Reminder to everyone, if you aren’t necessarily worried about uptime too much, and have a spare device at home, you can host personal websites and various services that might be useful for yourself or friends and family. To keep it simple, all you would really need is
an up-to-date router that isn’t end-of-life
a firewall that geo blocks traffic from outside your country and blocks all ports except 80 and 443
port forwarding 80 and 443 to your device
setup dynamic dns service (some routers can handle this)
a domain name
Keep your device and router updated and reboot it every once in a while to load the updated kernel. Then just install some web server software or whatever on your device and point your domain to it.
Together, we can decentralize the web a little bit 🙂
Thats why I suggested an up-to-date router that isn’t end-of-life. If you keep your router firmware updated, your firewall on, and your “server” updated, then you are as protected as any VPS that has ever been deployed.
Tailscale is centralized and prevents you from accessing your devices if it goes down, which is what the OP points out. If we want some decentralization, we can configure our current equipment to do so. Its not so difficult if you spend some time reading your router’s documentation and keep everything behind it updated. NAT firewalls are pretty good at keeping bad things out.
If they’re not actively blocking ports 80 and 443, then its pretty clear they are allowing their users to host websites (unless their terms of service specifically say don’t host websites)
It will totally depend on the equipment you plan on using, but in general, your router’s manual/documentation should say whether it supports Dynamic DNS, how to configure your firewall, and how to enable port forwarding.
From there, your device’s operating system should have documentation on how to perform maintenance, and the web server software you plan on using should have guides on how to get it running on your OS of choice.
For example:
If you want to host some websites on your device (or just want a nice web-based control panel for your “server”), do a fresh install of Debian 12 and then install something like Virtualmin or HestiaCP. Those two include various web apps that are easy to install and run with a few clicks, like a Wordpress or something.
Reminder to everyone, if you aren’t necessarily worried about uptime too much, and have a spare device at home, you can host personal websites and various services that might be useful for yourself or friends and family. To keep it simple, all you would really need is
Keep your device and router updated and reboot it every once in a while to load the updated kernel. Then just install some web server software or whatever on your device and point your domain to it.
Together, we can decentralize the web a little bit 🙂
As a novice DON’T put your devices on the open Internet. Use something like tailscale or Splittunnel. You can give your friends access through that.
Thats why I suggested an up-to-date router that isn’t end-of-life. If you keep your router firmware updated, your firewall on, and your “server” updated, then you are as protected as any VPS that has ever been deployed.
Tailscale is centralized and prevents you from accessing your devices if it goes down, which is what the OP points out. If we want some decentralization, we can configure our current equipment to do so. Its not so difficult if you spend some time reading your router’s documentation and keep everything behind it updated. NAT firewalls are pretty good at keeping bad things out.
You are likely to get away with this if your website gets little traffic.
But to much and your ISP is likely to tell you to knock it off, or just close your subscription.
If they’re not actively blocking ports 80 and 443, then its pretty clear they are allowing their users to host websites (unless their terms of service specifically say don’t host websites)
What kind of services?
I’m having trouble imagining what’s possible and worth hosting for friends and family.
Any good guide to set this up?
It will totally depend on the equipment you plan on using, but in general, your router’s manual/documentation should say whether it supports Dynamic DNS, how to configure your firewall, and how to enable port forwarding.
From there, your device’s operating system should have documentation on how to perform maintenance, and the web server software you plan on using should have guides on how to get it running on your OS of choice.
For example: If you want to host some websites on your device (or just want a nice web-based control panel for your “server”), do a fresh install of Debian 12 and then install something like Virtualmin or HestiaCP. Those two include various web apps that are easy to install and run with a few clicks, like a Wordpress or something.