Home Server Series Part 6 – Your First Self-Hosted Service

What good is a server that doesn’t have a service? In this post, we’ll look at using Docker to set up a Bitwarden password management service. In subsequent posts, we’ll add the ability to access this service from outside your home network securely and reliably. Dock What? If you want to run a single service on a server, you can install it, run it, and forget about it.… Read more

Home Server Part 5 – Setting Up Samba

At this point, you’re ready to start hosting your own services, but to make your life significantly easier I have an optional – though highly recommended – step. If you ever want to share files back and forth between your Linux server and another computer on your network, the most straightforward way to do it is with Samba. In this tutorial, I’ll walk you through the process.… Read more

Home Server Part 4 – Things Get Interesting

If you’ve made it this far, congratulations! We’re about to turn that giant virtual machine file or that computer case into something useful. The first step is going to be to install an operating system. Then, I’ll give you a little crash course in Linux if you haven’t used it before. In the next post, I’ll show you a quick way to get files shared between your regular computer and your server, and from then on, we’ll begin adding software and features.… Read more

Home Server Part 3 – Choosing a Computer (2 of 2)

In the last article, we looked at two of the ways you could get a computer ready to run home server software. Today, we’ll look at the last two: Repurposing an old computer Building or buying a new computer The next post in this series will deal with installing an operating system, which will be applicable to both of these and running your server as a virtual machine, which was covered in the previous article.… Read more

Home Server Part 2 – Choosing a Computer (1 of 2)

You have four possibilities when it comes to running a home server, listed here in order of increasing complexity and flexibility: Running server-side software on a computer you already have Running the server as a virtual machine Repurposing an old computer Building or buying a new computer In this part of the Home Server Series, I want to discuss the first two options.… Read more

Home Server Part 1 – Home as Command Center

When I first got a job as a software engineer, I was impressed by the racks of computers running software builds and tests every moment of every day. The computers were high-end machines, each thousands of dollars, and the room they filled was noticeably warmer than every other room in the building. I began imagining what kinds of things I could run at my own house someday.… Read more