As I’m learning more and more about self hosting, I’ve read repeatedly that the safest option for internally hosted services is to use a VPN from your mobile device (laptop, cell) and connect to your server(s) as needed when outside of your network. That brings me to a predicament of sorts.
Tools like Seafile, Nextcloud, Pydio, and CryptPad offer great collaborative features as well as easy sharing from these services. But if you’re not exposing any of these services to the web, how would you share documents or files easily with those outside your network? The share functions will generate a link with your IP:Port, or in my case, a domain name that is only internal. I know you can download a copy and email it separately, but that is a bit clunky. Is there a service or another FOSS app I’m overlooking that allow you to ‘publish’ items to an external friend or team member in a safe manner?
I’ve not yet decided on which solution I’m going with. But in the case of CryptPad it seems secure that I would be comfortable hosting externally making this question moot. But I’d likely host it on a VPS instead of my home server just for another layer of separation.
Good idea, definitely leaning that way. Thanks!
The other thing is that you can favor end to end encyped stuff. Send for example which is the follow on to Firefox send. I actually use Bitwarden send to send files for example which comes with the Bitwarden paid plan.
I am on the Bitwarden paid plan and didn’t realize there was a send function. That’s awesome!
Actually send was why I joined. Loved Firefox send. There are still random people that host send instances but to be secure you have to trust the server delivering the upload and download page including the server not being cracked. I think I trust Bitwarden not to screw that up at least as much as anyone else. Probably more then I would trust the security of my own VPS.
That’s fair. I signed up for the premium sub so I could have emergency contacts in the event I either forget my master password or something happens to me. So until you said something I was completely unaware that it was a service they offered!
Hetzner is cheaper
I have one with Rack nerd at the moment that I can mess with. Not impressed with their customer service but it was a $12/yr VPS so I’m not complaining too much.
What spec does that get you? I’ve tried cheap 512mb 1 vCore before and it wasn’t adequate.
They still have their New Year’s deal going here and I bought the middle tier for $12.98/yr
Its been working very well but I’m currently only running Miniflux and Wallabag on it. I tried Nextcloud but found it too much for my needs and was unhappy with the performance. I’m going to try Cryptpad as well as Tipi on it soon. Bear in mind this is my first VPS ever. So I’m far from an expert but this has been a great/inexpensive entry point. And to be fair to their customer service, they replied very quickly. But there was a fairly significant language barrier I think over email. But I was able to get it worked out after a half dozen emails.
I’m considering 1.5GB for $16.88 per year, comes with a little less monthly transfer but I don’t think I will need the difference.
Hetzner might be cheaper, but it might be more susceptible to performance issues. I used to use Netcup, which is also cheap, but isn’t VPS would get very slow from time to time, even though my usage was minimal.