My wife wanted to go thrifting today. We'll i was browsing the electronics and came across a dish network hopper dvr. Inside of it contained a Seagate 2tb hd. Only payed 6.99 for it so in today's market of course it's a steal. Always keep a eye on them as most contain 1 or 2tb harddrives. Will report back on its status. Im hoping it's still good

What do you use it for, and what maintenance has it needed? I'm interested in services that earn their place over time.

https://news.freestuffsthat.work

running on my homelab.

Website: https://mitracal.com
Demo: https://demo.mitracal.com (no sign-up)
GitHub: https://github.com/a11delavar/mitra

Mitra is a self-hosted calendar that shows your events and tasks together. a11delavar has been building it since May and it’s our daily driver now. Some features include:

• events and tasks on one timeline
• week, month, year, timeline and table views
• subtasks and dependencies
• routines
• keep calendars in Mitra itself, or sync both ways with CalDAV, Google, Apple and Notion
• reminders pushed from your server, so they arrive with no tab open
• installs on your phone as an app, I use it on Android every day
• multi-user via OIDC
• one container, one folder, open source (AGPL), no telemetry
• and more...

AI: He does the architecture and design, AI writes a good chunk of the code, and he reviews and iterate. He's been doing web development for about a decade.

The logo is also a work of yours truly.

It’s at 0.6, which felt like a good point to share it and let people break it! Let us know what you think in the comments.

Welp, had to happen. My mainstay for almost a decade, https://iwantmyname.com , is unusable now. Their search displays only unavailable domains, and instead of just not doing the purchase, my funds went to "a credit account that can be used on our services". Balls. x.x But hey, nothing stays good forever, this much is obvious.

With this chance at hand tho, I want to start to unplug from the US of "ahhh, what the heck are you doing over there...?" and thus would like to go to a european provider.

Technically, I have a domain with Hetzner, but their TLD selection is ... smol. (Via "Konsole", where my previous domain appears in and at).

...it sucks doubly, because iirc, transfers also cost money. So I'd have renewed my domains "for naught" last month. Fun. x.x

I was about to delete Dispatcharr as I have UHF and would just sort through and find what I want to watch.

Just before I deleted I found the plugins section and omg I’m so happy I found this before I deleted.

I’m using lineuparr and you can tell it to copy the channels for say directv lineup or fios and it pulls those out of your 20,000 channels. So much more convenient and easier for me.

I’m using 5 plugins in total and what a game changer not sure why I never saw anyone mentions these?

Hello! Most dashboard posts I see are about dashboards for monitoring your server. I'm looking for something to organizing my life such as having my tasks, calendar, some quotes, some business stats, etc on one self-hosted dashboard. Is there anything that can do that elegantly? I love coding so I'd love to make it my own but I don't really know where to begin at the moment.

I knew hardware wouldnt be cheap. But i thought its rather CPU/GPU/RAM.

I thought i will buy some NAS-System for backup important local stuff. But the barebone nas system cost like 400€ and each HDD (i thought about 4x4tb in raid5) will cost me 200€.

thats way to much for just some hobby project of mine.

Any idea how i can reduce the cost?

Are there reliable refurbish products? How do i find those?

My mini pcs all got just one 1 SATA port so i cannt use those. I got an hold mainboard from my gaming pc(with an i5 2550k and 16gb of ram ddr3) but the energy consumption is way to high there to use this (i think)?

Im kinda super frustated. Thought about using Jellyfin to cut cost with streaming services but it will take a long while to cut even when i have to spend 1200€ for data storage.

Me and a few classmates are hoping to set something like this up for shared class notes.

Obsidian with the Relay plugin seems perfect, but sadly even if you self host it you have to pay to have more than 3 users, and even if you do, you're limited to 6 users. The Logseq DB version also seems nice, but it's in alpha, so I don't trust it with important data.

Mine is Sonarr, Radarr, Prowlarr, Bazarr, Seerr, SABnzbd, qBittorrent and Jellyfin. Eight containers, eight configs, and the API keys all have to be pasted into each other by hand.

It works, but every time I migrate hosts or restore from backup something doesn't reconnect and I spend an evening figuring out which one.

Looking for advice on simplifying this. What did you cut or combine?

Hi everyone!

I'm looking for recommendations for a self-hosted service that I can run on my Unraid server to catalogue and manage my physical media collection.

Ideally, I'd like something that supports DVDs, Blu-rays, 4K UHD Blu-rays, and potentially other physical media formats.

It would be great if it could automatically pull in cover artwork, titles, descriptions and other metadata, rather than having to enter everything manually. Barcode scanning would also be a nice bonus.

I'm mainly looking for an easy way to keep track of what I physically own, rather than manage my digital media library.

Does anyone use anything like this on Unraid, or have any recommendations worth checking out?

Thanks!

Some of it is virtualized (via Podman), some is running bare metal. Just included the TV Box as it's on the lan, all the rest of the clients around the house are on the WiFI. Let me know if any q's. Yeah, I know, that Athlon is getting (really) old, but still cranks four cores to 4Ghz when it needs to, and does everything I ask of it with haste. Poor old thing needs to be decommissioned soon. :)

Hi folks,

I wanted to do a quick sanity check on my current infrastructure and see what you all think—mostly to figure out if I'm sliding too far down the paranoid over-engineering rabbit hole or if this actually makes sense.

Here is my current setup:

• Internal Services: Anything used exclusively at home stays strictly behind WireGuard. If I’m away, I just toggle the VPN on my phone or laptop.
• Exposed Services: For the few things that must be accessible over the open internet (HTTPS only)—mainly because I have a device where I can't install a VPN—I route traffic through Traefik as my reverse proxy.
• Security & Middleware: On Traefik, I’ve set up rate-limiting middleware for exposed APIs and strict security headers for web services. Around that, I’m running CrowdSec to catch weird traffic patterns and Pocket ID for SSO/authentication.

Lately, I’ve been tempted to throw mTLS (Mutual TLS) into the mix for those few publicly exposed services. The endpoints are only accessed by a handful of devices (mine and my partner’s, all under our direct control), so requiring client certificates feels like adding an unbreakable layer of armor. But I keep asking myself: is this pure paranoia, or is paranoia just a spectrum with no limit in self-hosting?

On top of that, I’m considering adding or switching over to Cloudflare Tunnels (cloudflared). I haven't migrated my DNS to Cloudflare yet because I’ve seen very mixed reviews: some people had bad experiences with updates breaking things or policy concerns, while many others swear by it.

What are your thoughts? Is mTLS worth the hassle for personal/family setups, or is it overkill given CrowdSec, Pocket ID, and proxy middleware? And how has your experience been with Cloudflare Tunnels compared to hosting your own proxy on a public IP?

Roast my setup or hit me with your practical advice! Cheers.

For my self-hosted solution, I am running TrueNAS on a Dell Optiplex 7040, which has a CD DVD burner. I use the drive to rip CD media, but was interested in whether there are any containers / apps that would let me make use of the burner. I am thinking files such as photos, mp3s, documents, etc. Or perhaps there is something that would let me burn a already created ISO file? Does anything like this exist?

Hey everyone, it has been over 1 year since my last post on this subreddit about my fork of filebrowser. Since then, the OG filebrowser github has been archived and my fork has hit both v1.0.0-stable -- and now v2.0.0-stable!

It's called FileBrowser Quantum -- I have been working on this repo for almost 4 years and is still actively and officially maintained by myself and Kevin. We both handle issues and make changes nearly every day on the repository. The vast majority of code is unique to my repo, this is not a simple fork. Everything has been refactored with standards and security in mind -- none of the vulnerabilies of the original exist anymore.

v2.0.0 is now available in stable! It does take a little effort to migrate over to if you are currently on a v1.x track, but it lays the groundwork for some of the biggest features to come.

The progress on this repository is growing faster every day. There's lots of changes and features planned, you can see them on my github issues https://github.com/gtsteffaniak/filebrowser/issues which is where I would like everyone to post suggestions and issues they find. Reddit is great for visibility but I don't add feature requests or troubleshoot issues here -- open an issue on github for official support. For general questions, github discussions are still a good place as well.

Some third-party installations like truNAS, unRAID, homeassistent plugins may need time to get updated to support the v2.0.0 config format. I would love to have the communities help to identify and open issues with those repositories to help everyone make this transition smoother. v2.0.0 sets the stage for so many features to come. Stable is a great place to start, I recommend beta only to those willing to experience some bugs and want to be involved in github.

I hope FileBrowser Quantum finds a home on your server -- there has never been a better time to self host your own software. See you on github!

Also quick PSA: Using archived/unmaintained software connected to the internet is extremely dangerous. The security risks are higher than they have ever been in the past. Web-based file applications like this are especially dangerous. I take security very seriously and I would recommend everyone to take a close look at how frequently applications are updated and how often the maintainers accept security advisories. Many maintainers reject AI submissions. We review every security report carefully, including automated and AI-assisted ones and validate fixes before merge.

6 physical computers, 3 Linux 3 windows 11 pro. Veeam community edition works perfectly for the Linux computers but refused to recognize any windows computers. AI tells me veeam doesn’t work with devices that aren’t on a domain and wants me to enable the hidden windows admin account.

Anyone else using veeam with their homelab that could point me in the right direction?

I launched m3u4me in July as a self-hosted alternative to m3u4u and Dispatcharr. It's meant to be a simple and intuitive M3U playlist management platform for IPTV enthusiasts who want to be in full control of their streams and EPG data.

Today it reached v2.4.3 and I think the latest features which were added in the past updates are great enough to make a post about it:

- Channel syncing: If your provider changes something about a channel (be it the link, the name, the logo or TVG-ID), you can have that change automatically mirrored in your curated personal playlist.

- Custom user agents: If you need a specific user agent to be able to download your source playlists, now you can have that.

- Simple backup: Backing up or restoring your database of channels & sources is simple enough that I don't need to talk too much about it.

And I plan to add many more exciting useful features in the future. If this is interesting to you, please check it out.

AI DISCLAIMER: This app's code is entirely AI-generated. I understand if you don't trust that, but I am using it myself on a literal daily basis and I try to solve any sort of issues ASAP, since I rely on it myself. I also rely on feedback from users, therefore you can criticise it in the comments and I will do my best to improve it. I'm not using AI to invent new features or to make design choices.

Hello all! Looking to get into homelabing and starting to hoard data (mainly just movies for Jellyfin).

I am looking here to see if anyone has a nice DAS set up, or if i should just get a NAS and get some WD Reds for the movies/shows.

I currently have an i5 8600k with 32gb of ram (ddr4) from an old gaming rig. Using it now as a gaming server but i want to just add to its usage. (Its on windows 11 but i wouldn’t mind having either linux or WSL for windows to have linux). I heard linux is the way to go but since im already on win11, im not sure if it’s worth to fully switch.

Do you guys recommend a DAS and i slap it to the side? Or should i just retire it since its nearly 10 years old and go for the mini pc/das or NAS server?

Im looking to get 16-24tb of storage. Im not crazy about 4k quality. 1080p is good enough for me :)

I also don’t fully understand the *arr stack programs. I know thats a way to sail for movies but i haven’t really found a good youtube video (maybe i haven’t searched haarrrd enough… sorry lol).

All answers welcome and appreciated, thanks for your time in reading this!

I’ve been lurking here for a bit and I’m ready to dive into the world of self-hosting, but I’m a bit overwhelmed by the hardware choices. I don't have much experience with server configurations yet, so I’m looking for some "starting point" advice.

I’m trying to figure out what the minimum requirements are that I should look for to have a smooth experience.

Specifically:

Processor: What’s the baseline? (e.g., Is an Intel i3/i5 enough, or do I need something beefier?)

RAM: Is 8GB enough to start, or is 16GB/32GB the standard for a stable home lab?

Storage: How much SSD space should I set aside for the OS and Docker containers before moving to HDDs for bulk data?

The Form Factor Dilemma: I’m also torn between three main paths and would love to hear your pros/cons on these:

Mac Mini: I’ve heard they are power-efficient and quiet, but are they a headache for a beginner to set up as a server?

Mini PC (NUC, Beelink, etc.): These seem popular here. Is this the best "bang for buck"?

Full-Sized Desktop/Tower: Is the extra power consumption and footprint worth it for the internal drive bays?

My Goals (for now):Pi-hole, AIO Streams, Vaultwarden, Home Assistant, simple File Server and open WebUi.

I’d appreciate any "I wish I knew this when I started" tips regarding hardware. Thanks in advance!

A recent discussion about invoices failing to reach clients got me thinking about what we mean when we say a self-hosted service is “healthy.”

The container can be running. The login page can load. An HTTP monitor can keep reporting success. Meanwhile, the task we installed the application for may have stopped working.

That gap seems especially important for services that work quietly in the background: photo uploads, document processing, file synchronization, scheduled backups, and outgoing email. If nobody opens the application regularly, a failure can remain invisible until someone needs the result.

I’m interested in how people monitor that gap without turning a home setup into another large infrastructure project.

I think there are several different questions hiding behind a green status indicator.

First, is the process alive? Container state and resource metrics help answer that. Second, can a client reach the service? DNS, TLS, HTTP checks, and response times help there. Third, can the application perform a useful operation? Finally, did the expected result actually appear where it was needed?

Those checks provide different evidence. A Docker health check can be as useful as the command behind it, but its meaning depends on what that command tests. Checking a page says something different from checking whether a worker successfully processed a queued document.

For a small setup, my proposed starting point would be to choose one important workflow per service and define its success condition explicitly.

For a document application, that might mean importing a harmless sample document and checking that its text becomes searchable. For file synchronization, it could mean verifying that a small test file reaches the destination intact within a reasonable time. For a photo service, it might mean checking that a test upload becomes visible through the client people actually use.

Email needs a little more care. An application reporting “sent,” or an SMTP server accepting a message, does not prove that a person found it in their inbox. A dedicated test mailbox could provide evidence that the message reached that particular destination, but it still wouldn’t prove delivery to every client or every provider.

The point would be to decide what each check establishes, rather than give every stage the same reassuring label.

For scheduled jobs, I’d also want to distinguish the last attempt from the last successful completion. A job can launch on schedule and still fail every time. Useful signals might include the timestamp of the last success, the age of the oldest queued item, or the time a test item takes to pass through the workflow.

There’s a complication with quiet services, though. No activity doesn’t necessarily mean failure. If nobody has uploaded a photo this week, an old processing timestamp may be perfectly normal. That’s where a small synthetic test could help—but it also creates maintenance of its own.

Test data needs to stay separate from real data. Checks should avoid sending messages to actual customers, creating genuine invoices, or repeatedly changing a family member’s library. A dedicated account or test destination seems preferable, with limited permissions and a clear cleanup policy.

I’d also keep frequent checks lightweight. Testing a small operation regularly and exercising a longer workflow after an upgrade may be a better compromise than running a full browser journey every minute. Backups deserve their own distinction too: a successful backup job is useful evidence, while being able to restore the data is a separate question.

The monitoring system can fail as well. If both the application and the only monitor run on the same host, losing that host may silence both. For something important, I’d consider whether the alert path can still work when the thing being monitored is unavailable.

I don’t think every hobby application needs all of this. If maintaining the checks takes more time than the occasional failure would cost, a manual check may be entirely reasonable. But for services people depend on, one meaningful outcome check seems more valuable than a page full of indicators that only establish reachability.

I haven’t run a comparative test of these approaches; I’m proposing a way to think about them and would like to hear what has worked in practice.

• Which service appeared healthy while its actual function was broken?
• What check eventually caught it?
• Do you use test transactions, application metrics, or manual checks after upgrades?
• How do you handle legitimate periods of inactivity?
• Where has deeper monitoring become more trouble than it was worth?

Hi all,
I would like to know what you use for managing tutorials contents (including videos, text, images, other formats) so they can show clearly with description, a thumbnail and ability to play videos.
Something like tagspaces maybe?
Thanks

I converted my old gaming PC to a home server that's been running 24/7 for a few weeks.

Here's what I've self hosted:

1. A minecraft server for me and my friends, very good performance even with 10+ players online at once and plugins. (Medium CPU priority, 4GB ram maximum)

2. Portainer: For no reason (Low CPU priority)

3. PiHole: Blocking ads on my home network and watching what domains smart devices call (interesting) (Low CPU priority)

4. ConvertX: To convert files in a web GUI without handing over files to random sites (Low CPU priority)

5. CasaOS: Protected by cloudflare identity verification (Low CPU priority)

Hi,

Planning on hosting some PHP based web sites in a container environment. Going to use Traefik for the proxy. Trying to figure out which PHP image makes most sense. Looking for a reasonably light and secure setup.

• php:8.5-apache - This one I reckon should be safe and "just work", but I don't know that including Apache in each container is the best approach.
• php:8.5-fpm - Should be lightweight due to not including a web server, but has notes regarding being insecure to expose. It should only be exposed to the proxy server, though, so should be fine?
• Custom image with PHP and some other web server?

Each site/stack will run as a separate user, in a separate network. Have not yet decided on Docker vs Podman. I will probably be making a custom image, possibly based on one of the above, either way.