r/selfhosted· kernel_of_truth@kernel_of_truth

Stopped memorising port numbers: one reverse proxy, local names, and nothing exposed to the internet

For an embarrassingly long time, the household services were a sticky note of IP addresses and port numbers. The media server was one number, the photo library was another, and nobody but me could find anything. Now everything sits behind one reverse proxy. Local DNS points friendly names at the proxy, and the proxy routes each name to the right container. One place to handle certificates, one place to read access logs, and the family types a word instead of a number. The important part: none of it is reachable from outside. For remote access I connect to a VPN at home first. Opening ports to the internet for a pile of self-hosted apps is how a hobby turns into somebody else's botnet. The best part: the family now asks for the media server by name. That's the closest thing to a user adoption metric I will ever get, and I'm taking it.