lemmy - Link to source

Is there anyone that would be interest in doing a video call with me to show me how all this cloudflare/nginx/authentication works? I can pay

Hello everyone

Last week I bought a domain with the intention of connecting it to my NAS so I can access my apps over the internet without tailscale (plus give access to a few family members on jellyfin). I did it through clourflare.

I was very naïve but I had no ideal of the sheer amount of learning it would require to achieve the things I'm looking to do (just basic access with some additional authentication). So far I've managed to publish my immich server (behind a authentication screen) but largely still very confused about how its actually working. And very confused about setting up external auth and using reverse proxy. Honestly feeling quite defeated.

I've posted here in the selfhosted Lemmy and you guys have been really helpful but I think I could really benefit from someone showing me and explaining how it works. I have already learnt a lot from last week but the more I learn the more questions I have.

I've taught myself home networking, I knew nothing about it before I built a NAS, but with this I just want to be sure I'm doing it right.

I can pay you. Not heaps but hopefully enough for 20-30 minutes of your time. Not trying to rip anyone off here haha

Thanks for all your continued advice on this

#selfhosted
in reply to philanthropicoctopus
lemmy - Link to source

MuttMutt

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What are you using as a router? How are you you trying to setup a reverse proxy?

I will be honest, I would do it for free. Money is nice but helping people is more important to me than that. However my understanding is with OpnSense and using Caddy for reverse proxy with the ACME client for Let's Encrypt certificates. Beyond that I am outside of my element.

in reply to MuttMutt
lemmy - Link to source

philanthropicoctopus

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Hey

That's very kind of you but it'd be nice to give you something.

What I've got installed in NPM, cloudflared and authentik. Just trying to figure out how to use all three or at least 2 to get my apps on the domain. Ive been able to get things moving in the cloudflare dash but I'm aware I don't know alot about what on doing

in reply to philanthropicoctopus
lemmy - Link to source

node815

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If you are using Authentik, it will work good, but may be uneccessary if all you want is secure authentication, this is becuase Cloudflare does a "Zero Trust" model in which only approved email addresses, would be able to acess your site which you have to manually approve, otherwise, they get hit with the Cloudflare wall. This is completely free and voluntary!

In terms of Cloudflare, I assume that you have your domain all set up with the DNS servers pointed to Cloudflare from your domain registrar. This is probably the hardest part of it all. Then, it's just a matter of setting up your redirection to your server. I used to use them but haven't been in it for about a year now for my domains. They are a good company and will certainly help with your site's security.

Nginx Proxy Manager is like the reception desk for all traffic, when WWW comes in and asks for site.example.com NPM sees that and matches it up with the IP address/port of your server and sends it on it's merry way. If you are using Cloudflare Tunnels, and after you install their tunnel adaptor, you can skip NPM and just point to the IP and internal port on your server. Pretty straight forward in that area. They have great documentation on how to do this to get you started.

Basically, if you use Cloudflare tunnels, you can skip NPM and free up some resources if you want as it will be redundant. So, then Authentik comes in and can act as a traffic cop and protect all types of pages, ones with log in and those without.

in reply to philanthropicoctopus
lemmy - Link to source

ampersandrew

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Oof, I feel you OP. I started down this road back in February, and I thought I'd be set up by now, but I'm still learning some of the pieces for a project that's almost exactly the same as yours. If it's any consolation, I have made a ton of progress. The hardest part can often be when you've chosen the pieces you want to use for your project, and then a kind stranger who means well adds extra complexity above and beyond what you want or need on top of their suggestion.
in reply to artyom
piefed - Link to source

pmk

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This has been my experience with self-hosting too. There are so many different areas of concepts that need to form a cohesive whole. Following a how-to and pasting some commands can lead to something running, but then there are worlds of knowledge to actually understand it. Especially when complexity seems to increase exponentially.
Funny thing is that for every low-level concept I actually learn, the more I appreciate my OpenBSD computer that I mostly play around with otherwise.
in reply to artyom
friendica (DFRN) - Link to source

ItzGigglez

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I think part of it is that it *is* easy.... when you're working on your own setup, that you built, and know all the components of, and know all the long term goals of, that was built over years piece-at-a-time...

Get anyone who acts like it's easy to work on someone's setup that isn't their own, and they'll quickly remember how complicated it all is.

1 reshare 4 likes 1 dislike
in reply to ItzGigglez
lemmy - Link to source

irmadlad

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Get anyone who acts like it’s easy to work on someone’s setup that isn’t their own, and they’ll quickly remember how complicated it all is.


I would agree with this and the sentiments above. If I am on my system, I know how I have it set up. I can reference pages of notes if I do forget how I did something. I am more familiar with my server and services. When it comes to someone else's set up, I can tell you how I did it, and that it works for me. You've got to kind of adapt it to your scenario. I can understand how that would be frustrating for someone starting out, as with Linux, there seems to be a thousand ways to do one thing.

in reply to artyom
piefed - Link to source

iamthetot

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When I was starting out with selfhosting and stuff, I had tons of issues with networking, reverse proxies, etc. And much of the advice here was not... particularly helpful. I genuinely don't think most people here understand how much they know, and how much comes across as gibberish when they speak to a true newbie. I still see it in this forum all the time for new people. Just the other day someone described themselves as a total newbie, nothing more than Jellyfin running on a Mac locally, and a comment I saw suggested their next step should be running proxmox and setting up VMs and this that and the other service. Like... that's not a good next step.
in reply to iamthetot
lemmy - Link to source

ampersandrew

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When I was given a similar suggestion, I asked why I would need proxmox for my project, and I was told something along the lines of, "Don't discount their usefulness if you're trying to do this as a career." I am not trying to do this as a career. I already have one of those. I'm trying to replace subscription services with something more economical and under my control.
in reply to philanthropicoctopus
lemmy - Link to source

SpacePirate

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Hey! I sent you a DM about it I was thinking we could have a call on MullvadVPNs jitsi aka meet.mulvad.net/ where others could join! If we can find a time that works for both of us we could send it here so others who are interested can join!

Edit:

Me and OP have decided on a time and date and where to have the online meeting feel free to join us at 09:00 AM Central European summer Time on Mullvads jitsi via this link meet.mullvad.se/home-lab-feddi…

This entry was edited (Friday, July 10, 2026, 5:35 PM)
in reply to melroy
lemmy - Link to source

ampersandrew

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I don't suppose your issue looks anything like my thread from this past weekend in this here community? And as a reminder, tagged ports face networking hardware, while untagged ports face end devices.
in reply to ampersandrew
mbin - Link to source

melroy

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And what if I have a router (like your thread, OPNsense), top-of-rack switch (10G ports) and an access-switch (1/2.5G ports). And then the ports that face end-devices are either on the access switch (that makes sense right) as well as top-level rack switch has connections towards my server machines in my rack.

So its bit more hardware then you initially though, and all devices technically support vlans. SO basically I had two questions in one:

  1. What would be the best VLAN setup for my needs (I expect here some follow-up questions, back and forth)
  2. How can I configurable the VLANs correctly across my various switches, such that it actually works.. So I don't accidentally lock myself out again and needed a SW reset (lol).