[SOLVED] Home Server Suggestions

[wobbleidz]

Hi everyone,

First of all, please forgive me if this is the wrong section to post this in.

I'm looking to make my home network more secure and I'd like to buy a fairly cheap server on which I could do virtualization, host my own website, host my home network files (FTP?) and maybe even my very own VPN?

Question 1 would be, would I be able to get a server that could run both Linux and Windows at the same time? (or maybe run Linux through windows hyper-v?)
Question 2 could someone please point me to a cheap model I could buy that could do the things I mentioned?


Also, I'm pretty new to all this so my knowledge is limited but this is one of the reasons that I'd like to have a server so I could start learning configuring/networking/linux etc.

Thanks!

 

[Math Geek]

a "server" is simply a computer with server software installed on it. either windows server or apache or other server OS.

so any pc can be a server once you install the software and enable whatever services you want on it.

since you want to run a vm on it, pick a system that has enough resources for the host os and it's services as well as enough extra for the vm to use.

you don't need an expensive 64 core server chip on a massive mobo with 256 gb ram and so on.... that's for a server than has to handle many many things at once. something like a 3600x or such would be ample along with at least 16 gb ram. thrown it on a cheap mobo and you'll be good to go

a vpn is easy to set up but you need to secure it and anything else connected to the web. that's a whole course in security to get into. change normal port to an odd unused one for each service. require pki for secure log in from the web interface if you use it and so on.


most people when they start tinkering with server systems just use an old pc they have sitting around, install windows server on it and then just have fun tinkering.

 

[kanewolf]

Hi everyone,

First of all, please forgive me if this is the wrong section to post this in.

I'm looking to make my home network more secure and I'd like to buy a fairly cheap server on which I could do virtualization, host my own website, host my home network files (FTP?) and maybe even my very own VPN?

Question 1 would be, would I be able to get a server that could run both Linux and Windows at the same time? (or maybe run Linux through windows hyper-v?)
Question 2 could someone please point me to a cheap model I could buy that could do the things I mentioned?


Also, I'm pretty new to all this so my knowledge is limited but this is one of the reasons that I'd like to have a server so I could start learning configuring/networking/linux etc.

Thanks!

Have you looked at the commercial NAS units? The ones with Intel CPUs will run Docker for virtualization.

 

[wobbleidz]

thank you all for taking the time to help me.

after doing some reading/research I decided to go with an old used tower server I found on eBay. 4 cores 4 threads Xeon CPU, 16GB ram, and bought me two 2TB HDD (for RAID) and a 256GB SSD for Proxmox. Hopefully, this is enough power to host a small website and make my home cloud, plex, (maybe VPN if I learn how to do that).

 

[kanewolf]

thank you all for taking the time to help me.

after doing some reading/research I decided to go with an old used tower server I found on eBay. 4 cores 4 threads Xeon CPU, 16GB ram, and bought me two 2TB HDD (for RAID) and a 256GB SSD for Proxmox. Hopefully, this is enough power to host a small website and make my home cloud, plex, (maybe VPN if I learn how to do that).

Remember that hosting a website on home equipment means that you have to open your home router to port 80 and 443. Those ports are going to be attacked. Webhosting on home hardware is a big risk to your home network.

 

[wobbleidz]

Remember that hosting a website on home equipment means that you have to open your home router to port 80 and 443. Those ports are going to be attacked. Webhosting on home hardware is a big risk to your home network.

I was planning in doing it through Cloudflare and Nginx

 

[kanewolf]

I was planning in doing it through Cloudflare and Nginx

Using a reverse proxy will protect you in some ways. And maybe you don't have to have standard HTTP ports opened to utilize them.
If you have a public IP and ports opened, you need to be aware of the potential security vulnerabilities.