confusedpuppy
@confusedpuppy@lemmy.dbzer0.com
- Submitted 1 day ago to mycology@mander.xyz | 1 comment
- Comment on 1 week ago:
I use rsync for many of the reasons covered in the video. It’s widely available and has a long history. To me that feels important because it’s had time to become stable and reliable. Using Linux is a hobby for me so my needs are quite low. It’s nice to have a tool that just works.
I use it for all my backups and moving my backups to off network locations as well as file/folder transfers on my own network.
I even made my tool (codeberg.org/taters/rTransfer) to simplify all my rsync commands into readable files because rsync commands can get quite long and overwhelming. It’s especially useful chaining multiple rsync commands together to run under a single command.
I’ve tried other backup and syncing programs and I’ve had bad experiences with all of them. Other backup programs have failed to restore my system. Syncing programs constantly stop working and I got tired of always troubleshooting. Rsync when set up properly has given me a lot less headaches.
- Comment on Do bots/scrapers check uncommon ports? 2 weeks ago:
I think I am already doing that. My Kiwix docker container port is set to 127.0.0.1:8080:8080 and my reverse proxy is only open to port 12345 but will redirect kiwi.example. com:12345 to port 8080 on the local machine.
I’ve learned that docker likes to manipulate iptables without any notice to other programs like UFW. I have to be specific in making sure docker containers only announce themselves to the local machine only.
I’ve also used this guide to harden Caddy and adjusted that to my needs. I took the advice from another user and use wildcard domain certs instead of issuing certs for each sub domain, that way only the wildcard domain is visible when I search it up at
https://crt.sh/. That way I’m not advertising my sub domains that I am using. - Comment on Do bots/scrapers check uncommon ports? 2 weeks ago:
I started with a local scan first, something like
nmap 192 168.40.xxxfor a specific device ornmap 192.168.40.0/24for everything in your current network.Nmap is quite complex with lots of options but there’s a lot of guides online to help out with the basics. You can press enter in your terminal while the scan is running and it should give a progress report.
- Comment on Do bots/scrapers check uncommon ports? 2 weeks ago:
My ISP blocks incoming data to common ports unless you get a business account. That’s why I used Cloudflare’s tunnel service initially. I changed my plans with the domain name I currently own and I don’t feel comfortable giving more power and data to an American Tech company so this is my alternative path.
I use Caddy as my reverse proxy so I only have one uncommon port open. My plans changed from many people accessing my site to just me and very few select friends of mine which does not need a business account.
- Comment on Do bots/scrapers check uncommon ports? 2 weeks ago:
I get that.
I was generally speaking about all my devices. If someone stole my computer, the full disk encryption is more of a deterrence than the idea of my data being fully secured. My hope is that the third party is more likely to delete than to access. If I catch the attention of someone that actually wants my data, I have bigger issues to worry about than security of my electronic devices.
- Comment on Do bots/scrapers check uncommon ports? 2 weeks ago:
I agree with the last point, I only mentioned that because I don’t really know what other setting in my SSHD config is hiding my SSH port from nmap scans. That just happened to be the last change I remember doing before running an nmap scan again and finding my SSH port no longer showed up.
Accessing SSH still works as expected with my keys and for my use case, I don’t believe I need an additional passphrase. Self hosting is just a hobby for me and I am very intentional with what I place on my web facing server.
I want to be secure enough but I’m also very willing to unplug and walk away if I happen to catch unwanted attention.
- Comment on Do bots/scrapers check uncommon ports? 2 weeks ago:
Thanks for the insight. It’s useful to know what tools are out there and what they can do. I was only aware of
nmapbefore which I use to make sure the only ports open are the ports I want open.My web facing device only serves static sites and a file server with non identifiable data I feel indifferent about being on the internet. No databases or stress if it gets targeted or goes down.
Even then, I still like to know how things work. Technology today is built on so many layers of abstraction, it all feels like an infinite rabbit hole now. It’s hard to look at any piece of technology as secure these days.
- Comment on Do bots/scrapers check uncommon ports? 2 weeks ago:
I use a different port for SSH, I also have use authorized keys. My SSHD is setup to only accept keys with no passwords and no keyboard input. Also when I run
nmapon my server, the SSH port does not show up. I’ve never been too sure how hidden the SSH port is beyond the nmap scan but just assumed it would be discovered somehow if someone was determined enough.In the past month I did rename my devices and account names to things less obvious. I also took the suggestion from someone in this community and setup my TLS to use wildcard domain certs. That way my sub domains aren’t being advertised on the public list used by Certificate Authorities. I simply don’t use the base domain name anymore.
- Comment on Do bots/scrapers check uncommon ports? 2 weeks ago:
Early when I was learning self hosting, I lost my work and progress a lot. Through all that I learned how to make a really solid backup/restore system that works consistently.
Each device I own has it’s own local backup. I copy those backups to a partition on my computer dedicated to backups, and that partition gets copied again to an external SSD which can be disconnected. Restoring from external SSD to my Computer’s backup partition to each device all works to my liking. I feel quite confident with my setup. It took a lot of failure to gain that confidence.
I also spent time hardening my system. I went through this Linux hardening guide and applied what I thought would be appropriate for my web facing server. Since the guide seems more for a personal computer (I think), the majority of it didn’t apply to my use case. I also use Alpine Linux so there was even less I could do for my system but it was still helpful in understanding how much effort it is to secure a computer.
- Comment on Do bots/scrapers check uncommon ports? 2 weeks ago:
That’s been my main goal throughout securing my personal devices including my web facing server. To make things inconvenient as possible for potential outside interference. Even if it means simply wasting their time.
With how complex computers and other electronic devices have become, I never expect anything I own to be 100% secure even if I take steps I think will make me secure.
I’ve been on the internet long enough to have built a habit of obscuring my online or digital presence. It won’t save me but it makes me less or a target.
- Submitted 2 weeks ago to selfhosted@lemmy.world | 33 comments
- Comment on Looking for a simple personal homepage 3 weeks ago:
I found BashWrite which is just a very simple static site generator written completely in
bashas a single file script.The only dependency is having an up-to-date
sedcommand which most systems should have. I use Alpine Linux which comes with a minimalsedcommand so I had to download the full command through my package manager.It’s simple, basic and had support for the majority of markdown formatting. There’s some limitations due to it being written in Bash only but I am personally okay with that.
I found it on this list of static site generators if you’re curious to see more options.
- Comment on Selfhosting Sunday! What's up? 3 weeks ago:
It looks interesting and seems like it would be easy to set up. I’ll play with it and see how I like it. Thanks for the suggestion
- Comment on Selfhosting Sunday! What's up? 3 weeks ago:
Since my logs barely move, I just made aliases to where the logs are so it’s quick display and scan them within the terminal. I’m basically just viewing the system logs, fail2ban log and Caddy’s log so it’s fairly quick and simple for me.
The only change I’d like to do is change the output of Caddy’s log file so it’s not a long single line of information per output. I’ll have to do a bit more reading on that so I know what information I want to keep and how I want to visually organize it. At least for the moment, I am familiarising myself with what I am looking at and am slowly figuring out what information is relevant to me.
I like to keep my systems as simple and lean as possible which seems to strongly reflect my general approach to life. I find that kind of interesting.
- Comment on Selfhosting Sunday! What's up? 3 weeks ago:
I feel like my little Pi server is set up nicely now. At least I’m at the point where I’m not concerned about technically maintaining it. It’s as secure as I want it to be and I’ve tweaked my maintenance scripts slightly to avoid any unexpected issues.
I tried installing snikket but I couldn’t figure out how to get it to work with my Caddyfile using my current wildcard domain cert configuration. I’ll try again another time when I’m motivated again. It’s a low priority to me.
The last changes I made were adding logs and making them accessible to myself. So far they are all boring and predictable. Which is good news. It’s also nice to see that I’m the only person accessing it. The bots haven’t found my little corner of the internet yet.
Right now I’m taking a break from self-hosted stuff to work on my gardens and two artsy projects. A wooden carving for a friend’s birthday and an overly complicated shell script that has no real purpose. Although I’ve learned lots from it already so it’s not a complete waste of time.
- Comment on Data Backup Solutions 5 weeks ago:
I use rsync too. It’s older and from what I understand was designed at a time when data storage was much smaller so it may not be as fast as other backup options. It also doesn’t have encrypted backups like other backup options (I think).
Rsync has been the most reliable option for me though. Every syncing option I’ve tried seems too complicated and breaks down every time I look away. Since my entire backup size is around 550gb and I’m not concerned with encrypted backups, I think rsync just works just fine.
I even created my own tool that puts my rsync commands into easy to read/modify files so I can organize my most common transfers. I can easily backup my phone, HomeAssistant server, home server and computer to my two backup locations in a single alias or cronjob now.
A bit of a pain to learning how to make proper backups that restore successfully every time, but once I figured it out, I’ve been very confident in my backup strategy.
- Comment on Selfhosting Sunday - slrpnk edition 5 weeks ago:
I was planning on using weechat and the relay extension for a simple, all-in-one package. Currently I just use IRC for tech support, especially with Alpine linux.
Biboumi seems like a good idea if I wanted to set up a server and I’ll keep it bookmarked. I’m still back and forth about an IRC server so that idea has gone into the bonus category for now. I think Snikket would be a service that’s far more accessible and easier to share with the people I want using it.
I do like that it has xmpp support. I assume it would go well with Snikket.
- Comment on Selfhosting Sunday - slrpnk edition 5 weeks ago:
I’ve decided to stop using Podman for the moment since it was not allowing me internet to access my services. I’ll try again later when the motivation comes back.
Other than that, I’ve been slowly working on security, reliability and maintenance. For the moment I am happy with my device’s own security which I just finished last week. If I need extra securitybat this point, it will most likely be from a third party service but I don’t intend on having a known presence so I may get by just being unknown and obscure.
Ddclient on Alpine linux works very strangely so I made a script to check that it’s still updating my IP address and force restart it if necessary. Combined it with my targetted backups script to make the beginning of a maintenance script.
The last two steps are to setup an IRC client + IRC bouncer and a Snikket service and I’ll be happy. Anything I add after that is simply a bonus I can tinker with for fun but I’m looking forward writing for my blog without technical issues floating in the back of my mind.
- Comment on irl shiny 1 month ago:
I was staying at a hostel in Sydney and It was just me and English girl just chilling in the common area. It was sort of exposed to the outdoors since there was no doors, just an entrance. It just lead to the sheltered outdoor area but each dorm room had their own heavy door.
We both found out that day that the big roaches that roam there knew how to fly. Not well. Like it struggled to carry it’s own weight. We both had time to react and do something. We both just watched in horror as it flew right into her hair.
- Comment on Can't access exposed rootful podman container from outside of host device 1 month ago:
podman ps shows the following:
CONTAINER ID IMAGE COMMAND CREATED STATUS PORTS NAMES daae60bdcc65 docker.io/library/caddy-caddy:latest caddy run --confi... 47 minutes ago Up 47 minutes 0.0.0.0:80->80/tcp, 0.0.0.0:5050->443/tcp, 2019/tcp, 443/udp caddy
netstat -tunplshows the following:Active Internet connections (only servers) Proto Recv-Q Send-Q Local Address Foreign Address State PID/Program name tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:5025 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN 3270/sshd: /usr/sbi tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:5050 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN 7342/conmon tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:80 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN 7342/conmon tcp 0 0 10.89.0.1:53 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN 7336/aardvark-dns tcp6 0 0 :::5025 :::* LISTEN 3270/sshd: /usr/sbi udp 0 0 10.89.0.1:53 0.0.0.0:* 7336/aardvark-dns
The only difference for the netstat command between Docker and Podman is that Podman show’s entries for aardvark-dns and Docker does not which is something I expect.
- Submitted 1 month ago to selfhosted@lemmy.world | 5 comments
- Comment on Selfhosting Sunday - What's up to date, selfhosters? 1 month ago:
I finally got Caddy’s TLS working with a custom module to handle DNS challenges. Turns out all I had to do was wait 10-15 minutes and everything would sort itself out.
Now on to the next puzzle. I started with Caddy in a Docker container and it’s working as intended. Now I want to replicate that in Rootful Podman Compose but I’m running into an issue. With the exact same setup (docker-compose.yml, Dockerfile and Caddyfile) I can get my TLS cert without issue but I can’t seem to connect to my website from any external browser. Not through my domain name or even through my home’s local network.
Once I figure out how I can access my website, I’ll be one step closer to where I want to be. Next will be to get Rootless Podman working, then I can finally set up the file server and kiwix instance instead of the test page I am currently using.
After that, I can finally spend time doing what I want to do and focus my time looking into the Gemeni Protocol.
Down the road I’ll look into hosting an IRC server and Snikket instant messenger but that’s super low priority. I like tinkering with my Raspberry Pi and my constant backup/restores wouldn’t be good for reliability for such services.
- Comment on Caddy + DeSEC.io + DNS Challenge 1 month ago:
I sat down and managed to get wildcard certs working.
I figured I would leave my Caddyfile here in case anyone in the future needs a working reference. This is based off the Caddyfile mentioned in the original post.
Caddyfile
# GLOBAL ENCRYPTION - DESEC.IO { acme_dns desec { token “DeSEC.io Token Number” } } *.samplesite.ca { # SITE WIDE ENCRYPTION tls { dns desec { token “DeSEC.io Token Number” } } # SUB DOMAIN #1 @files host files.samplesite.ca handle @files { root * /srv file_server { hide misc browse } } # FALLBACK FOR UNHANDLED DOMAINS handle { abort } } - Comment on Caddy + DeSEC.io + DNS Challenge 1 month ago:
Thanks for sharing that.
It’s nice to get extra context, it helps me understand how I can protect my devices and myself a bit better as I learn more about self hosting.
- Comment on Caddy + DeSEC.io + DNS Challenge 1 month ago:
Oh no, I was just about to move forward and then you gave me another rabbit hole.
I didn’t know Let’s Encrypt had a public database, that does sound like a good idea to use wildcard certs instead.
I assume this is what I can use as a reference for wildcard certs.
How do you keep track of probing? I’ve been curious about that but haven’t put much effort into that as I’ve been focused on getting things working.
- Comment on Caddy + DeSEC.io + DNS Challenge 1 month ago:
That worked. I can finally see the padlock that says Verified by Let’s Encrypt.
I can’t believe all I had to do was wait. Thanks so much for sharing your experience.
- Submitted 1 month ago to selfhosted@lemmy.world | 8 comments
- Comment on Techrights — Internet Relay Chat and Gemini Protocol Help Us Relive the Net of the Dial-Up Era 1 month ago:
I was considering a single user instance but I noticed just how much data was being transferred throughout the day and decided against it.
I’m drawn to IRC and Gemeni because it seems to use far less data. I’ve lately been into lowering my electrical power usage while still being able to use the internet. That also includes the type of programs my computer and devices use.
Practical or not, it’s been an interesting hobby for myself to learn.
- Comment on Techrights — Internet Relay Chat and Gemini Protocol Help Us Relive the Net of the Dial-Up Era 1 month ago:
It will only be for a select number of people I know and am comfortable with being there. This is going to be hosted on a Raspberry Pi so it’s not going to be set up for a large number of people.
I don’t want to moderate images or videos which is my main concern when it comes to moderation.
I read the experiences of moderators from the initial CSAM attack on Lemmy and that was already discouraging. I also spent time in PieFed’s matrix channel and hearing the additional tools being requested made me realize I just don’t want to deal with that at all.
