I have a piece of hardware which I do not intend to use as a desktop machine ever again.

It’s a cheap and shitty HP laptop from 2019. AMD A6 processor, 8GB of RAM, 1TB spinning hard disk, and a DVD drive that hasn’t worked in over a year.

Since I have hardware from 2007 that is nicer to use than this machine, I was thinking of turning it into a server.

I’d probably either install Proxmox, Alpine, HardenedBSD, or OpenBSD, and spin up a couple of lightweight services. I’d also spin up an HTTP server and move one of my blogs to this machine.

Since I’m currently using a VPS with far, far lower specs than this laptop, it should all be fine. However, I have some questions:

  1. Is this a good idea?
  2. Should I run the server over a VPN, or even go Tor-only, for personal safety reasons?
  3. Since I’ll usually be within walking distance of the server, should I disable SSH altogether?

Also, if anyone here has a crazy setup or some redneck networking, I’d love to hear about it.

Thank you!!!

  • CameronDev@programming.dev
    5·
    2 days ago

    1. Yes, lots of people do this. Good idea to remove the battery if possible, or you’ll have a spicy balloon eventually.

    2. VPN (or cloudflare tunnel) is not a bad idea, but its not essential either, my server is publically exposed, and it largely isnt a problem. I only expose port 443 and some specific random high ports though. I wouldnt expose 22 to the internet.

    3. Keep SSH, just dont expose to the internet, its always nice to have multiple ways into a box, incase one is hung or something.

    • 18107@aussie.zoneEnglish
      8·
      2 days ago

      If you can find a way to limit the battery to 60%, then you have a safe and cheap UPS.

      • CameronDev@programming.dev
        21·
        2 days ago

        Even better idea. Although if your power goes out, usually your internet goes as well, which somewhat diminishes the UPS value.

        • bizarroland@lemmy.worldEnglish
          4·
          2 days ago

          I put my cable modem and Wi-Fi router on their own UPS. If the power goes down, I still have internet for half a day.

          • CameronDev@programming.dev
            21·
            2 days ago

            That makes sense, although if its a severe power outage the other end might go out if they dont have a working UPS.

            I’ve got a home battery, so its kinda like a bad UPS. Will run all day, but the switchover isnt seamless, so it hard-shuts down. Never lost any data though, so happy to keep risking it.

        • Strayce@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
          4·
          2 days ago

          It gives you enough time to shut down properly and avoid data loss, which is what a UPS is supposed to do.

          If you configure your power settings right, it’ll run on battery then shutdown or s2d safely.