this post was submitted on 30 Oct 2024
41 points (93.6% liked)

Selfhosted

59939 readers
604 users here now

A place to share alternatives to popular online services that can be self-hosted without giving up privacy or locking you into a service you don't control.

Rules:

  1. Be civil: we're here to support and learn from one another. Insults won't be tolerated. Flame wars are frowned upon.

  2. No spam.

  3. Posts here are to be centered around self-hosting. Please ensure it is clear in your post how it relates to self-hosting.

  4. Don't duplicate the full text of your blog or git here. Just post the link for folks to click.

  5. Submission headline should match the article title.

  6. No trolling.

Resources:

Any issues on the community? Report it using the report flag.

Questions? DM the mods!

founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
ruud@lemmy.world
Loki@lemmy.world
CannaVet@lemmy.world
devve@lemmy.world
ayyy@sh.itjust.works
curbstickle@anarchist.nexus
curbstickle_lw@lemmy.world
41
Looking for help/guidance on how to setup a server for a business (fedia.io)
submitted 2 years ago by young_broccoli@fedia.io to c/selfhosted@lemmy.world
47 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Hi. Some friends of mine are starting a business and they want to setup a server to host a simple "contact" website, run an e-mail service (about 10 accounts for now but with possibilities of expanding it to support more) and to store and remote access documents.

Im a computer savvy person so they asked me for help, but dont know much about self-hosting so I come here asking you:

What kind of hardware do they need and would be best? What OS and other software is required and recomended?
How to set it up/configure it? Im partial to foss but if there are good propietary options they are acceptable too. And last: What do we have to watch out for or avoid.

Also, space is a bit of an issue, I was thinking they could use something small like an intel nuc but Im worried that hardware would be underpowered for their needs.

I have been googling for stuff myself but I get overwhelmed by the ammount of information and some contradicting opinions so I appreciate your recomendations and guidance. Im not asking you to give me a full tutorial, although I would appreciate it too, but just to be pointed in the right direction to avoid, as much as possible, spending money and time on things they might not really need or might not perform as well.

Thanks in advance.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] philpo@feddit.org 11 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

They set up a business. They do business. They should ask someone to do this whose business it is. Not you. They are taking advantage of you.

You will certainly and 100% ruin your friendship with them.

  • Keeping a server secure is an ordeal for a professional - especially when it comes to using it as a business server.

  • Doing E-Mail yourself, especially in a professional capacity, is a god damn nightmare and even most professionals refuse to do it and rather pay someone who handle it. For a reason.

  • The usecase you mentioned does not require a server. It can easily be done via a web hosting provider. Unless there is something shaddy going on and you/they are afraid of storing that stuff with a provider. But for what you mention here you need a simple web hosting provider for 5 bucks a month.

  • Actually doing that yourself is far more complicated than you imagine here. It's not just the server. How do you get a connection with a static IPv4 to host your services? Actually preferably multiple static IPs? Are you considering a CloudFlare tunnel? How do you plan redundancy if that connection craps out? Or the server kicks the bucket. Or power goes out? This alone costs FAR more than the money you pay for a cheap webhoster or even a VPS. (Which you don't need,imho)

For the love of god or whoever: Don't do that. You will be liable/responsible to them (at least from their point of view) if their IP is on Googlemails blacklist and now "that one important client mail did not arrive in time". Or if the cheap residential DSL craps out and their very important site is just having the sale of their life?

I am absolutely for self-hosting things, don't get me wrong. I selfhost basically everything (but no mail...that is a shitshow), mostly on FOSS. But don't start with someone else's business if you start doing this. Selfhost a few easy things. Get a Mini PC and proxmox, selfhost within your home network, then expand slowly.