I’ve been a Software Engineering Student for 2 years now. I understand networks and whatnot at a theoretical level to some degree.
I’ve developed applications and hosted them through docker on Google Cloud for school projects.
I’ve tinkered with my router, port forwarded video game servers and hosted Discord bots for a few years (familiar with Websockets and IP/NAT/WAN and whatnot)
Yet I’ve been trying to improve my setup now that my old laptop has become my homelab and everything I try to do is so daunting.
Reverse proxy, VPN, Cloudfare bullshit, and so many more things get thrown around so much in this sub and other resources, yet I can barely find info on HOW to set up this things. Most blogs and articles I find are about what they are which I already know. And the few that actually explain how to set it up are just throwing so many more concepts at me that I can’t keep up.
Why is self-hosting so daunting? I feel like even though I understand how many of these things work I can’t get anything actually running!
Honestly, I get they’re trying to be educational for beginners way more clueless than me. But after two years of an IT degree I know some stuff, and the sheer amount of internet text I’ve read just to find absolutely nothing new and no solution even though the title is exactly my problem is unreal
Maybe you have to go to a 4 year university where they really teach you. A 2 year It degree is from where - might not be enough to get you started. I remember taking lots of programming courses at the Harvard Extention school while working as a programming during the day. I would spend nights and weekends at the School’s lab programming my assignments. You gotta get your feet wet. Find a really good mentor or teacher that will guide you as you seem a little bit lost with all the complexity. Practice the KISS principle.