2mo ago

How I host Authentik/Matrix/Headscale to power my network - Part 1

whitewhiskywolf.com How I Host my Critical Apps for under $85CAD/month - Part 1 - Setting the basics

Now that we've discussed why I've chosen the matrix ecosystem, it's time to elaborate on how I host everything.

Happy new years!

One of my personal goals is to secure the data of me and my community from data scraping as much as I can. I've also learned a ton from blog posts on how to host software, and it's time I contribute back.

So, welcome to my series on how I host my services with as little dependency on US-based services as I can.

I'd love feedback on my writing so I can learn and improve as well!

9 comments

Me in 2005: "Bots please crawl my site!"
Me in 2025: "Bots GTFO my site!"

That was a nice clean read great job. My first reaction was $85 is a hell of a lot of money (you can stand up and absolute monster server in some places for that) but then I saw your running managed database and that scans.
- 100% not a cost optimized way to host, but much more about balancing cost vs manual maintenance.
  Thanks!
  
  Yeah I host stuff for my job. And I don't host all of my data stores. (I do have 150 reddis servers sitting around now)
  If $85 fits comfortably in your budget and helps you sleep at night I certainly wouldn't criticize you for doing it.

ELI5 headscale?
- So tailscale client, the apps you actually download are open source. What's not open source is the server side code.
  Because the interface of tailscale is publicly known and available, someone went and made an open source server side version compatible with tailscale clients.
  What's tail scale?
  It's an easy to use VPN. I can expose just my server to the vpn and my community can easily gain access.
  
  Your community gets access to the network? So it's basically a virtual LAN?

Thank you! Your tech analysis mirrors much of my own and your build of matrix mirrors some proofs I'm working. It is wonderful to see what others are doing. Thank you for sharing.
I am hosting on vultr and deployed synapse, postgres, and a signal bridge on a 2 gb mem, single core VM. It is simple but effective for learning. It is about 12$ per month.
My next build will be docker based. Reverse proxies are a weakness of mine so I am trying to upskill before I make the change and advertise my setup as prod to family and friends :)
I'd prefer to run everything from my homelab, but I don't have the infosec confidence to open my home network. The costs of cloud will never beat the salvaged comps I get at university surplus ;_;

9 comments