Suggestions for Self-Hosting File Server

Lounge
1

Hello everyone. I recently acquired an older desktop PC that I’m using as a media server. It’s running Jellyfin on Ubuntu Server 24.04.2.

I’ve been wanting to move away from Google Drive to something I host myself and figured I could use the same PC.

My needs aren’t too intense, I just use Google Drive to access and create documents while I’m away. Usually from my phone.

I was looking into Seafile Community Edition. It seems like it should do anything I would need

Anyone have and advice or suggestions for other software to look up?

Thanks

2

I usually begin with “How do I want to connect to this server?”
That drives a lot of the rest of your design.
Think about which app on your phone you want to use for interacting with your server.

3

I was thinking of something that can be mounted kinda like a regular partition on my main computer and that can be accessed on my android phone somehow.

4

There is the snap for NextCloud, it lives on your server and gives brute force protection and global access, I use Samba and AFP in my local network, NextCloud on my personal storage server for remote access and never had any problems with data loss or corruption, in fact on the NextCloud side I have no permission to even see the files or users or otherwise

5

I did read about nextcloud while looking into server software. The Snap installation looks much simpler than the other options. I’ve read a few people mention that the snap version is slow but different people have different definitions of slow. Most of my files are on the smaller side anyway.

6

Let’s reverse that order:

  • A way to access server files on an Android phone.

    Several ways to do that. Depends on which app you want to install onto your phone.
    This is where you have limited choice and must do a bit of research in the Play Store.
    Or get recommendations here from folks who have done it already.

  • Mounting like a regular partition on a desktop/laptop

    This is very easy using plain Samba, NFS, SSHFS, and other methods.
    File Managers (like Nautilus) generally have all those connection methods available.
    You can simply choose to use whatever you already set up for the Android connection.

7

I decided to install Nextcloud just to try it out.

They have an android app. It looks pretty good to me so far.

I mount my current Google Drive using Rclone, I believe you can do the same with Nextcloud

Before I go too far I want to read up a bit more about server administration and security.

2 Likes
8

These might help/complement …

ngrok for secure tunnel to home based server
webmin or cockpit for remote access

Just a random thought.

and/or use zerotrust framework. tresorit.com or Proton Drive.

9

@nicwelds I hope you are enjoying the NC snap. I also host it at home and access it remotely using the NC iPhone app. I have good performance.

Not required, but I did add a self-hosted VPN tunnel at home for remote access. Probably overkill but I had the time :slight_smile: There is also Tailscale that can simplify the remote access VPN if you ever get curious.

10

Yes I am actually. Everything works well considering the server is running on an older desktop.

It mounts just like any other partition to my main laptop and the android app works great.