Hello and welcome!

If you are retired and are even minimally technically inclined or would like to be, enjoy using a computer, and find yourself using a number of services such as Google docs, RSS readers, photo editors and organizers and so on, may I suggest that you explore self-hosting or homelabbing as a great retirement hobby.

Today I want to introduce you to the two hobbies, how they are different and how they are related. This is intended to be a fairly short video as I only want to introduce you to the concepts, give you some ideas of what you can do in this space, briefly discuss why you should self-host (or build a homelab) and give you some ideas about how to get started.

A quick caveat: Almost everything I will be showing you in this video and in future tech-related videos/posts I have learned on my own. I’m neither a professional nor an expert. I’m just a guy that loves technology and loves to tinker!

With that out of the way, let’s get started.

Where to begin …#

Often you’ll hear the terms home lab and self-hosting used interchangeably. While they are related, they are not really the same thing and shouldn’t be confused. In general, I would have to say that for most people who get into these hobbies, home labbing leads to self-hosting. I suspect it’s a bit rare to find someone who beings with self-hosting and then moves to labbing. Why? Because in order to host your own services you have to have at least a minimal set of skills in order to stand up those services. Where do you get those skills? Through your home lab, of course.

What is a Homelab?#

A homelab is where most of us start on our journey. We want to learn more about some aspect of computing or related technologies like smart homes. Maybe it’s learning more about basic concepts like networking, or programming. Maybe it’s learning about more esoteric concepts like Docker, or Kubernetes, AI, or virtualization. Or maybe you’re just like me: Curious about what a specific bit of software does and how you might use it in your own life.

And it’s not always about computing, per se. Home labs can also serve us in learning about smart home technologies, for example, or even electronics. I am an amateur radio operator and many hams have work benches on which they explore and develop their skills in electronics, antenna design, and so one. That particular topic is outside the scope of this article, though. We’ll be focussing on computing and maybe smart home technologies here.

What ever your reason for starting, one thing you don’t want to do is muck up your home’s normal functioning. I mean, until I figured out that I needed a separate computer (or two or 10) to explore my curiosity and add to my learning, I frustrated my wife to no end by bringing the network down unintentionally when I clicked something I shouldn’t have! When the TV suddenly stops streaming or her webpage won’t load, well, let’s just say she won’t be very happy.

what is self hosting?#

The short version is that self-hosting is simply hosting on your own computer services that you might otherwise look to outside companies to provide. For example, you might use Google Drive or Microsoft OneDrive to host your documents. You can, if you choose, host your documents on your local machine. There is free software available that can provide you with almost exactly the same experience as those other services, but it’s all under your control. How about keeping copies of your photos? Do you use a read-it-later service like Pocket? There are several free software tools that can provide you almost exactly the same experience wihtout worrying that someone else may be peeking into your reading materials.

In upcoming videos we’ll explore some of these options and walk you through setting up your own cloud services. And, by the way, it doesn’t have to be on your equipment in your home. While most self-hosters do run their services within their homes, you can also use virtual private servers from a number of hosting companies. That puts your technology outside the home which can provide some protection against loss and can also be cheaper, at least in the short run, than buying your own equipment.

But the question remains: why? Why host our own services when we can take advantage of the professional services provided by these outside companies?

And the answer is: Because we can!

You’ll read lots of articles and see lots of YouTube videos on why people self-host and the reasons, really, are as unique and varied as the people who create those articles and videos. My reasons may not resonate with anyone else and that’s okay.

Some general reasons why people self-host include:

  • They don’t want to trust their data to outside companies. That distrust comes in several forms.
    • First, there’s a saying that if you’re not paying for a product, you are the product. Basically, this is suggesting that the data that you store on someone else’s servers is being mined for information about you. I don’t know if that’s true or not, but it is something to consider.
    • Second, there’s been more than one instance when you come to rely on a service only to have it abruptly disappear, along with all of your data. Not good! Google has been notorious through the years for developing services, encouraging people to use them, then closing them down. Who wants that?
  • Self-hosting can ensure that your data is always available to you, in a form that you prefer. I like plain text files for most of my work. Every page of my website, for example, begins as a text file. That file is uploaded to Github where it is published as a webpage. Yet the actual file remains in plain text. I could self-host that site, complete with a Git repository and generate my own webpages, just as Github does. But I don’t want to open my network to outsiders, so I have chosen to publish through Github.

Sounds Great! How Do I Get Started?#

If you’ve watched a few videos on homelabbing or self hosting you get the idea that you need a bunch of expensive equipment. Some of my favorite Youtubers have several thousand dollars worth equipment with elaborate rack systems, and multiple servers, and clusters and a whole bunch of absolutely unnecessary stuff.

The truth is you can get started with only the equipment you have today, depending on what your goals are.

If your goal is learning about programming or Linux or virtualization or something like that, your current computer will most likely serve just fine. If you’ve got the funds, getting a separate computer or laptop that you can use strictly for labbing is not a bad idea. That way if you screw something up, you’re not screwing up your personal device and potentially losing your data. Having a separate device also allows you to create a backup of your base system so that if you do screw it up badly, you can simply reinstall and get back to square one.

If you’re wanting to learn something like networking, you might want to look into buying used networking equipment of the type you’re interested in. This allows you to not only build your skills in that particular product, but having equipment strictly for testing or learning ensures that you don’t muck up your home network and end up sleeping in the dog house!

Which ever way you want to go, homelabbing and self-hosting are awesome ways to learn new things, explore new concepts, and keep the old brain firing on all cylinders in retirement.

Stay tuned for my next episode on the Basics of networking which I’ve learned is a vexing concept for many retirees.