If I understand you want iptables to be persistent across reboots? Would the following be useful?:

apt-get update -y && apt-get install iptables-persistent -y
service netfilter-persistent save

I have no clue about ansible as I have not explored that region of selfhosting yet. It’s on the list tho.

For the average consumer of AI, it’s a novelty at this point, even tho we have been using pieces parts of AI for a long while now. But it’s getting it’s stride in stuff like face swaps, neat tiktok videos, making weird pictures. I liken it to when ‘the cloud’ came to town. Hell, we’ve been uploading to servers and running apps on servers for a long while before ‘the cloud’ happened. Everyone and their brother trampled each other to move their entire operations to the cloud. Then, as the dust all settled, we started realizing that not everything that could be in the cloud, should be in the cloud, and so things got back to normal. But just the words ‘the cloud’ made CEOs jizz their pants at one time.

Sameie, sameie with AI. It’s a selling point. There was a thread here I believe, talking about an AI rice cooker. The ‘AI’ part sells it, even tho we’ve been making excellent rice for millennia. I use AI. I find it a faster way to cut through all the searches and give bulleted points to deviate from. I realize that it’s not best practice to rely on AI’s word, but use it as a springboard into further investigation.

Naw man, it’s cool. I get references, but they kind of have to be old school stuff Richard Pryor, Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, that kind of stuff. I’m just a weird old man. LOL

As you were, Mr Milchick

Is this related to 'Severance"? Had to look it up. I apologize, I do not watch TV of any sort. It’s not a religious thing, and it’s not that I think that fact makes me better than everyone else, but I really have no interest in stuff on TV. I do read a lot. I can better digest the material if I can read it. However, it has to be online. If you gave me a traditional book of a topic I was keenly interested in, I’d never crack the binding. Give it to me digitally where I can read it on any of my devices, and I’ll read it cover to cover. Yeah…I’m a weird old curmudgeon.

That looks interesting. Might have to check it out.

…did I commit a grammatical faux pas?

Don’t forget to make a backup before any changes.

Absolutely, and now I know a little more about the process.

It’s been a good day 'tater.

Indeed I did. I had apparently screwed up the formatting of a couple of the entries. The associated apps worked on a daily basis, the certificate was visible, but apparently the improper formatting was enough to confuse Caddy when it came to renewing the cert. Looking at the backup Caddyfile verses the newly formatted Caddyfile, I had a couple braces out of whack.

ETA: what led to all of this was that two certs expired today, and everything I had previously read said that Caddy wouldn’t let that happen. Well it won’t if I don’t fatfinger the format next time

Well, I had a time wrapping my old head around Caddy. It took me an embarrassingly long time to get it, and one day the clouds cleared, and the sun shone through, and it made sense. I had no clue about the formater, but you can bet I’ve made some notes so I don’t do that shit again. LOL

Dude. Awesome blog.

Ok my brother, I’m back with great news. It is as easy as everyone in this thread has said it was. Honestly, it wasn’t the set up that I was concerned with. My question was more concerned with any additional security considerations I may have to deploy before setting Tailscale up as an exit node and thus using it as a traditional VPN.

First, I am going to assume you already have Tailscale deployed on your server & laptop or desktop. That’s going to make it a lot easier…hurr hurr.

So fire up your terminal and point it at your server. You can run sudo tailscale status to check the current status of Tailscale. After which you will need to issue this command: tailscale up --advertise-exit-node. This does what it says and tells Tailscale to use the current server as an exit node.

Having done that, in the Tailscale console online click the [Machines] tab. Click the […] option at the far right of your server listing and select [Edit Route Settings]. This brings up a dialogue box. Check [Use As Exit Node].

Assuming a Windows laptop/desktop, click the Tailscale tray icon. You should see your server listed under [Recommended]. Choose that one.

You should now be connected to the server exit node. Check your IP Check your speed. Not too shabby. Conduct a DNS Leak Check

There you go. Jack’s a doughnut, Bob’s your uncle. To put your server back, use sudo tailscale up --advertise-exit-node=false

Somebody fact check me. LOL

How about I do the set up first, take my normal notes as I do, and then report back to you. That way I’ll have a firmer grip on what needs to be done.

Nah, it’s good. I do have a knack for asking silly, basic questions. I certainly don’t have the networking prowess and certifications that some of the group here has, and I just want to be cautious, perhaps overly cautious when implementing what I have proposed. I know what an overlay vpn does, and I know what a traditional vpn like say, PIA, does. I just want to proceed with caution because the end use has serious implications if improperly deployed. At the very least I want to make myself confidant that I have covered all bases.

I’m sorry…I’m just asking all the stupid questions up front.

I run a hybrid: 3 VPS and a rack in the closet. I don’t get hung up about labels. I leave that to others who obsess about that sort of stuff.

sugar_in_your_tea @sh.itjust.works

It’s nice to be commented by someone famous.

Open up the window, let some air into this room I think I’m almost chokin’ from the smell of stale perfume And that cigarette you’re smokin’ 'bout scare me half to death Open up the window, sucker, let me catch my breath

I have tried on numerous occasions to get freedns.afraid.org to work for me. I would be interested in how you got it going when you do get it all worked out.

I worry that having to maintain a VPS myself is tedious and risky

I have three VPS, and a rack in the closet. As far as maintenance is concerned, once you get everything set up and secured, there’s not a whole lot to ‘maintain’, imho. I check logs, make sure all the baddies are at bay and all my good stuff is secured. I leverage technology to help me. I get a summary in the morning telling me all services are up. I do that with n8n, but you certainly could put together something more than my basic n8n flow. I use Docker containers a lot, so I have dockerbot to check that all services are up and running. Dockerbot allows me to stop/start/restart containers. I use UptimeKuma to also keep track of services and send me updates, and I use the iOS app for UptimeKuma which has a handy widget.

Once a month I run sudo apt update / sudo apt full-upgrade to make sure everything is updated. NBD there if you do it regularly and don’t skip a lot of updates/upgrades. Backups happen every night using the 3,2,1 method and backed up to an offsite facility. I have a bot that at regular intervals during the day, issue sudo lsof -nP -iTCP -sTCP:ESTABLISHED and several other commands to the servers and reports back.

All of this may sound like a lot, but really once you get everything grooving, it’s jippity jippity. I do business with:

• Contabo
• Ethernet Services
• LuxVPS

One thing I’ve learned through the years is that one man’s dream VPS service, is another man’s nightmare VPS service. Making recommendations is kind of hit and miss for this reason.

Picked up the story a while back. See, it would not do me good to have this happen to me. If I were forced to rename it, it would be the most deliberate, yet creative, slur against the other product.