Shortcake

i use duplicati to back up configs and data for docker containers to 2 cloud services. my 8 TB server is almost maxed. i need funds to buy a backup for that and expand.

I know synology (and others probably) have an app where you can back up your data to your friends NAS and vice versa, but that’s taking up their storage too and cost for HDD/SSD may be prohibitive

idk how much you know about docker, but that’s how i have everything set up. i use sonarr with prowlarr (indexer) and a torrent downloader. the only thing the isp will care about is downloads so put torrent-dl behind vpn like nord. i use gluetun to do that, but there are other ways too. at the end i use plex because i like the apps ecosystem with music player, but a pass costs like $100 for life. otherwise check out FOSS jellyfin, many users like that.

these apps all have git repos and websites to explain their uses, you’ll be fine with your background. if you haven’t used docker, i recommend it, but its not required for anything, especially on windows

This is where the beauty of sonarr comes in

You should check out pairdrop too.
Same underlying software with some great enhancements for security
Here is their Github

For komga you can and it and enter your komga domain, username and password for access.
I personally use FMD2 to scrape manga chapters

Komga is very stable and about to hit v1.0. it and Kavita have different structure for organization (komga’s being 1 folder is 1 series and kavita’s is some folder and some metadata). Komga is focus on comics and manga and has a great web reader with fantastic integration with tachiyomi and tracking manga/comic progress that sounds to their site and tachiyomi. Kavita has a few features komga does not, such as the ability to read ebooks, send then to Kindle, kobo, and others. They do seem to have more updates but are also still beta now. Both are great but have their strong suits.

Seconded Kavita for an ebook reader. Both it and komga do manga and comics very well, but Komga does not do ebooks

Old laptop or PC. I use an intel NUC for mine. Hosting 30 docker containers

There was a post recently about this. It was called revolt

Nextcloud owncloud and some others. It looks like homechart and Baikal are options too. I don’t know much about them though

i use strong passwords and cloudflare tunnels with zero trust. if a site has an option to run without needing https, i use wireguard or tailscale

Best advice is not to expose it publicly.
If you need access outside your LAN try using a VPN to your network with wireguard (wg-easy is nice) or tailscale (there are others as well).

If it’s using a domain/subdomain make sure you use secure usernames and passwords, or things like authentik, authelia and the like to buff up security.

i’d switch to jellyfin if plex wasn’t so polished. i ran into so many issues with jellyfin but plex just worked, even downloads haven’t been an issue for me. im sure jellyfin will improve, but I think it needs more time. Plex also has more client apps available.

i love the idea of more FOSS where i dont need to hit someone elses server to log in so here’s hoping!

check out wormhole and some selfhosted options like pairdrop

agreed. just got my family to join my instance and add their photos so we can make albums. I ran into issues uploading photos initially, but i guess 8000 photos/videos would tax any system