I’m new to the whole scene. A streaming service price hike led me to torrenting which led me to paying for protonVPN.
Now I’m interested in the idea of self hosting — getting my pdf’s off of Google drive and putting them on my own machine, and then getting to them from wherever I am.
I also have Stash running. ::cough::
How do I get to this shit from outside the VPN? Isn’t the point that the IP address is always different or at least different every time I log 
n through Estonia or whatever?
I’d also love to have a tiny little html served up for fun — same issue.
If it matters, the VPN is at the machine level and not at the router level or something, not even sure if that’s possible.
A good entry into self hosting would be to buy a raspberry pi and setup something like UmbrelOS. Then install apps like NextCloud or Syncthing. Then try accessing them from outside your LAN. You will likely need to learn and use something like Tailscale.
Don’t totally abandon the cloud unless you’re going to have additional backups on and off-site.
I personally continue with my 2TB Drive subscription for Google Photos and Drive (only for important things) in addition to my 53TB storage at home.
There are two uses for VPNs:
- You have your own VPN server (like on your own mini PC or in your router). Then you install a VPN client on your mobile and other devices. When you are away from your home network, you open a secure VPN tunnel from your client (mobile, tablet, etc.) to your VPN server. The VPN server is connected to your home network, such that you have access to your home network. This is what all companies do to enable their workers to work from home.
- You use third-party VPN servers to connect to the internet. Here, your PC or whatever device is the VPN client connecting to a fixed third-party VPN server which then connects to the internet. This is to masquerade your client IP address.
So to create/host a private cloud, you either use VPN as in 1) or you host your own web server. To secure your web server, you usually put it behind a reverse proxy. The reverse proxy scheme has the advantage of being easily accessible for anybody. You only need a username and password to log in to one of your hosted services. However, because it’s easy for anybody to access, it’s also insecure if not secured professionally. If you are not an expert in network security, I would think it’s safer to open your reverse proxy only to the local network. Then use your own VPN server to access your local services from the wider internet.
For sure, plus there’s stuff that’s nice to have at hand. I wouldn’t mind a cheap (slow is fine) deep backup for family photos and things, mostly I’m trying to slowly untangle myself from Google.
So I can run VPN software at the desktop level, and have a private/home vpn machine on the network, and the two are not necessarily in conflict?
Hu? What do you mean with desktop level and private/home VPN on the network??
Maybe you should learn some basic terms, first?
In general you can run your own VPN server and connect to third-party VPN servers with your clients (like your mobil, tablet, etc).
Probably you could run your own VPN server on your desktop pc and use it at the same time as client to a different VPN server.
But why?
Sorry, so I’m trying to describe having ProtonVPN on my desktop for protection doing things like torrenting.
At the same time, I’m wondering about a VPN server on the home network that would let me access shared folders on that network remotely.
It sounds like the two are not mutually exclusive?
n through Estonia or whatever?