#sysadmins #mastoadmin #mastoadmins #selfhosting questions re: DNS...

Has anyone hosting their own instance seen a massive increase in DNS queries to their domain.

I don’t host my own DNS, and my DNS provider can’t give me logs of requests, so I can’t even check which subdomain it might relate to.

I’m not sure what I could do to avoid it – the overage is not a large amount of money, but it’s recurrent and annoying, and started when I started this instance.

I changed the TTL to 2 weeks and it didn’t make a difference.

I’m not sure what else to check.

Can anyone recommend a DNS provider I could use temporarily that I could get logs from?

I don’t want domain hosting or web hosting, or masto hosting.

Thanks!

like/favorite if this appears in your feed please :)

#selfhosting #snac2 #openbsd

Last minute call to join Tunnel, starting in a few days. For those of you interested in learning about #selfhosting, with a focus on network and server security, this your ideal strong start. No prior experience necessary, no comp-sci degree needed.

Best of all, you get to walk out with your very own fast and powerful Virtual Private Network, for which dozens of configs can be handed out as QR codes to give to fam, friends and colleagues.

https://courses.nikau.io/tunnel

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Title image for Tunnel, featuring that text in caps against a duo-tone image of a medieval brick tunnel system

Since my home server not intended for use by any people outside of my city (plus some VPN endpoints in other countries) — it is ok to ban some unwanted countries and cities from which I don't expect anything good, except attempts to hack my box to use my resources or set me up .

So I added some GeoIP blocking to the npf with script to update GeoIP list — I blocked China, Iran, North Korea, etc and Moscow (because there are a lot of government and commercial backed bots coming from here). Results are good — the bots don't disappeared completely but the speed of adding new IPs to the blacklist is decreased

Sadly, I was unable to add USA and UK to the list, because looks like there are some limits (not found how to increase them ), which disallows to load a lot of CIDRs for these countries to the blacklist.

#NetBSD #npf #bots #selfhosting

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Graph of the count of banned IPs per week. There are two red tangents on the two points — before and after the GeoIP bans were enabled. And the two red lines, parallel to the X axis. The resulting derivatives are 0.59 and 0.38, so the speed of raising the values (count of blocked bots) are decreased.

Alt...

Part of the script to update npf blacklists. Script contents: # List of blocked countries: # AE - United Arab Emirates # AF - Afganistan # BY - Belarus # CN - China # CU - Cuba # HK - Hong Kong # HU - Hungary # IR - Iran # KP - North Korea # KW - Kuwait # PK - Pakistan # PS - Palestine # TW - Taiwan # UA - Ukraine /usr/pkg/bin/curl --connect-timeout 30 --fail --interface re0 --ipv4 --silent \ --retry 3 --retry-connrefused --retry-delay 5 --retry-max-time 90 \ --show-error --proxy http://127.0.0.1:20172 \ -o - "$GEOIP_COUNTRIES_SOURCE" | \ /usr/bin/egrep '^[0-9.,]+((AE)|(AF)|(BY)|(CN)|(CU)|(HK)|(HU)|(IR)|(KP)|(KW)|(PK)|(PS)|(TW)|(UA))$' | \ /usr/bin/awk -F, '{ print $1, "-", $2 }' | \ /usr/pkg/bin/iprange > /usr/share/npf/blacklist.countries.new if [ "$?" -ne "0" ]; then echo "Failed to update countries blacklist" rm -f /usr/share/npf/blacklist.netset.new \ /usr/share/npf/blacklist.countries.new exit 3 fi # List of blocked cities: # Moscow /usr/pkg/bin/curl --connect-timeout 30 --fail --interface re0 --ipv4 --silent \ --retry 3 --retry-connrefused --retry-delay 5 --retry-max-time 90 \ --show-error --proxy http://127.0.0.1:20172 \ -o - "$GEOIP_CITIES_SOURCE" | \ gzip -d | \

#snac is a pretty cool #fediverse #activitypub server software!

Super lightweight, no database, easy to set-up.

I will not replace my main #mastodon instance with it, but i really have some other use cases for it, for example some bots or so.

And from what I saw, the code also is pretty nice to learn things from it. (me, a c programming noob)

Edit: Totally dumb of me to NOT post the Git repo in the first place 🤦‍♂️
https://codeberg.org/grunfink/snac2

#foss #lightweigt #c #server #selfhosting

Don't mind me. I'm just using Instagram to backup my NAS.

https://github.com/depreciating/InstaCloud/

#SelfHosting

Hello #fediverse! Thanks to my new DFF grant, I'm now looking to hire a PhD student to join me at AAU in Aalborg 🇩🇰 to work on "usable decentralization", i.e. on making distributed and federated cloud services accessible to the everyday user. For more details, see link below, and please don't hesitate to DM me with questions!

https://www.vacancies.aau.dk/phd-positions/show-vacancy/vacancyId/895183

#HCI #academia #getfedihired #decentralization #AAU #Aalborg #Denmark #selfhosted #selfhosting

Ich brauche eure #followerpower, wieder mal.
Morgen bietet jemand im Rahmen des DI-Day 2 eine Online Session an zum Thema Nextcloud Selfhosting. Diese findet am 1.2.2026 ab 18:00Uhr statt.
Ich habe mir leider weder den Veranstalter noch den Link zur Session notiert. Würde aber gerne teilnehmen.
Wer kann mir helfen und sagen wer das anbietet?

#fedihelp #nextcloud #selfhosting #didday #did

If you’d like to test it without compiling and building your own image, the ready-made ones I keep for my own setup are always available at https://codeberg.org/daltux/-/packages/container/snac/versions

#selfHosting #fediAdmin #FreeSoftware

Just published a deep dive on self-hosting CryptPad on FreeBSD using VNET jails, PF NAT, and Caddy.

End-to-end encrypted collaboration, fully isolated networking, no direct internet exposure for the app jail, and a few real-world gotchas (including the infamous “Loading…” issue).

If you like FreeBSD, jails, and privacy-first self-hosting, this one’s for you.

https://blog.hofstede.it/self-hosted-cryptpad-on-freebsd-with-vnet-jails-and-caddy/

#FreeBSD #SelfHosting #Privacy #Jails #CryptPad

It seems there are fully hosted and self-hosted options for ATProto/Bluesky now, I stand corrected on that front.

Out of curiosity I looked into what it would take to build my own social media service on top of ATProto. The technical architecture is interesting, but... what would I actually gain?

I chose Mastodon back in 2022 when Bluesky was still invite-only and had no self-hosting story. ActivityPub is a W3C standard. Mastodon gGmbH is a non-profit. The Fediverse has years of proven independent operation across thousands of instances.

Bluesky PBC is a US for-profit company that controls protocol development, although they have made statements about wanting independent governance. Yet the network remains heavily centralized with most users on bsky.social.

Running my own Mastodon instance already gives me sovereignty. ATProto doesn't offer more of that, arguably less given the current state of things. Not saying people shouldn't build on it. But for someone already running independent Fediverse infrastructure, it's hard to see what value it would add. I didn't see the appeal back then and I don't see it now.

#Bluesky #ATProto #Decentralization #SelfHosting #SelfHosted

I self-host my own e-mail servers for ~25 years now. Just finished he migration to a new system today.

- OS: FreeBSD 15.0-RELEASE
- MTA: Postfix 3.10
- IMAP: Dovecot 2.3
- Filter: Rspamd 3.14

I used Imapsync to migrate the content of my Mailboxes from the old to the new system. Worked absolutely fine.

Having the E-Mail Jail and the mailbox data on an encrypted ZFS dataset (AES256) that's manually unlocked with my passphrase after rebooting the system. Backups are done via ZFS send/recv to by backup server (-w for raw send to ensure, data is encrypted at rest)

- SPF: ✅
- DKIM Signing: ✅
- DMARC Reporting: ✅
- E-Mail delivery to major providers: ✅
- IPv6 working and actually being used: ✅

All working perfectly well. In about a week, I'll decomission the old Debian based system, that I used since 2017!

#linux #freebsd #sysadmin #selfhosting #email #postfix

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Console output, showing FreeBSD Jails, running E-Mail related services.

New blogpost:

"Testing Radicale, a self-hosted FOSS CalDAV and CardDAV Server"

Setting it up was easy.

Importing my calendar appointments history was not.

It doesn't have calendar sharing, and I'm on the fence as to whether this will be a deal breaker.

https://neilzone.co.uk/2026/01/testing-radicale-a-self-hosted-foss-caldav-and-carddav-server/

#FOSS #selfhosting #Linux #Radicale

Any recommandation for a static website generator tailored for #photography ? #selfhosting

I've been wondering about Bluesky's decentralization again. I can't think of any reason why I'd want to self-host Bluesky in its current form. I cannot 100% self host "my own Bluesky".

Their main selling points for building their own protocol were easier migration and better discoverability, but right now there's no simple way to migrate my Bluesky account to my own instance. And hosting the centralized parts yourself isn't really possible, or if it were, not affordable, they haven't made that feasible, by design, it seems.

Even if you self-host a PDS, Bluesky's Relay only indexes up to 10 accounts from it. You can run more, but they won't federate, the central infrastructure decides what gets seen. They control this (source: https://docs.bsky.app/blog/self-host-federation#:~:text=For%20a%20smooth%20transition%20into,for%20everyone%20in%20the%20ecosystem.). You can self-host a PDS (Personal Data Server), but you still depend on Bluesky's centralized Relay and AppView. There's no production-ready alternative infrastructure from what I gather.

It feels like I'd be renting a room in a hotel that someone else is running anyway, when I want my own hotel.

If Mastodon gGmbH vanishes tomorrow, my instance keeps running and federating with everyone else. If Bluesky PBC vanishes, the ecosystem would need to scramble to stand up replacement infrastructure that doesn't really exist yet.

ATProto keeps getting evaluated on its promises while other systems get evaluated on their merits. The "portability" selling point depends on infrastructure that isn't mature enough to actually catch you if Bluesky falls.

I trust W3C, the builders and fathers of the World Wide Web, ActivityPub and the Fediverse.

#Decentralization #SelfHosting #SelfHosted #Mastodon #Fediverse #Bluesky #Servers

@eff That's encouragement to get into self-hosting if anyone needed the bump.

#selfhosting

New post:

"A newbie's guide to self-hosting with YunoHost. Part 3: Let’s install NextCloud"

🔗 : https://blog.elenarossini.com/a-newbies-guide-to-self-hosting-with-yunohost-part-3-lets-install-nextcloud/

And sorry for repeating myself, but the path to digital independence and empowerment is easier than you thought.

My self-hosted #NextCloud has fully replaced WeTransfer, Google Drive and Dropbox for me... and it's only the tip of the iceberg.

I hope this visual guide will help fellow newbies.

#SelfHosting #YunoHost #MySoCalledSudoLife #FOSS #blog #resist

@vkc It's probably worth distinguishing between services to better scope the project, especially since various projects will require varying levels of public exposure and various kinds of resources.

I'd recommend starting people off with building their own firewall so they're less at risk from their own ISPs. This will be really good practice for setting up complex services like email.

#selfhosting

Running Mastodon on FreeBSD? Stop using wrapper scripts that break service status.

I've refactored the init scripts for Sidekiq, Puma, and Streaming to be fully production-grade:

- Clean privilege dropping (no su wrappers)
- Native signal handling for log rotation
- Correct PID tracking & status reporting.

I published the scripts and the reasoning behind them in my Codeberg gists:

https://codeberg.org/Larvitz/gists/src/branch/main/2026/20250115-FreeBSD_Mastodon_rc.d.md

I use those to run a Mastodon instance and they're working great so far!

❤️ 🦣

#FreeBSD #Mastodon #SelfHosting #mastoadmin #runbsd #OpenSource

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Screenshot showing the service status of several Mastodon services on FreeBSD

Jeff Bezos is saying the quiet part out loud. They want to kill local computing.

You will own nothing and be happy. You will rent your computing power from the cloud. You pay a subscription for the privilege of using a computer.

AI demand is artificially spiking DRAM prices and Big Tech is pushing "AI PCs," the squeeze is on to force us into a rental model.

Reject this future.

Keep your hardware local.

Run #Linux.

Own your data.

The "cloud" is just a landlord for your data.

#NoAi #FOSS #OpenSource #Privacy #SelfHost #SelfHosting #BigTech #RightToRepair #RAM #Amazon #EatTheRich

https://www.windowscentral.com/artificial-intelligence/jeff-bezos-says-the-quiet-part-out-loud-bezos-envisions-that-youll-give-up-your-pc-for-an-ai-cloud-version

Now pondering: email feudalism

#SelfHosting #EMail #lang_en

I'm getting back into #selfhosting after 20-odd years off. I keep looking at containers and kubernetes and cloud-init and feeling like they don't offer a whole lot over just writing a couple of bash scripts to provision a server (just one with everything on it) from scratch. Does anyone have anything lightweight they like for hosting a web app?

#devops

Finally (2), I have some good enough DHCP server!

Tried kea from ISC — it works but requires some additional actions to be launched under #NetBSD. It has very strange default paths for file with leases, PIDs and logs:
- /usr/pkg/var/lib/kea/
- /usr/pkg/var/lib/run/kea
- /usr/pkg/var/log/kea

BTW, it could be changed via playing with some environment variables.

Also, the default startup script uses keactrl to launch DHCP server and keactrl requires some configuration for it. So, to use "service kea start" there are two configuration files are necessary:
- /usr/pkg/etc/keactrl.conf — the main configuration file for server.
- /usr/pkg/etc/kea/keactrl.con — the configuration file for keactrl.

Then, I tried the dhcpsd — the new promising successor of ISC dhcpd, which could be configured with configuration file in Lua and conforms Unix FHS — all necessary files lies in the right places: /var/run, /var/log, etc. Sadly, it doesn't work: server starts but there are no leases for clients and no any errors in the log :-(

Then, I found cmu-dhcpd in the repos — there is a dhcpd from Carnegie Mellon University with some patches from Princeton. And, finally it works! And it also conforms Unix FHS: main configuration in the /etc/dhcpd.conf, PID-file in the /var/run/dhcpd.pid and logs in the /var/log/messages

#selfhosting #dhcp #DHCPv4 #dhcpd

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Screenshot of xterm with vi opened in it. In the vi there is a /etc/dhcpd.conf opened with some simple configuration for plain home network.

My #Mastodon instance is going to be moved from #Hetzner to this beaty ^_^

#HomeLab #SelfHost #SelfHosted #SelfHosting #MiniPC #JetKVM

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An Asus mini PC with JetKVM connected to it

#introduction ― I decided to create an alt account here to allow me
to connect more easily with SDF community.

My primary focus will be on tech-related things I like:
#pkgsrc on #netbsd #illumos and #slackware
#unix #sdf #gopher #smolnet #usenet #dos #c #lisp
#selfhosting #homeserver #permacomputing #lowtech
#hamradio #progrock #progmetal #ambient #postrock
#90s #scifi #cyberpunk #novels #seinen #manga

Documented my home-lab setup going into 2026:

https://danb.me/blog/2026-homelab/

#homelab #selfhosting

Glad to share the details for our Q1 2026 live training series, including that of Cloudbreak, a new course in #selfhosting geared toward those with no prior relevant skills.

As with 2025, seats are limited to ensure quality coaching with great outcomes for participants.

https://courses.nikau.io/currently-available-courses

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A screenshot of the referenced website.

Commitin programming crimes }:->

Few weeks ago I seriously looked to the mine OpenHAB installation and asked a question for myself: "Am I really need it?" Look, I have a few ZigBee devices, which are connected to the my server with the help of ZigBee2MQTT. Thusly, all necessary values and knobs are accessible through the MQTT topics.

And I'm using the OpenHAB (big Java application which eats ton's of RAM and constantly swapping) just to:
1) Read values from MQTT topic
2) Read weather forecast from Open-Meteo through simple REST API endpoints
3) Store all the data to the PostgreSQL DB.
4) Display these data in the nice Web page which works only in browsers with JS engine.

So, basically, I trade tons of RAM and processing power just for a nice web-page with few indicators. While retrieving data from my ZigBee devices processed by the another service.

After that thought, I started to think about replacing this monster with small hand-written program, which will not eat 700 MB of RAM. Just Nginx, small FastCGI script on C, which will read values from DB and display them on the simple HTML page. And another small daemon (also written in C) which will take data from MQTT topic (and from REST API of Open-Meteo) and will write them to the DB. And possibly some PGSQL procedures to analyze these data.

At least I'll have fun

#programming #C #smarthome #selfhosting

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Emacs buffer with some C code, which spews out the string with HTML, with substituted values for temperature and humidity.

Today's #FreeSoftwareAdvent is paperless-ngx, a key part of keeping us, well, paperless.

It is a document management tool, but I use it in a very basic way: it is hooked up to our scanner, and anything we scan gets automatically converted to PDF and OCRd. We then shred the paper. I try to scan, and shred, everything on the day that it arrives.

It is particularly useful around tax return time, as it means I can easily get the information I need from stuff which people have posted to us.

https://github.com/paperless-ngx/paperless-ngx

#FOSS #SelfHosting #Paperless

🎄 Advent of Donations - Day 16 🎄

On day 16 we have another pic from the tool stack I use in my home lab: Restic the free and open source backup solution. I use it to create incremental backup and store them in my self-hosted minIO instances. It's again one of those tool that just does its job without getting in your way.

Learn more about Advent of Donations and Restic in my latest blog update: https://britter.dev/blog/2025/12/01/advent-of-donations/#day-16---restic

#AdventOfDonations #restic #backup #HomeLab #SelfHosting

RE: https://mastodon.bsd.cafe/@Larvitz/115678438984350657

FreeBSD 15.0-p1 fixed the bhyve regression, I've had 🙂 Home-server now running stable on the new release

YAY!

root@voyager:~ # freebsd-version -kru
15.0-RELEASE
15.0-RELEASE
15.0-RELEASE-p1

root@voyager:~ # uptime
10:14PM up 58 mins, 2 users, load averages: 1.27, 1.44, 1.22

#freebsd #freebsd15 #selfhosting

New post:

"A newbie's guide to self-hosting with #YunoHost. Part 2: installation & setup"

🔗 : https://blog.elenarossini.com/a-newbies-guide-to-self-hosting-with-yunohost-part-2-installation-setup/

with a special shout-out to @shollyethan and @ilja who, a year ago, encouraged me to try self-hosting. And of course immense gratitude to the @yunohost team for making all this possible ❤️

I hope this guide may inspire others to try it, too. The path to digital independence and empowerment is easier than you thought...

#selfhosting #FOSS #empowerment