I would like to preface this with a request to not hack into my network
The main reason for starting up this server at first was to learn more about Linux. I had played around with a Raspberry Pi 3B+, but I didn't have as strong an understanding of computing while I was doing that.
The main thing that got me into running a server was having a spare laptop and nothing to do with it. It wasn't that powerful a computer graphically, but it had plenty of capabilities for my needs
I've not paid more than 20 pounds for any piece of hardware, with the most expensive bit being a 16 pound dell computer that will one day be a lot more than it is now (powered off virtualisation host).
As I said, this started off with just one small laptop, and then its kinda spiraled a little.
The most recent addition I have made is a 24 port switch. When I tell anyone this, I get confused looks because why do I need that?
It is, to be fair, a fantastic question. I do not need it, but maeve was selling it for a fiver and that is me futureproofed for like the rest of my life so yeah
This is my main server, the small laptop. I've probably had it for 3 years?
The main things I run here are this web server (running on nginx), a samba server for devices on my network, a factorio server, and a minecraft server occasionally.
It's running debian, because its the closest thing to raspbian at the time, and it hasn't caused me any issues.
The hardware has been upgraded, at first the only storage was a 1tb hdd. This was fine, up until me and my beloved were flying around in the minecraft server, and the chunks took too long to load in.
To resolve this, I bought the cheapest SATA ssd I could find on amazon and ran the minecraft server on that, and there have been no other issues.
When I moved into my current place, there was no way for me to properly forward ports on the router, so I had to find some other way of getting a public IP.
To do this, I have a VPS (96p per month lmao) that is what michcode.space goes to. This hosts a VPN that hecate connects to, and then from this the VPS connects sends all the web traffic to hecate.
I guess I could run the website off the VPS, but I have a sense of ownership over a computer that I can see and touch that I don't have over a VPS.