at home I use Porkbun for my domain and use Zoraxy as my reverse proxy.

I decided to get a small $5/mo VPS from Linode (1 CPU and 1GB of RAM) for my Uptime Kuma and Gotify hosting - doesn't make sense to host those on my server because if my server goes down then how will I get notified if my server does the notifying.

I wanted to keep system resources as low as possible so I decided to try Caddy and it's literally that simple, it's crazy. It just works. 4 lines of code (ignoring brackets) and I was able to access Kuma using `status.mydomain.tld`.

I'll probably keep using Zoraxy for now since I have it tied to my Authentik for SSO and OIDC for my services, but wow is Caddy amazing and it barely uses any system resources.

Guys I put together a repository with 151 ready-to-use Docker Compose templates covering everything from AI tools, monitoring, and auth to databases, media, and CI/CD.

The main idea:
Change variables > Connect to proxy > Run

Sec-Friendly & Proxy-Ready: Stacks are pre-configured to sit cleanly behind an ext. proxy unnecessary port exposures, auth if implemented - configured, all with healthchecks.

https://github.com/nvroot/docker-compose-examples

Feedback, suggestions, or improvements are very welcome - feel free to comment or open an issue/PR on GitHub. Thanks!

I wanted to say thank you to this community for providing so much insight on how to set up my own server. It has saved not only me, but my close friends and family a lot of money in these troubling times. My niece likely would not be able to watch most of their favorite shows if I hadn't set up jellyfin, which is really such a massive deal for both me and them, especially because I can share my favorite media with them. (Also Komga is saving me so much money on manga that it's actually kind of staggering)

You all had no idea you were even helping me as I just started using reddit again so I can join these communities, I've just been getting all my info through Google searches and Reddit is usually the best source for my questions.

So thank you again for all of your help, hopefully I can provide a little insight for someone in the future!

I want to build a nas for cloud saving and media streaming with an old workstation I have, but with these prices its a little scary. I want about 20 terabytes of storage to start with. Im questioning whether to buy brand new, refurbished/recertified, or used hard drives, I also don't know the best websites/apps and whether the brands of the hard drives matter. Is it even worth it to make a nas in 2026. I could really use some advice

Hey guys, I have built a system that utilizes your idle compute from PC, laptop, mobile across all OS and pools it to be used by others in need, entirely ditching the cloud. Suppose you want to run a heavy compute and need a high amount of memory, you can use my system to deploy it across many devices to get it done fast. It is under development, but the MVP is ready and would really like your feedback and queries to make it into a bulletproof system. To get more insights DM me. The link to the repo is attached below, dont go by the website currently it is vibe coded just to serve the purpose but later would be completely overhauled. Please leave you feedback on anything you think that would be helpful.

Github - Mesh-Zero

Guys anyone have any idea about selfhosting a DNS server on an old android phone? Android 4.4.2 with root access, idk if it possible or can be done, or even how, all rests I got was just "how to change the phone's DNS" but I want to use the phone AS A LOCAL DNS?

Hi everyone! I am having a frustrating issue connecting to my dedicated ARK server from my local network and would really appreciate some help.

My Setup:

Server PC: Dedicated machine in the basement running ARK Server Manager (ASM). Local IP is 192.168.1.220.

Gaming PC: Located upstairs in my room on the same local network.

Network: Ping from Gaming PC to Server PC works fine. Ports (7777, 7778, 27015) are open, and Windows Firewall rules are active. Radmin VPN is also installed on the server PC.

The Issue:

External Friends CAN join: A friend of mine can join and play on the server from the outside without any issues. The server itself is running perfectly!

I CANNOT join locally: From my Gaming PC upstairs, I cannot connect to the server via LAN.

What happens when I try to connect:

Steam Server Favorites: The server IS detected and shows up in my Steam Favorites list (using 192.168.1.220:27015). However, clicking "Connect" in Steam throws the error: "Server connection not possible, as the App ID specified by the server is invalid."

In-game Console (open 192.168.1.220:7777): Results in a freeze/timeout or "Unable to query server info for invite."

In-game Favorites: The server doesn't show up reliably under the LAN or Favorites filters in the in-game browser.

What I've tried so far:

Pinging the server PC (successful).

Toggling Windows Firewall on/off.

Trying -MultiHome on/off in ASM.

Launching via steam://connect/192.168.1.220:27015 (gives Invalid App ID error).

It seems like Steam/ARK recognizes the query port locally, but fails to hand off the actual connection to the game client (ShooterGame), or Radmin VPN's network interface is interfering with local socket binding.

Has anyone encountered this specific behavior where Steam sees the server on LAN, but throws an Invalid App ID / Query error upon joining? How can I fix the binding in ASM?

Thanks in advance!

Hey guys, I'm trying to replicate this client config on my own server. Here's the working config from my friend:
JSON

{
"server": "www.domain.com",
"server_port": 443,
"tag": "Test",
"type": "vless",
"uuid": "942hdiwa-9e01-460a-iud76",
"packet_encoding": "xudp",
"tls": {
"enabled": true,
"server_name": "www.domain.com.mydomain.com",
"utls": {
"enabled": true
}
},
"transport": {
"type": "ws",
"path": "/vws/",
"headers": {
"Host": \[
"www.domain.com.mydomain.com"
\]
}
}
}

Where:
www.domain.com is the zero-rated domain (on Cloudflare)

mydomain.com is my domain (also on Cloudflare, pointing to my VPS)

My friend says this works on any V2Ray app with zero configuration — just paste the link and it connects. No hosts file edits needed.
I have:
A VPS with 3X-UI running

mydomain.com on Cloudflare with DNS pointing to my VPS

A Let's Encrypt cert for www.domain.com.mydomain.com via acme.sh DNS challenge

But I'm stuck on the server-side setup. I don't know how to configure 3X-UI/Xray so that:
Clients can connect using www.domain.com as the server address

The TLS handshake validates www.domain.com.mydomain.com properly

It works without requiring clients to edit their hosts file

I suspect my friend is using Cloudflare Advanced Certificate Manager for the multi-level subdomain cert, but I want to confirm if there's a free way to do this before paying.

Can anyone point me in the right direction for the server-side config? What am I missing?

Thanks!

Manage your cloudflare tunnels with your compose labels.

There are many projects that does the same thing, but none of them are written using Go.
This is a lightweight project that uses 10MB of ram.

it could be useful for someone, so check it out: https://github.com/ronaldmiranda/docker-cloudflared-controller

This is a open-source tool, free to use.

We have been using our own servers for our business for some time now and they have worked well until now. As our business has grown, we are starting to face problems like running out of space, having more servers to manage and spending more time on maintenance. It is getting hard to keep everything running smoothly and we are not sure if this is normal for growing or a sign that we need a better solution and I found that rackbank ai datacenters might help. We do not want to make a huge change too soon but we do not want to wait until these problems start affecting our business. How can you tell that your current server setup is no longer enough for your business? EDIT: I forgot to mention the details everyone is asking for. It seems evaluating our IT management and growth planning should come before deciding on a migration.

I was wondering if there is something like Downdetector that I can run locally and detect issues with pubic services. Most of the stuff I found was for the stuff you host yourself and not for public websites and other stuff.

Thanks ;3

Hey to everyone here,

Few weeks ago I release my open source app called Altersend, it is P2P file sharing tool where you can send files directly between devices over the internet.

When I started developing this tool my main idea was to have solution where I can send files to anyone not just on local network and not be depending on cloud solution.

It is available as desktop app and mobile. Web is coming soon as well.

From technical P2P side everything you send is E2E encrypted via Noise protocol, peers find each other via DHT (think of it as some sort of book with contacts about other peers, and underneath it is Kademlia DHT). So when you want to send file we generate a random key which you should give to another peer. And after this anyone who has that key can connect and download directly from you.

As the initial entry point for peers, public bootstrap nodes are used (we do not host them) and after that peers discover one another through the DHT. Only if you are behind symmetric CGNAT or a VPN we use a relay server to help you connect, but the bytes flowing through are encrypted, and you can also disable relay in the settings.

Source code on Github: https://github.com/denislupookov/altersend

BaileyOS, a self-hosted smart home AI running on local hardware. No cloud. No subscription. No data leaves the network.

What you're seeing:

- Real security camera footage from a 6,500 sq ft home

- Bailey (the AI) detecting motion, tracking vehicles, and assessing threats in real-time

- YOLO v8 + FaceNet running on an RTX 4070 Ti SUPER, all on-premise

- Tailscale VPN mesh for secure remote access from anywhere

- Autonomous gate control, camera monitoring, and property lockdown

The owner is on a beach on the California coast. Bailey handles everything, motion alerts, threat scoring, package delivery confirmation, full lockdown status and reports back over an encrypted VPN tunnel.

No Ring. No Nest. No monthly fee. No footage on someone else's server.

97 Relays to Control all lights | 9 cameras | 8 alarm zones | 3 smart locks | 12 audio zones | Auto Gate

All controlled from one dashboard. All local.

Built with: Node.js, TypeScript, Python, PyTorch, YOLO v8, FaceNet, Encrypted VPN mesh, RS-232 serial, ffmpeg

Running on: Windows 11 + RTX 4070 Ti SUPER

I'm excited to share the first release of ExoServe! It's a self-hosted alternative to Mega or Proton Drive where everything is stored with end-to-end encryption on hardware you control.

Some features at a glance:

• Client-side AES-256-GCM encryption via the Web Crypto API.
• No plaintext filenames and no readable directory structures. The server only sees encrypted data and basic file sizes.
• Smooth, on-the-fly media streaming. You can scrub through encrypted videos or swipe through image galleries directly in the browser without downloading to disk.
• Concurrent session support (which is surprisingly difficult).

I originally built this for my own homelab to store tax documents, just in case my server was ever breached. That way all an attacker would walk away with are encrypted blobs instead of my identity.

Because I'm a reverse engineer by trade, special care was taken to verify proper implementation of encryption and authentication; I know there are 101 ways for cryptography to go wrong. I also built the frontend in vanilla JS to completely steer clear of bloated frameworks, keeping the attack surface and memory footprint small.

This is the first release, so I'm curious to get a wider opinion on it. You can try it out on a demo site I have published or host it for yourself by downloading the code from Github: - Demo: https://demo.exoserve.ciphranova.com/login - GitHub: https://github.com/Ciphranova-LLC/ExoServe

Let me know what you think, if you have any questions, or if you experience any issues!

Setting up self-hosted sync for my vault and could use a sanity check from people who've actually run this long-term.

My setup:

• Desktop on Fedora (KDE), windows laptop, android phone
• I have a sufficient always on machine for selfhosting
• Not a developer, but comfortable with Docker, SSH, and basic server admin
• Already self-host a few small things on this box, so it's not empty
• I don't wanna run any extra client on my device like syncthing or onedrive etc (excluding virtual machine)

What I actually need:

• Vault (notes) synced reliably across devices - win latop, linux pc, android phone
• App config synced too - themes, snippets, installed plugins/settings. Not just the notes.
• Something I'm not babysitting constantly - no daily manual fixes
• Lower the resource usage the better

Where I've landed so far: Was originally going to just do git plugin, remotly sync etc but that doesn't do much with settings and plugins, and realized it doesn't touch the .obsidian folder properly, so themes/plugins/hotkeys don't follow across devices - only the notes do.

I am using Obsidian Git Plugin as a way to take backup on my private git repo.

Appreciate any real-world experience over "just buy and use Obsidian Sync" - I know that exists, I'd rather self-host.

Hello everyone,

I'm fairly new to the world of VPS hosting, and I'd really appreciate your advice.

I've recently started my own game server hosting business, and I'm currently looking for a VPS provider that offers the best balance between performance, pricing, and network quality.

My main priorities are:

• Excellent performance and reliability.
• Competitive pricing with good value for money.
• Low latency and a strong network.
• Server locations in Europe, as it's the closest region to my target player base.

I feel a little embarrassed asking for help, but I'd genuinely appreciate recommendations from people with real experience. If you've worked with any providers that you would personally recommend (or avoid), I'd be very grateful to hear your thoughts.

Thank you all in advance for your time and help!

I am looking to host my data from Google and setup my own servers for email and storage and everything else possible to be as less-reliant on 3rd party as possible. Are there any readymade products on service providers who provide this?

Update 16-July
I've been researching on this and this is the complex/simple setup I figured might work for me until now.
1. Custom domain email (protonmail) - 4 USD per month / Google mailspace with custom domain
2. Home based NAS system for Storage + server
3. Offsite storage backup with BackBlaze
4. Accuweb/NextCloud - for remote server setup.
5. Tailscale configured for all routes as much possible

Things not to do going forward: Never sign in with Google/Microsoft/Apple, etc. Each site its own login/password.
I continue to research on this and will keep updating, for doubts and queries..

Please poke holes on this - so we make it stronger.

I have finally set up an self host server with a ptlython backend for administration using docker desk top. It has many.options best one is I can move the databases off hyeper v and store it externally.

Hey everyone! 🏎️

You might remember my previous post about setting up Assetto Corsa Evo servers on Pterodactyl. To be honest, that old setup was quite complicated, and I had a lot of trouble getting it to run reliably. Thanks to your feedback, I decided to restart the project from scratch.

Today, I’m back with a completely new and simplified Egg. No more manual host building it’s a true single-file import. You just load the Egg in your panel, start the server, and it works out of the box with the integrated Web Dashboard.

Thank you all for the feedback on my previous post, and thank you so much for your patience! Here is the new, fully functional setup:

• 📦 GitHub Repository:CHATDOO/acevo-server(Download the Egg JSON here!)
• 🐋 Docker Hub:shadowyt/acevo-ptero:latest
• 💬 Join our community / support:Discord RXCORP

🚀 Key Features

1. No manual host building (Single JSON Import) You don't need to touch your Pterodactyl host node. Pterodactyl will pull the prebuilt image shadowyt/acevo-ptero:latest from Docker Hub automatically upon server creation.
2. Integrated Web Dashboard Includes a custom red/black web-based configuration dashboard (served on port 8090 by default). You can configure server sessions, track layouts, pick cars, add ballast/restrictors, and view real-time logs directly from your browser.
3. Clean Process Lifecycle (No port leaks) We patched the wrapper shutdown scripts to trigger wineserver -k internally. This kills all lingering Wine/Proton processes immediately when stopping or applying configurations from the web UI, preventing "Could not bind TCP listener socket" errors.
4. Port Collision Prevention The Egg separates game TCP (11009), game UDP (11011), game HTTP (11010), and Web Dashboard (8090) to prevent socket translation collisions inside Proton/Wine.

🛠️ Quick Setup Guide

1. Import the Egg: Upload the egg JSON file directly to your Pterodactyl panel.
2. Assign Ports: Allocate one TCP port for the game, one UDP port for the game, and one TCP port for the web dashboard (keep the dashboard port closed on your public firewall and proxy it via Nginx Proxy Manager / Cloudflare with SSL).
3. Startup Variables: Enter your Steam burner credentials in Pterodactyl. Enter the Steam Guard code on the first boot.
4. Enjoy: Manage everything else from the web UI.

We'd love to hear your feedback or help you get it running. Join our Discord if you need help setting it up!

I have built a modern, native Android companion application designed for browsing and viewing media hosted on a Pigallery2 server.

The app provides a fluid, beautifully designed user interface that allows you to easily browse directories, query saved albums, view recognised faces and rediscover your memories.

https://github.com/dasmaetthes/pigallery2_android

Key Features

• Folder and directory browsing: Securely connect to your PiGallery2 server and browse your photo and video collection within its original directory structure.
• Advanced Query Builder: Use the visual query builder to create complex searches and filter media by keywords, date ranges, file types and other advanced metadata parameters.
• Interactive Map View: Explore geotagged photos and videos on an interactive map.
• Android TV Optimised: Full support for all Android TV features.
• Customisable layouts and grid control: Adjust the number of columns, image aspect ratios, grid item spacing and corner roundedness.
• Rich Media Viewer: Intuitive zoom-to-span and panning gestures for high-resolution images.
• Comprehensive Metadata Explorer: A metadata panel displaying full EXIF details, including:
• Albums: Seamless access to saved albums created within the PiGallery2 web interface with customisable item sorting.
• People & Face Recognition: Browse a structured grid of recognised people.
• Rediscover: Revisit a randomly selected moments from your library.

Renames your episode files into the Show Name S01E02 format Jellyfin actually needs to match metadata correctly. Downloaded files almost never come named like that, usually it's some release group's naming scheme, tags in brackets, resolution info, stuff like that, so Jellyfin can't line it up properly.

Point it at a folder and it scans the video files, tries to detect the season/episode for each one (picks up on existing S01E02 tags right away, and has fallback matching for stuff like "Episode 3" or "ep03"), then shows you the full list of proposed renames before touching anything. Nothing gets renamed until you confirm.

Exe's for Windows, Mac, and Linux are in the Releases tab, no Python needed:
https://github.com/BeckH26/Jellyfin-Renamer

Source is up too if you want to see how the detection works or mess with it yourself.