I'm interested in exploring the world of self hosting, but most of the information that I find is incredibly detailed and specific, such as what type of CPU performs better, etc. What I'm really looking for is an extremely basic square 1 guide. I know basically nothing about networking, I don't really know any coding, but it seems like there are a lot of tools out there that might make this possible even for a dummy like me.
Right now, my cloud computing is pretty much typical, I think. I use onedrive to sync my documents and old files. I need to be able to quickly access files on different devices, such as a powerpoint created on one device and presented on another. On my phone I use Android and my backups of downloads and photos and other data (messages, etc) are all on Google Drive /Google 1.
I'm willing to spend the time learning to an extent, but I'm not looking to become a network expert. I'm also willing to spend a little bit of money on hardware or a subscription service if necessary. Ideally I'd like to be out of this subscription service game, but the main goal is to be in charge of my own files. I have an old laptop running Linux to play around with and a fast and stable home internet connection.
Eventually, I would like to not only be syncing my files, photos, and documents in real time, but also I'd like to maybe try using it as an entertainment server to watch/listen to downloaded media on my home network.
Is there such a thing as a guide for a total beginner starting from zero? Is this worth attempting, or will I quickly find myself frustrated and in way over my head? Or, do I need to wait a little longer until more idiot-proof tools become available?
What ever you do make sure it will scale.
I personally would recommend Proxmox right out of the gate as it will scale very nicely. I run docker and podman in a few VMs on my dedicated cluster and I have a virtual desktop that I use for gaming (USB and GPU passed via vfio)
This is important. I dunno about scale, but backups. I started out hosting a chat room on a raspberry pi. It was a fun side project. But then, that became where my friends all hung out. That was the place, so it became important to me. And then the SD card got corrupted. I then moved on to a consumer laptop. It was way more stable, much faster. But if I messed up anything about the installation, I was hosed.
I very highly suggest using Proxmox, like you say, and setting up automatic backups. And occasionally transfer them to a hard drive. It doesn't matter what kind of virtual CPUs or services you install, [email protected], as long as you have a plan for when something you host becomes important to you and you lose it.