{"id":18,"date":"2025-07-29T22:39:37","date_gmt":"2025-07-29T22:39:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wallaceat.me\/?p=18"},"modified":"2025-11-24T22:49:16","modified_gmt":"2025-11-24T22:49:16","slug":"self-hosting-your-services-at-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wallaceat.me\/?p=18","title":{"rendered":"Self-Hosting your services at home"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>In this post, I explain how I made my self-hosted services accessible from anywhere in the world using:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Dynu<\/strong> for dynamic DNS updates<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Caddy<\/strong> for automatic HTTPS and reverse proxying<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Home router port forwarding<\/strong> to route public traffic into my server<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\ud83c\udf0d Problem<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>My home internet connection uses a dynamic IP address provided by Vodafone, which changes periodically. Without a static IP, it\u2019s difficult to access self-hosted services like Jellyfin, Immich, or WordPress remotely. Also, I wanted HTTPS support without having to manually configure certificates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\ud83d\udee0\ufe0f Solution Overview<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Register a domain and manage DNS via <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dynu.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Dynu<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Install the <strong>Dynu IP Update Client<\/strong> on my server to keep the A record updated with my current public IP<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Use <strong>Caddy<\/strong> in Docker as a reverse proxy to handle subdomains and HTTPS automatically via Let&#8217;s Encrypt<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Configure my router to forward ports <code>80<\/code> and <code>443<\/code> to the server&#8217;s internal IP<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\ud83d\udd17 Dynu Setup<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Create an account at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dynu.com\">dynu.com<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Add a domain (e.g., <code>wallaceat.me<\/code>) and enable Dynamic DNS<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Install the Dynu client on your server:<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<pre class=\"wp-block-code\"><code>sudo wget https:\/\/github.com\/shibani\/dynu-ip-update-client\/releases\/latest\/download\/dynu-ip-update-client-linux-amd64.deb\nsudo dpkg -i dynu-ip-update-client-linux-amd64.deb\n<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n<ol start=\"4\" class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Configure it with your Dynu API token or login credentials<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Ensure the service is running and enabled:<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<pre class=\"wp-block-code\"><code>sudo systemctl enable --now dynu-ip-update-client.service<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n<p>The client checks for public IP changes and updates your Dynu DNS record automatically.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u26a1 Router Configuration<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Log in to your home router and forward the following ports to your server\u2019s internal IP (e.g., <code>192.168.1.100<\/code>):<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table class=\"has-fixed-layout\"><thead><tr><th>External Port<\/th><th>Internal IP<\/th><th>Internal Port<\/th><th>Protocol<\/th><\/tr><\/thead><tbody><tr><td>80<\/td><td>192.168.1.100<\/td><td>80<\/td><td>TCP<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>443<\/td><td>192.168.1.100<\/td><td>443<\/td><td>TCP<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Now any request to <code>http(s):\/\/yourdomain.com<\/code> is routed to the Caddy server inside your LAN.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\ud83e\udde0 Caddy Configuration<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The <code>Caddyfile<\/code> defines reverse proxy rules. Here\u2019s a simplified example:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<pre class=\"wp-block-code\"><code>wallaceat.me {\n  reverse_proxy wordpress:8080\n}\n\nphotos.wallaceat.me {\n  reverse_proxy immich_server:2283\n}\n\ntv.wallaceat.me {\n  reverse_proxy jellyfin:8096\n}<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n<p>Caddy automatically issues and renews TLS certificates via Let\u2019s Encrypt, making HTTPS seamless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\ud83d\udce1 Testing Everything<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Visit <code>https:\/\/wallaceat.me<\/code> and confirm the WordPress page loads<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Check <code>https:\/\/tv.wallaceat.me<\/code> for Jellyfin<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Verify Dynu logs to see if IP updates are working<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Confirm port 80\/443 are open using <code>https:\/\/www.yougetsignal.com\/tools\/open-ports\/<\/code><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u2705 Outcome<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>All self-hosted services are now available from anywhere, secured with HTTPS, using a reliable and automatic DNS + reverse proxy setup. The stack is stable, scalable, and doesn\u2019t require paying for a static IP or managed DNS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\ud83e\udde9 Technologies Used<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Ubuntu Linux<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Docker &amp; Docker Compose<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Caddy Server (v2)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Dynu Dynamic DNS<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Vodafone Broadband (dynamic IP)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\ud83d\udcac Final Thoughts<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>This setup is perfect for enthusiasts looking to self-host services and access them securely over the internet. With minimal cost and maintenance, you get a robust system that\u2019s entirely under your control.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In this post, I explain how I made my self-hosted services accessible from anywhere in the world using: \ud83c\udf0d Problem My home internet connection uses a dynamic IP address provided by Vodafone, which changes periodically. Without a static IP, it\u2019s difficult to access self-hosted services like Jellyfin, Immich, or WordPress remotely. Also, I wanted HTTPS [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wallaceat.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wallaceat.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wallaceat.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wallaceat.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wallaceat.me\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wallaceat.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29,"href":"https:\/\/wallaceat.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18\/revisions\/29"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wallaceat.me\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wallaceat.me\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wallaceat.me\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}