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!

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?

While this program doesn’t relate to my situation, I did just move to the Boston area, and know first hand how shitty the rental market is here. I’m not even talking about the overall monthly rents you need to fork over (which is insane), I’m talking about brokers fees when signing a lease. It seems like 90% of the places for rent require first + last months rent, security deposit, AND a brokers fee equaling one months rent. Sure, you can use a broker yourself, so it would make sense that you would pay them for their services, but the landlords are the ones using them, and passing the fees on to the renter.

Coming from the western US, this was shocking. No wonder so many people are at risk of losing their housing - they can’t even afford to move to a better situation.