March 2024 - WLUG - wlug.mailman3.com

Meeting Tonight, March 14th 2024. Topic: "self hosting"

by Tim Keller

Time: 7pm. Date: March 14th 2024 Location: Technocopia 44 Portland St. Worcester MA. Virtual Location: hopefully hosted independently, but at https://meet.jit.si/WlugMA For now.. We are increasingly living in a world where our data isn't ours anymore. Everything is a service being hosted by some entity, subjected to the whims of that entity. Come to love some service? They're discontinuing it. Your data? They're using it to train some AI that you don't control. Functionality? Ever changing.. Costs? To change without warning and your data is now hostage. To that end.. What are people doing? What would people like to do? What options are out there? What's worked in the past and now doesn't? There's also SOAF "significant other acceptance factor" to consider.. If you own the data but it's so horrific to manage that it sends everybody around you fleeing back to some service, that's no good either. I expect this to be a pretty lively debate. As usual, we'll head out for dinner and continue the conversation. I'll have snacks and refreshments available. Thanks, Tim.

March 14, 2024

Re: ISPS limiting..was Re: Meeting next week! March 14th 2024!

by THE HAMMER

Tim, I could swear I read before, at least for residential services that Charter (now Spectrum) internet did NOT allow you to host a site which is why I have never tried to do it. I would guess that its all about the bandwidth dollars. Below is a link to their current TOS (terms of service) in case it is of interest: Ron https://www.spectrum.com/policies/internet-use-policy [https://www.spectrum.com/content/spectrum/residential/en/policies/internet-…]<https://www.spectrum.com/policies/internet-use-policy> Spectrum - Internet Use Policy<https://www.spectrum.com/policies/internet-use-policy> Learn about our Internet Use Policy for Spectrum Internet® and data subscription. www.spectrum.com ________________________________ From: Tim Keller via WLUG <wlug(a)lists.wlug.org> Sent: Thursday, March 14, 2024 6:34 AM To: John Stoffel <john(a)stoffel.org> Cc: Worcester Linux Users' Group General Discussion <wlug(a)lists.wlug.org>; Keith Wright <kwright(a)keithdiane.us>; Tim Keller <turbofx(a)gmail.com> Subject: [WLUG] Re: Meeting next week! March 14th 2024! I knew this topic would be of interest to people! As I'm writing this Gmail is yelling at me to buy more storage.. For me the "self" is the level of control I have over it. Lately ISP's have gone out of their way to make it very hard to host services on your own networks and expose them to the internet. Tim. On Wed, Mar 13, 2024, 3:47 PM John Stoffel <john(a)stoffel.org<mailto:john@stoffel.org>> wrote: >>>>> "Keith" == Keith Wright via WLUG <wlug(a)lists.wlug.org<mailto:wlug@lists.wlug.org>> writes: > Tim Keller via WLUG <wlug(a)lists.wlug.org<mailto:wlug@lists.wlug.org>> writes: >> >> We've got a meeting next week! > I hope to tune in via jit.si<http://jit.si> >> I think it's really worth talking about Self hosting. > I'm not quite sure what you mean by "Self". For twenty years I had a > DSL connection with a static routable IPv4 address. I had an intenet > host with Tandy Monitor that ran a name server, mail server, and web > server. That's all broken now because the ISP no longer does DSL. That's certainly a definite form of self hosting! When you run your own internet infrastructure (http, mail, ftp, ssh) that's you doing the work and keeping the control. > Instead I pay $10 month for a VPS (Virtual Private Server) from > AfterBurst, which comes with an IP address. Pretty much everything > that used to be in my basement is now in "the cloud". It's not > "Self" because its not my computer, but almost everything else is > the same. AfterBurst does not do anything, just let me use their > computer to do it myself. I do this too with a Linode Droplet ($5/mo) but I'm thinking I should upgrade to something with more CPU and Memory so I can run some better anti-spam tools. > The main problem I am dealing with now is that the internal (in home) > network is notwork. I have been keeping notes and put them here: That sucks! > http://www.free-comp-shop.com/none/ipv6.html > I am trying to use IPv6, which I have never done before. If anybody > has any suggestions... I've tried as well in the past, with the big issue for me being getting from IPv6 internally to a (mostly) IPv4 network outside. I think IPv6 probably works better as a gateway to your home, since you can then assign multiple distinct IPs to your own block of 64 (or whatever the count it) of internal IPs and make them visible to the outside. So it removes NATing and such. But IPv6 just is a pain to do. I keep reading that Charter/Spectrum offers IPv6 IPs, but I haven't made the leap. Still working on my wireguard setup, which has falled to the side lately. [https://s-install.avcdn.net/ipm/preview/icons/icon-envelope-tick-green-avg-…]<http://www.avg.com/email-signature?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_cam…> Virus-free.www.avg.com<http://www.avg.com/email-signature?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_cam…>

March 14, 2024

Re: Meeting next week! March 14th 2024!

by Tim Keller

I knew this topic would be of interest to people! As I'm writing this Gmail is yelling at me to buy more storage.. For me the "self" is the level of control I have over it. Lately ISP's have gone out of their way to make it very hard to host services on your own networks and expose them to the internet. Tim. On Wed, Mar 13, 2024, 3:47 PM John Stoffel <john(a)stoffel.org> wrote: > >>>>> "Keith" == Keith Wright via WLUG <wlug(a)lists.wlug.org> writes: > > > Tim Keller via WLUG <wlug(a)lists.wlug.org> writes: > >> > >> We've got a meeting next week! > > > I hope to tune in via jit.si > > >> I think it's really worth talking about Self hosting. > > > I'm not quite sure what you mean by "Self". For twenty years I had a > > DSL connection with a static routable IPv4 address. I had an intenet > > host with Tandy Monitor that ran a name server, mail server, and web > > server. That's all broken now because the ISP no longer does DSL. > > That's certainly a definite form of self hosting! When you run your > own internet infrastructure (http, mail, ftp, ssh) that's you doing > the work and keeping the control. > > > Instead I pay $10 month for a VPS (Virtual Private Server) from > > AfterBurst, which comes with an IP address. Pretty much everything > > that used to be in my basement is now in "the cloud". It's not > > "Self" because its not my computer, but almost everything else is > > the same. AfterBurst does not do anything, just let me use their > > computer to do it myself. > > I do this too with a Linode Droplet ($5/mo) but I'm thinking I should > upgrade to something with more CPU and Memory so I can run some better > anti-spam tools. > > > The main problem I am dealing with now is that the internal (in home) > > network is notwork. I have been keeping notes and put them here: > > That sucks! > > > http://www.free-comp-shop.com/none/ipv6.html > > > I am trying to use IPv6, which I have never done before. If anybody > > has any suggestions... > > I've tried as well in the past, with the big issue for me being > getting from IPv6 internally to a (mostly) IPv4 network outside. I > think IPv6 probably works better as a gateway to your home, since you > can then assign multiple distinct IPs to your own block of 64 (or > whatever the count it) of internal IPs and make them visible to the > outside. So it removes NATing and such. > > But IPv6 just is a pain to do. I keep reading that Charter/Spectrum > offers IPv6 IPs, but I haven't made the leap. Still working on my > wireguard setup, which has falled to the side lately. > >

March 14, 2024

Re: Meeting next week! March 14th 2024!

by John Stoffel

>>>>> "Keith" == Keith Wright via WLUG <wlug(a)lists.wlug.org> writes: > Tim Keller via WLUG <wlug(a)lists.wlug.org> writes: >> >> We've got a meeting next week! > I hope to tune in via jit.si >> I think it's really worth talking about Self hosting. > I'm not quite sure what you mean by "Self". For twenty years I had a > DSL connection with a static routable IPv4 address. I had an intenet > host with Tandy Monitor that ran a name server, mail server, and web > server. That's all broken now because the ISP no longer does DSL. That's certainly a definite form of self hosting! When you run your own internet infrastructure (http, mail, ftp, ssh) that's you doing the work and keeping the control. > Instead I pay $10 month for a VPS (Virtual Private Server) from > AfterBurst, which comes with an IP address. Pretty much everything > that used to be in my basement is now in "the cloud". It's not > "Self" because its not my computer, but almost everything else is > the same. AfterBurst does not do anything, just let me use their > computer to do it myself. I do this too with a Linode Droplet ($5/mo) but I'm thinking I should upgrade to something with more CPU and Memory so I can run some better anti-spam tools. > The main problem I am dealing with now is that the internal (in home) > network is notwork. I have been keeping notes and put them here: That sucks! > http://www.free-comp-shop.com/none/ipv6.html > I am trying to use IPv6, which I have never done before. If anybody > has any suggestions... I've tried as well in the past, with the big issue for me being getting from IPv6 internally to a (mostly) IPv4 network outside. I think IPv6 probably works better as a gateway to your home, since you can then assign multiple distinct IPs to your own block of 64 (or whatever the count it) of internal IPs and make them visible to the outside. So it removes NATing and such. But IPv6 just is a pain to do. I keep reading that Charter/Spectrum offers IPv6 IPs, but I haven't made the leap. Still working on my wireguard setup, which has falled to the side lately.

March 13, 2024

Re: Meeting next week! March 14th 2024!

by THE HAMMER

I am very interested in this topic. Hoping I will make it to the meet. If not hope I can at least connect on line. cheers Ron ________________________________ From: Tim Keller via WLUG <wlug(a)lists.wlug.org> Sent: Friday, March 8, 2024 5:03 PM To: Worcester Linux Users' Group General Discussion <wlug(a)lists.wlug.org> Cc: Tim Keller <turbofx(a)gmail.com> Subject: [WLUG] Meeting next week! March 14th 2024! Hey Everybody! We've got a meeting next week! I think it's really worth talking about Self hosting. It's come up a couple of times, I think it's worth talking about what the options are, what they might cost and what can be hosted both using on prem hardware and your own cloud instances, options for networking, etc. I'd like people's ideas, caveats, etc. What have people hosted? Plex, etc. Thanks, Tim. -- I am leery of the allegiances of any politician who refers to their constituents as "consumers".

March 13, 2024

fun crashing and burning in Google Earth Pro's Flight Simulator

by Doug Mildram

Hey all (from doug in the boonies, retired = too much time on my hands) Brief my-nonexistent-skills-history: I've avoided fun/gaming on computers/screens forever. Well, ~ 1997 I bought a joystick and a couple windows games. Lost the joystick, but probably wouldn't help me in flight...? I did better with the 1990's era MS Excel97? magic escape to flight simulator that easily flew me on the moon, to a monolith. Fast forward to now. While looking for my town's GIS tax maps, (which I never found, just PDF's w/ lot lines, no owner names, no tax $info. Every town is different.) Then, under clueless town "Tax Maps" webpage, I found this note: *Please note*: Parcel boundaries are intended to be used for the purpose of property assessment and should not be considered survey accurate. You will need to have Google Earth <http://earth.google.com/> installed to view this data. For help using Google Earth go to the Help Center..... and forget all about tax maps ( I added that here-doug) doug> I got Earth help, yes! I have no joystick, so keyboard and mouse. Pardon doublespacing below. Some copy/paste's do odd things for my gmail edits (now I'm in tiny font in a battle to un-do the big effect of the above paste :) Stumbled into install cmds for google EARTH PRO (free), worked on Linux Mint20. 1) wget https://dl.google.com/dl/earth/client/current/google-earth-pro-stable_curre… (result: GOT a 58mb file named google-earth-pro-stable_current_amd64.deb) 2) sudo dpkg -i google-earth-pro-stable_current_amd64.deb (output: Preparing to unpack google-earth-pro-stable_current_amd64.deb ... Unpacking google-earth-pro-stable (7.3.6.9796-r0) ... Setting up google-earth-pro-stable (7.3.6.9796-r0) ... Processing triggers for man-db (2.9.1-1) ... Processing triggers for desktop-file-utils (0.24+linuxmint1) ... Processing triggers for mime-support (3.64ubuntu1) ... (DONE). LAUNCH TO OUTER SPACE: 3) $ google-earth-pro If you see a few continents from space, good but here's the fun: ========First zoom to somewhere you know, use upper LH Search, enter your address or fun place. Adjust eyes, or ignore briefly, fuzzy view of map,streets,trees,whatever. The fuzziness disappears or changes, if you enter Flight Simulator from here. ==== PULL DOWN MENU for "Tools" has "Enter Flight Simulator". Choose the slower plane, not the F-16 jet if you suck like I do. The mouse now flies the plane. I want to skim over my hood. I use my four arrow keys , mouse-moves work too but I flip out. I know I'm missing some kind of flight/plane control, should RTFM. I thought Flaps controlled pitch/up/down, but my Flaps stay at 40% and I crash in hilarious various mistakes every minute or so. What fun! Resume Flight brings all control back so off you go to die again.... I'll try to shut up now and find out if any of you already mastered? this. Lots cheaper than a drone! Fast, Cheap, Good.... all 3? --doug

March 13, 2024

Re: Meeting next week! March 14th 2024!

by Keith Wright

Tim Keller via WLUG <wlug(a)lists.wlug.org> writes: > > We've got a meeting next week! I hope to tune in via jit.si > I think it's really worth talking about Self hosting. I'm not quite sure what you mean by "Self". For twenty years I had a DSL connection with a static routable IPv4 address. I had an intenet host with Tandy Monitor that ran a name server, mail server, and web server. That's all broken now because the ISP no longer does DSL. Instead I pay $10 month for a VPS (Virtual Private Server) from AfterBurst, which comes with an IP address. Pretty much everything that used to be in my basement is now in "the cloud". It's not "Self" because its not my computer, but almost everything else is the same. AfterBurst does not do anything, just let me use their computer to do it myself. The main problem I am dealing with now is that the internal (in home) network is notwork. I have been keeping notes and put them here: http://www.free-comp-shop.com/none/ipv6.html I am trying to use IPv6, which I have never done before. If anybody has any suggestions... -- Keith

March 12, 2024

Meeting next week! March 14th 2024!

by Tim Keller

Hey Everybody! We've got a meeting next week! I think it's really worth talking about Self hosting. It's come up a couple of times, I think it's worth talking about what the options are, what they might cost and what can be hosted both using on prem hardware and your own cloud instances, options for networking, etc. I'd like people's ideas, caveats, etc. What have people hosted? Plex, etc. Thanks, Tim. -- I am leery of the allegiances of any politician who refers to their constituents as "consumers".

March 8, 2024