NOOB here need Help!! confused and weary of next steps.

[Electro]

Hi everyone, I know my answer might be already here in another thread, but im reaching out to see about getting some personal help. I have setup a Unraid server on an old laptop of mine and have 1 parity drive, 2 storage drives (1 HDD and 1 2.5SSD) and 1 500GB ssd cache. 
It has nothing stored on it yet, because after setup and running for 20days I dont know what to do with it... I want to self host a local Nextcloud that is only accessible when i come home and connect to my wifi or LAN via ethernet cable. I plan on having a small NVME drive with me while im out that i can dump data onto from my devices and then when i get home i can dump that onto the array for safe keeping. 

 

The big goal is to take my data off the cloud and utilize local storage to one day maybe not need to have such an expensive smartphone bill and have to rely on cloud connection to use pictures or videos, or anything important. 

 

Now one thing that i would like to do is use a VPN to connect back to my server that is NOT connected to the internet via a domain like how i use RealVNC to talk back to my raspberry pi 4 at home when im at work. is this concept feasible? and how would i do it securely without exposing my server to all the bad stuff on the internet? 

 

I need help, Im reaching out, so dont bash me, please. and Thankyou in advance for any help you all can provide.

[Hoopster]

9 minutes ago, Electro said:

Now one thing that i would like to do is use a VPN to connect back to my server that is NOT connected to the internet via a domain like how i use RealVNC to talk back to my raspberry pi 4 at home when im at work. is this concept feasible? and how would i do it securely without exposing my server to all the bad stuff on the internet? 

WireGuard VPN is built into unRAID and is great for remote access.  Setup instructions are here.

[Electro]

@Hoopsterthanks for that I will look into it

any suggestion for the other part of my original post? I've been looking and watching Spaceinvader One youtube channel but it seems too fast and lots of steps. I feel like ive seen much easier setups for Nextcloud that were not so involved.

Edited August 21, 2022 by Electro
grammer

[Hoopster]

1 hour ago, Electro said:

I feel like ive seen much easier setups for Nextcloud that were not so involved.

I set up Nextcloud (probably followed the video) a couple of years ago and found I rarely used it.  I no longer have it installed, but everything was working.  There are probably others with more current knowledge on getting it set up

[BVD]

This should be moved to the support section IMO - this sub-forum is for guides created to assist with different components of unraid.

[Electro]

3 hours ago, BVD said:

This should be moved to the support section IMO - this sub-forum is for guides created to assist with different components of unraid.

what do you mean by move? im new to forums for the most part, i looked i cant seem to find the support section.

[Electro]

Hi everyone, I know my answer might be already here in another thread, but im reaching out to see about getting some personal help. I have setup a Unraid server on an old laptop of mine and have 1 parity drive, 2 storage drives (1 HDD and 1 2.5SSD) and 1 500GB ssd cache. 
It has nothing stored on it yet, because after setup and running for 20days I dont know what to do with it... I want to self host a local Nextcloud that is only accessible when i come home and connect to my wifi or LAN via ethernet cable. I plan on having a small NVME drive with me while im out that i can dump data onto from my devices and then when i get home i can dump that onto the array for safe keeping. 

 

The big goal is to take my data off the cloud and utilize local storage to one day maybe not need to have such an expensive smartphone bill and have to rely on cloud connection to use pictures or videos, or anything important. 

 

Now one thing that i would like to do is use a VPN to connect back to my server that is NOT connected to the internet via a domain like how i use RealVNC to talk back to my raspberry pi 4 at home when im at work. is this concept feasible? and how would i do it securely without exposing my server to all the bad stuff on the internet? 

 

I need help, Im reaching out, so dont bash me, please. and Thankyou in advance for any help you all can provide.

[TimTheSettler]

Hi Electro.  If you're doing all this from within your home network then you don't need NextCloud and you don't need a VPN (Wireguard).  Just create a couple users and a couple shares and then read and write your data like a normal Windows shared folder.