wiki.skolma.com

Main website: https://www.skolma.com
This host: https://freyja.skolma.com
This wiki: https://wiki.skolma.com

• de-google yourself - but applies to many large providers
• privacy and online identity - tips to reduce your footprint and sharing

cant do much 'serving' on the internet without your own domain and dns control.
choosing a domain can be fun/fustrating, take your time, and check the renewal fees, and transfer constraints.. eg some country.tlds have limitted hosting options, and strict regulations on who can own, and identity may need to be public.
shop around, it's the internet, there are always deals.
ensure the dns hosting/registrar supports DNSSEC and does not have additional charges, as you will need many record types for ssl-certificate and smtp management.

self-hosting is best, keeps you fully in control
however not always practical, and may have constraints imposed by your home internet and provider arrangement, eg no_smtp or carrier-nat.

when looking for a cloud provider i look for simplicity of services, breadth of support, and data-centre locations.

i have a preference for free and opensource software, and try to use/implement where i can.
but, life is never that simple, and we need to use the best tool for the job.

in order of preference for a new task:

1. OpenBSD - Can do it all, however maybe too 'opinionated' for some, and some careful hardware selection is required. clean and simple. often seen as a security-os, it's much more than that.
2. FreeBSD - A great all-rounder with access to some killer enterprise features, and enough packages for most to get things done. plenty of info and support available, and you don't need to look far to bump into a host.
3. Linux - Probabaly what most people think of, cant go wrong really, makes both an excellent server or desktop system, the greatness and stupidity if the vast choice.
4. MacOS - Considered one of the best desktop platforms, it has integration second to none, if you can afford the price.
5. Windows - like it or not, it's everywhere, and it's ok, although recent releases are raising questions.

type: Cloud VM
name: carbon.skolma.com
os: FreeBSD
role: sshd, apache-httpd, dokuwiki, opensmtpd
state; active

type: Cloud VM
name: ralts.skolma.com
os: OpenBSD
role: sshd, httpd, tor-relay, spamd-blackhole
state: DESTROYED

type: Cloud VM
name: freyja.skolma.com
os: OpenBSD
role: sshd, httpd, dokuwiki
state: active

sony vaio vpcvs113fg
intel 1st gen i3 cpre_i3_330M (4×2.33Ghz) 32nm 35w
4Gb ram, 320hdd toshiba sata mk3265gsx
gb ethernet, wifi, bluetooth
OS: OpenBSD Snapshot 7.1 Beta
role: general laptop
state: active

tower case pc amd a4-3400 apu dualcore 2.7Ghz
amd radeon hd6410
4gb ram, no disks and videocard nv106
state: DECOMMISSIONED

Asus f3e series laptop, intel T7100 2×1.8Ghz Duo-Centrino core2duo
2Gb ddr2-667 ram, 120gb hdd hitachi , swapped to 500gb ssd.
state: Not Active

Tower PC, AMD Phenon I black, 9950
4gb ram, 1tb hdd
dead video card
state: DECOMMISSIONED

Gigabyte Brix mini pc, Intel i3-4100
8gb ram, 500 msata
os: windows-10
role: general
status: active

Intel Nuc 8th gen i5
32gb ram, 500gb nvme
os: linux
role: general
status: active

hp microserver gen7, n54l amd turion dualcore 2.2Ghz
8gb ram, 4x 4tb drives
os: freebsd
role: fileshare
status: active

apple mac air 2010 dualcore
status: dormant

role: laptop
status: active

Fail2Ban and PF Firewall using 'anchors'
Sendmail MTA