Turn An Old PC Into Your Own Private Cloud Server With Nextcloud

With Nextcloud you can turn an old PC into your very own private cloud server with file sharing, photo backups, document creation, team talk, real-time collaboration, and more! Here is my how to video.
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#garyexplains

[@lllongreen]

You should NEVER open ports for things like this. There is constant scans on all IP adress spaces and You WILL get scanned and they will try to breach your network. Its only a question of WHEN there will be a vulnerability they can use, not IF. Using it via a VPN or something like Tailscale is an absolute must.

[@deusvinces2520]

Oh no! They will steal my - GASP - torrents!

[@lllongreen]

@deusvinces2520 you clearly don't understand what it means to get your home network and router /appliance breached and trojaned. You will get your network and IP adress used to hack other people including your IP adressed used for criminal purposes including things you definitely don't want to even be suspected of by the authorities

[@Cosmin_Theodor]

If I use a clouflare tunnel instead of port forwarding am i still prone to the same risk?

[@lllongreen]

With the electricity prices in most European countries its almost as expensive to run it yourself as using a cloud service. Many people actually made thorough calculations on this

[@jw200]

But it comes with "price": the privacy. Depends what you use it for though

[@lllongreen]

@jw200 the privacy will be moot when you get portscanned and hacked. Hence my comments about using a VPN or something like Tailscale

[@kmik2857]

​@@lllongreennah, I like keeping my own stuff, local host will do just fine for me, coupled by Jellyfin with my own content is top tier. But to each their own

[@amehu]

Except that google and co. is earning on your data when they sell it on data market

[@danielcoles1989]

I was googling this just yesterday! Thanks for the video!

[@Wallacenawa]

This is brilliant..... I didn't know about this. And I have use for this.

[@harleyn3089]

I love NextCloud. I'm doing basically what's in this video. I'm using an AMD FX computer I got for under $100 (not including the 5TB hard drive I added to it.). This is one of the few cases where I like Snap packages. The Snap version of Nextcloud is configured really well and updates itself automatically. In my experience the non-snap version of Nextcloud defaults to not using enough RAM to be performant, and is way more work to set up. In short, this video is excellent. 🙂

[@mrdr9534]

@Gary Explains. Thanks for another interesting and enjoyable video. But I hope You, or some of in Your audience can clarify/answer my possibly very naive/stupid question. But is this "scenario" all under the supposition that You have a static IP that is also available to connect into from "the web outside". Meaning that You are now in essence a system-admin for an internet connected server ? Admittedly You are running an "off the shelf package" ((NextCloud)) But You still have to be aware of the risks and drawbacks of running a "service" that can be reached from "the outside"... Or what am I missing, does this come with some form of "built in VPN".. ? Best regards.

[@kaushikdas19]

What are the Configration to be done so that we can access my storage from web ie outside my home

[@hetchKay_1]

You can use wireguard or something like tailscale to achieve this.

[@Freshbott2]

You might find ZeroTier to be useful. Tailscail is a nuisance with the renewal. Wireguard is a bit more involved than either.

[@harleyn3089]

If you don't want to use additional products, you can also set up port forwarding on your router. The manual for your router should have a section on how to set up port forwarding for a server, assuming it came with a comprehensible manual.

[@MrFilip121]

My only concern might be power usage. Something like raspberry pi might be cheaper to run (i.e. 5 watts Vs 50 watts). £15 Vs £150 cost per year

[@GaryExplains]

There is also a Raspberry Pi version. Also PCs like the Dell Wyse 5070 will idle at around 7W.

[@mubarakdaher774]

Great job.

[@ShaunakHub]

I wonder if it is somehow possible to connect it to the internet so that I can access it from anywhere without paying for a static IP ? I do have a domain which I am using to host a personal website using Digital Ocean. I do have a broadband connection at home, but no static IP.

[@hetchKay_1]

Use wireguard, tailscale or some other service to create a vpn. Creating holes in your firewall and port forwarding is another option, but it's highly unrecommended due to security concerns and will not work if your ISP uses CG-NAT.

[@RockFordCademce]

I have tried to get in to using nextcloud multiple times and i just dont like it

[@amaljoe367]

I wish I didn't try to update the BIOS in my old pc

[@stevehibbs7933]

Can you use a Raspberry Pi instead?

[@GaryExplains]

Yes, also with snap.

[@MW-mn1el]

Only thing I don't like nextcloud is built with php.

[@GaryExplains]

Does that alter the functionality or features?

[@MW-mn1el]

​@@GaryExplains no, old language mean more bugs, less secure and worse performance, more vulnerability and requires more system resource and more man hours to maintain. Not saying only rust or zig programs are the only golden standard. At least it should write in Go and safer language nowadays. Being open source and having more functionality doesn't mean automatically it's more secure and reliable.

[@GaryExplains]

Eh? Old language means more mature, well tested, and proven, not "more bugs". Nextcloud was started in 2016 when zig didn't exist and nobody had heard of rust. Go was around but it wasn't main stream yet. You going to rewrite yourself in Go?

[@MW-mn1el]

@@GaryExplains More mature, well tested, and proven.. does't tranlate in real world, that's what markting/sale department arguments/sales pitch to enterprise customer 😄 I don't know how many hours I waisted on crappy php code base through my early years of my career, and how many pain and stress it cause me and my colleagues. It's correct, zig, rust, go, mojo, kotlin doesn't exist in the early 2000. I much prefer compile language that shout at me if I am doing something stupid, less bug during development then at runtime in production with real customer. I would rather use something like CasaOS, and mix and match my own cloud solutions then use Nextcloud, yes it does require knowledge and skills, either as linux super user or developer. Nothing against open source/free software, but technical choices do affect quality of code base and maintainability in the long run.

[@paulbarnett227]

@@GaryExplains MW appears to not know what he's talking about. Try COBOL for an old language, I coded that for 35 years! 🤣

[@WDCallahan]

Why not owncloud? What's the difference?

[@GaryExplains]

Owncloud is also worth looking at, but it just isn't the subject of this video.

[@logan594]

next cloud is pretty much junk though. Better off using cloud services, they're cheap and better.

[@GaryExplains]

Interesting comment. What about Nextcloud specifically is "junk"?

[@logan594]

@@GaryExplains poorly maintained plug-ins, slow performance no redundancies. I also found upgrades unreliable always had to tinker with it to get it working again. Just not worth the hassle. Why use it when you can use MS or google for dirt cheap and it works better. Only selfhosted service ive been impressed with in ages is immich.

[@p4m1_ghost30]

You said it... cloud services are cheap, next cloud its free