What can I do with no job and no VPS?
from atheqtpie@piefed.blahaj.zone to selfhosted@lemmy.world on 24 Mar 18:55
https://piefed.blahaj.zone/c/selfhosted/p/655174/what-can-i-do-with-no-job-and-no-vps

So we have an old computer lying around and I wanna put it to good use. It’s an Apple laptop from like 2016. I don’t have the money for a VPS as I have no job, I’ve had trouble with cards in the past, and I only have a few dollars on my gift cards. I was thinking I could use just the computer and have it run 24/7 despite being inefficient, potentially, but what about hosting it on my own network and the CSAM/weird content issues that I have to face?

#selfhosted

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neidu3@sh.itjust.works on 24 Mar 18:59 next collapse

Hosting does not attract CSAM on its own. Anonymous uploads do. Only host services that you find useful yourself, and maybe sharing it with friends, and that’s a reasonably safe start.

atheqtpie@piefed.blahaj.zone on 24 Mar 19:07 collapse

Tusen takk, kompis! I wanna run a Lemmy server, do you think I can still do it with just a bare computer and no VPS?

neidu3@sh.itjust.works on 24 Mar 19:12 next collapse

I don’t have experience with hosting lemmy specifically, but from what I hear it doesn’t require much other than being a bit RAM-hungry. Add some swap space, use the instance primarily for yourself, and you should be good.

atheqtpie@piefed.blahaj.zone on 24 Mar 20:06 collapse

Thanks!!!

Eirikr70@jlai.lu on 24 Mar 21:11 collapse

You can. But it will be easier if you have a static IP.

Decronym@lemmy.decronym.xyz on 24 Mar 21:20 next collapse

Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I’ve seen in this thread:

Fewer Letters More Letters
CSAM Child Sexual Abuse Material
IP Internet Protocol
VPS Virtual Private Server (opposed to shared hosting)

3 acronyms in this thread; the most compressed thread commented on today has 6 acronyms.

[Thread #190 for this comm, first seen 24th Mar 2026, 21:20] [FAQ] [Full list] [Contact] [Source code]

Nephalis@discuss.tchncs.de on 24 Mar 21:26 next collapse

Just start with what is available to you. But first sort your aims.

Do you wanna learn or do you want to simply have services available?

solrize@lemmy.ml on 25 Mar 00:52 next collapse

What is going on with you? Anyway, if you want to try self-hosting on a VPS, make an account on lowendspirit.com and hang out there for a while. There are lots of offers for free or ridiculously cheap VPS there. Like this starts at 25 cents per month ($3 per year):

lowendspirit.com/…/tierhive-256mb-ram-3gb-disk-3-…

Open a thread there saying what you’re trying to do, and ask for hosting and for technical help if you need that.

stratself@lemdro.id on 25 Mar 03:56 next collapse

  • Why do you want your own Lemmy instance? Can’t you just create a community on another instance?
  • May not be the answer you want, consider exposing your laptop’s service(s) via Cloudflare Tunnels. That’s the best way if you don’t have an exposable public IP.
  • Lemmy and other services will make outbound requests and leak your residential IP. If this is a problem for you, you should proxy outbound traffic on the machine
  • Have you considered Oracle but in another region? Or do they geo-restrict you?
  • For questionable content, look onto moderation tooling for Lemmy. Keep watch on your media folder(s) regularly and delete offensive ones
toad@sh.itjust.works on 25 Mar 16:32 collapse

It’s not that inneficient, but you still need a way to get a public IP. I know they are free services for it. Look at tailscale maybe?

atheqtpie@piefed.blahaj.zone on 25 Mar 18:07 collapse

Thanks! That’s what I’m using!