Subj : Re: Advice on self-hosting a website?
To   : Vintholdt
From : dflorey
Date : Thu Apr 03 2025 09:48 pm

 Vi> Recently I dug up an old PC and decided to install Ubuntu Server on it,
 Vi> and use
 Vi> 
 Vi> it as my server for hosting a website. I am using Nginx.
 Vi> 
 Vi> Does anyone have any general and/or security advice?

Good questions and good on you for giving this a go...
There are sooooo many ways to do this.
Lately I've wanted a no fuss, no cost web UI to manage multi-tenant web
servers - like cPanel does without all the bells and whistles, and no mail.

I opted for CloudPanel.io
Its free, fast reliable, and most importantly, unlike most of the other free
web panels, Wordpress sites run super fast!!

As for protection, well as long as permissions on files & folders are set
properly (read up on best practices for that - use Wordpress BP as a guide),
ensure user names & passwords are complex, secure, etc, where possible,
enroll 2FA/MFA.

You can also opt for a reverse proxy in front - just means a little more
admin if adding / removing sites. As for reverse proxy, you could do it all
using nginx (cli / conf text files) or go for something with more features
and a UI. Options include Sophos Firewall (using Home license (free) which
include the WAF), or a free license of Kemp LoadMaster (limited to 20mbps
bandwidth) NetworkChuck (YT) did a video on Kemp setup.

Again, PLENTY of options to do all of this, I wanted to use something with
little fuss, free, good  performance, so chose CloudPanel (and yes, I pretty
much tested ALL of the free web panel options) and for the rProxy, I already
use Sophos so went with that.

Hope this helps!

|14Dave!
|05(|13dflorey|05)
|13Retro16 BBS |05--> |14bbs.retro16.com  |05(|13WIP|05)
|07No one expects the Spanish inquisition!

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A46 2020/08/26 (Windows/32)
 * Origin: Retro16 BBS (21:1/226)

.