Always enjoyed scrolling though these posts, figured I’d give it a go here:
What are your must-have selfhosted services?
Some of mine:
- Adguard Home - Add blocker
- Adguard Home Sync - sync multiple adguard instances
- Bookstack - documentation
- BorgMatic - config driven backup
- Change Detection - monitor websites for changes, prices for example.
- FreshRSS - RSS reader
- Home Assistant - home automation
- KitchenOwl - groceries
- Rclone - sync backups to remote storage
- Traefik - reverse proxy
- Vikunja - todo list
- Wireguard Easy - VPN
Didn’t see Paperless in these comments yet. Great way to never again search for documents, bills, receipts, warranties, manuals, etc cetera ad nauseam.
Link: Paperless-NG (Github)
Other than the obvious of being selfhosted, how does it compare to google drive for search/recall etc
I find it very useful due to its automatic assignment of various labels, categories and etc.
These assignments mean very little work for me to keep things tidy. Icrn use labels etc for filtering so it is extremely fast to find JUST the documents I want.
Paired with a small, fast duplex document scanner, it’s incredibly convenient. Almost any kind of document I get in, just gets thrown into a scanner, and then into a box - no sorting.
Syncthing - No introduction needed. Couldn’t live without it.
Healthchecks.io (you can self host this) - Dead man’s switch monitoring for all my automation. Most of my automated scripts hit up a Healthchecks endpoint when they run, and if they fail to hit the endpoint on a regular schedule I get notified. Mandatory for my anxiety.
I have a network drive that I put all my documents on. Would using syncthing have a better workflow than that?
It depends on what your workflow/usecase for putting documents on the drive currently is. Syncthing is usually intended to be put on two separate devices, and then a folder on each device gets synchronized - meaning you have a folder of your documents on each device. Is there any reason not to just mount the network drive’s folder and drag the documents in that way?
Yeah, that’s how I do it now. I just mount the network drive on each PC and they can all access the same files. I’m just wondering if there’s a usecase that syncthing has that my workflow doesn’t that I just can’t think of because I haven’t used it.
After looking at other’s lists I think I am missing a good document server. Emby isn’t the best music and photo server so I could look at improving that, but it has been good enough for those purposes that I haven’t felt like going to the trouble of installing anything else.
- Aster: Multiseat software for Windows allows several users to work on the same PC.
- LaunchBox: Frontend for DOSBox, modern PC games and emulated console platforms.
- Blue Iris: Video security and webcam software
- Calibre: E-Book management and server
- Emby: Server for videos, music, audio books, and photos.
- Firewalla: VPN server, internet monitor and control
- Foundary Virtual Tabletop: Online role-playing game server.
- Grafana: Dashboard interface
- Hubitat: Home automation
- Hyper-V Manager: Tool that allows users to manage Hyper-V hosts and virtual machines (VMs)
- InfluxDB: Real-time database server.
- IotaWatt: Open WiFi electric power monitor
- Microsoft SQL Server: Database Server
- Octoprint: Web interface for 3D printers.
- PCem: Emulator for various old 8086 through Pentium PCs.
- SmartSync Pro: File sync program
- SnapRaid: Backup program for disk arrays.
- Stablebit DrivePool/Scanner: Disk pooling, file duplication, protection, disk surface scanner, and disk health monitoring
- Steam Link: Access and play steam games remotely
I bought both Plex and Emby. I started with Plex but had some technical issues related to my machine having multiple IP addresses so I switched to Emby. I tried Jellyfin before switching to Emby but it wasn’t as capable as Plex or Emby (at least at the time) and I wanted something with some commercial support behind it. I have been pretty satisfied with Emby, but do wish it would get requested features added in a much more timely manner.
One of my favorites is Whoogle, a simple Google search proxy. It accepts search requests and forwards them to Google anonymously, then strips out the AMP links and tracking. There’s even an option for it to use Tor so your IP address changes frequently.
I used both, I ended up settling on searxng because Whoogle seemed to be unable to retain my settings. Might be something with my cookie configuration, but searxng has no problem remembering my preferences. If that is not a problem for you then they are comparable; Whoogle is pretty simple to get going and works well, searxng is slightly more complicated to set up (but not that much with docker) but has a ton more features.
All of the public instances seem to be rate limited and not return any results. Take it you don’t get that issue self-hosting it?
Correct. And it’s such a tiny, simple Docker install you could theoretically run it locally instead of a server.
Does your server have to be accessible from the internet or is it enough that it can go out to make the request? Just asking because I am keeping my setup in our intranet, no access from outside my home.
