Are you in the US? If so, what state? This might be one of the few things I would never consider self hosting. There are so many legal issues you could run into, and if your self hosted solution fails, you’ll be fucked (to put it lightly). I’m an HR/payroll professional by trade, in case that helps.

Buster is actually calculating the surface area of your server, and has already determined that he will fit perfectly on it.

I’m also a person that has always struggled to learn by solely reading. Typically a combination of video tutorials and documentation, while actually doing the work on my end, is how I usually grasp concepts.

This is something I have on my to-do list. I just need to figure out which router to go with.

Hack The Box looks like it could be quite interesting and fun. I think I’ll start there. I appreciate your feedback!

So your privacy-focused email provider recommendation is Gmail?

If that were to happen, nothing is stopping users from exporting their emails elsewhere.

You can use Proton Mail Bridge to set up SMTP/IMAP with your email app of choice. Obviously, you’re still stuck with using the bridge app on your device in order to get it working.

I was originally thinking at least 4 drives (4 if I went the synology/other of the shelf option, or more if I went the DIY route). Not opposed to a secondhand computer, especially if the price and performance is good. It seems like a brand new NUC can get fairly expensive.

What synology model did you go with? Do you host any other services with that type of setup?

I’ll probably start out with just letting my parents access Plex to see how it performs. They would be remotely streaming off an Apple TV, so I’m not entirely sure how much, if any, transcoding will be needed. My other issue is that transcoding is uncharted territory for me, so I should probably work on getting a better understanding of how/when it might come into play in my situation.

Everything else you described sounds like it would fulfill what I’m looking for. I don’t plan on solely hosting “mission critical” aspects of my life on this (at least for now while I continue to learn and possibly break things), but it would help me take the training wheels off my bike.

Based on some of the other comments, it sounds like this might be the way to go. What NAS are you working with?

You know, I’m not sure why this didn’t cross my mind as I started doing research. I have seen this recommendation countless times around here and people seem to have great experiences going the mini pc route. Thanks for your insight. Do you have any specific mini pc or NAS in mind that you would recommend?

Thanks for the great info! What mini PC did you end up going with? I’ve heard Beelink and a few others thrown around here and there, and most seem to be impressed with what they can do. Do you mind elaborating some on how you handle your drives with this type of setup? Do you just have some sort of NAS connected directly to the pc?

I wouldn’t say energy usage/efficiency is super high on my list, but I am also not opposed to being somewhat conscious about that. Basically, a little bit extra on my electric bill won’t kill me.

Separate servers is also something I would be fine with. The Pi has been great, and I figured I could keep utilizing it the way I have been with some other services. It is currently running some form of Ubuntu server (can’t remember off the top of my head), and everything is containerized.

I went with the yearly unlimited subscription through Frugal. I believe I paid $39.00 for the year, plus it comes with a 500gb block account through Blocknews.

A good indexer is critical to your setup. Since I just started my Usenet journey a month ago, I can only recommend two: NZBgeek and Drunkenslug. There are many others that I’m sure are worth it, I just haven’t had time to test anything else. NZBgeek might not have open registrations right now.

I use SABnzbd as my downloader.

Other than that, one of the best resources I used when getting set up was TRaSH Guides. Endless guides on configuring your downloader, indexers, and much more. Do some research on Sonarr, Radarr, and the other arr programs. Takes a little bit of effort getting it all set up, but makes everything so easy once you’re done.

This is a great one. I type a lot with my job, and it just feels way more efficient than clicking around trying to change a single letter in a word I fudged up.

I have set this up in the past, and didn’t notice any significant delays. The only issue I ever ran into with this setup was my devices suddenly showing up as “no response” in the Home app. I never really had time to investigate the issue, so I’m not really sure what caused the problem. It wasn’t a huge deal for me since I could still use HA or the Hue app for my lights. I just moved and plan on trying it again once I get my server up and running.

I figured email would be a common theme. I’m just starting to dip my toes into all of this, so an email server is not on my to-do list (and may never be).

Email was one I figured I would get an answer for. I know plenty of people do it, but I’m not sure if I’d trust myself to do it right.

The paid offsite backups just seem like a good idea. Some might have the ability to also self-host that, whether it be in a friend/family members home, but if that isn’t an option, paying for a service could save your ass some day.