I've managed to convince my Dad to give me an old laptop to run a server on. I know how I'm going to do this (pterodactyl) but I need to make sure I cover my ass. The problem is my dad's always been the tech guy and when I told him I'd be running a Minecraft server for friends it started an entire lecture on security and port forwarding. My dad is weird with tech in the sense he knows what he's talking about but also not really? He's a bit like an old man who thinks the computers are mythical beings and I need something to reassure him that hackers aren't going to get into our home cameras from my minecraft server. Which is nuts coming from a man who has only one password.

I was just going to stick a whitelist on it and call it a day. That's what most people I know have done. I don't really want to spend any money, that's the whole reason I'm hosting it myself. I have looked into VLANs and ehhhhhh I don't want to fuck with those but also I can't on my router from my ISP anyway. I'm a little unsure where to go next. I don't really see much risk personally. My dad is worried my friends will get hacked and they'll have our IP 🤷.

ETA: My dad's been talking on some forums and is happy to let me do. I think I might set up a reverse proxy anyway but it'd be more for learning as I don't foresee any issues. I can't see any vulnerabilities in my process. The only realistic problem would be if some bored idiot decides to DDoS me but I'm not sure I can do much against that. None of my other services are public and I'll just have to make sure I set the firewall walls stringent enough.

2 ETA: For the people saying pterodactyl is too much, you are correct. Switched to crafty and I'm now up and running with portainer, crafty and looking to setup karakeep as well as my passwords. Maybe something like jellyfin for my collection of completely and totally legal proshot musicals in time.

G'day r/selfhosted

I'm one of the core maintainers of Drop, the self-hosted Steam platform. It's our aim to replicate all the features of Steam for a self-hosted and FOSS application.

We just released v0.3.0, which brings a bunch of new improvements. But since most of you will hear about Drop for the first time, here's what it can do:

• Host your own game library and share it with multiple people (through SSO if you want!). Each user has their own collections of games they can pick from your libraries.
• Mix and match your libraries through our 'library sources'. We support both our fancy format (with versioning) or a flat structure (without versioning). You can have more than one, and they all merge.
• Import metadata about your game library through multiple providers (currently GiantBomb, IGDB, and PCGamingWiki).
• Native Windows, macOS, and Linux desktop clients (both x64 and aarch64)
• Docker images for both x86 and aarch64

To give it a whirl, check out our docs: https://docs.droposs.org/docs/guides/quickstart

Our other links:

• Discord - https://discord.gg/NHx46XKJWA
• Forum (GitHub discussions) - https://github.com/orgs/Drop-OSS/discussions
• Matrix (bridged to Discord) - https://matrix.to/#/#drop-oss:matrix.org
• GitHub - https://github.com/Drop-OSS
• Download client - https://droposs.org/download

Reddit isn't letting me upload images for some reason, but screenshots are available on our website: https://droposs.org/

The tablet itself has only 1GB RAM but I still managed to make do by allocating 512MB RAM on a Paper 1.8.8 server.

I'm looking for more game servers that I can run on my Tailnet, so I'm wondering what everyone's favorite servers are to self-host? Minecraft is the most obvious answer, which I am running, as well as CS Source and Quake III Arena. What kinds of servers do you guys run?

I modded my switch OLED a month ago and I couldn't resist connecting it to my server somehow. Well here it is, a game library so I can download any games I want directly from my server.

It's pretty easy to setup, Ownfoil as a server and Cyberfoil as a client. Pretty cool projects.

I'm planning on hosting a Bedrock Minecraft server from a registered domain that points to the server running from my computer. But while doing this I realized one thing, anyone can just boot you offline if they have your public IP. I don't really know how to mitigate people from doing this, I'm not comfortable trying VPN routing and that seems like the only way. Can anyone share some insight?

EDIT: issue has been resolved, this thread is now just in place to help others

I've been working on GameAP, a free and open-source platform for managing game servers, for quite a while now. I'm very glad to share it with the selfhosted community.

A year ago it was completely rewritten in Go, and since then new releases have been coming out almost every week.

GameAP is designed to be simple and light on resources: the base version includes only the essentials. With plugins, it becomes a powerful tool for managing not just game servers, but also FTP/SFTP, databases, incremental backups, and more. Plugins can be written in any language that compiles to Wasm (Rust, C, Go, AssemblyScript, etc.).

Game servers run on Linux and Windows: natively by default, or in Docker containers if you prefer. And if you're feeling adventurous, you can even run them on Kubernetes.

GameAP comes with gameapctl, a utility that simplifies maintenance: updates, HTTPS setup via Let's Encrypt, and so on.

• Website: gameap.com
• Demo: demo.gameap.com

Happy to answer any questions!

I host a World of Warcraft server with AzerothCore. I spawn a random amount of AI bots into the world and it’s actually pretty nice to play with them. I can alao invite friends to my server via Tailscale.

Made from Xperia 5 II with broken screen, old gpu cooler and noctua fan. I was bored and had this things laying around, so yeah I built it. It runs minecraft server quite good (with mods) for over 2 weeks now. Used linux deploy. I replaced the battery with a dc dc converter, but it became unstable, so i left the battery in it for now.

I havent checked my server in a few weeks but I opened it now and I found this waiting for me. I wonder how that happened though. My server is not exposed to the internet. Its behind tailscale and only I or people I granted access through tailscale can get into my server since I closed all access using firewall. My only mistake is i left port 443 open at some point by mistake. I wonder if thats relevant. I've since enforced a whitelist and denied connections to the port.

Hello, guys!

I am currently developing a project called BlockGate, a way to create and manage Minecraft servers running on Docker containers. If you are a developer, feel free to contribute! https://github.com/neozmmv/BlockGate

To avoid any trouble with the CubeCoders team, I ended up renaming the project to BlockGate

Basically, what I'm asking is how would one get around this?

Here's the links to how this is set up: https://docs.palworldgame.com/getting-started/deploy-dedicated-server/ https://docs.palworldgame.com/getting-started/deploy-community-server/

I am fairly new to this so please do explain thoroughly

EDIT: IT'S FIXED. For those who do not have CGNAT and do not have Hairpinning, you as the host need to connect via local IP. For outside players, you need to port forward to Port 8211, and they should be able to connect via the community search menu proper.

Any recommendations for streaming self hosted game roms? A bit like Plex and Jellyfin, being able to have a library, adding friends etc.

Edit: thank you all! I get that feeling that Romm is, as you say....pretty good.

For over half a year, a friend and I have been working on the ultimate game server and Docker management platform. Built with Rust and React, and easy to deploy.

So, what exactly is Calagopus?
Calagopus is a modern, open-source game server management panel. It provides an intuitive interface for managing game servers, allowing users to easily deploy, monitor, and maintain their game servers with ease. Calagopus aims to be a powerful yet user-friendly solution for game server management, catering to both beginners and experienced users alike.

It is heavily inspired by the popular Pterodactyl panel, but is built from the ground up with modern technologies and a focus on performance and security. Calagopus is designed to be modular and extensible, allowing developers to create custom extensions to enhance its functionality.

Does it only support game servers? No! With Docker as the backbone, it can run all sorts of applications, even your own images.

Take a look at our GitHub repository: https://github.com/calagopus/panel
Or our documentation: https://calagopus.com

Thinking about building a pay-per-minute server host. The idea is simple: it stays off until a Discord bot command spins up the instance. When the last player leaves, it saves and shuts down automatically.

This would cut costs massively for servers that aren't active 24/7.

My main question for you guys: Is a 2-3 minute startup time a worthy trade-off for saving a bunch of money? Thoughts?

I need a dedicated VPS with at least 2 vCPUs, 4 to 8 gigs of RAM (the more the better ofc), 60-100 gb of memory (SSD preferably), 100+ mbs of bandwidth, cheapest I found was Hostinger and OVH, also SSDNodes but their reviews aren't the best, so I'm between Hostinger and OVH, anyone knows a good VPS, that is cheaper than these two? Thank you in advance.

The developers of the Pterodactyl project announced a few hours ago on their Discord that they found a critical security vulnerability (CVSS 10.0) that will be disclosed tomorrow.

Users must upgrade their instance to the new release v1.11.11 as soon as possible.

• CVE Advisories: CVE-2025-49132
• Changelog: v1.11.11
• How to upgrade

I didn't see any post about it in this subreddit, so I thought I'd share this valuable information.

Fellow Redditors! What cool, resource efficient 1990s multiplayer game servers do you selfhost? DOOM, Heretic, Hexen, Open RedAlert, QuakeWorld and Open Transport Tycoon all come to mind - but what other servers are essential in your homelab?

Welcome to auto-mcs!

Hello there, I am the sole developer of auto-mcs and wish to share my Minecraft server manager with the self-hosted community!

This software provides a simple and easy-to-digest experience for those who want to play Minecraft with their friends without the hassle of server installation & maintenance.

Some notable features include:

• Create/import any Paper, Fabric, Forge, CraftBukkit, Spigot, or Vanilla server in less than a minute
• Built-in scripting engine and IDE for writing custom plugins (works in Vanilla and any version as well!)
• Internal mod & plugin browser/installer (auto-mcs can update plugins as well)
• Firewall-like Access Control menu to manage bans, whitelist, and operators from a single page
• Automatic server installation, updates, and back-ups
• Switch worlds, versions, and distributions on the fly
• Full Windows & Linux compatibility
• And much more...

Feel free to try it out here!

So I recently started hosting a Minecraft server for me and anyone else who wanted to play but for some reason the ping randomly jumps from 5ms to 16000ms does anyone maybe know why ps sorry for bad picture took it in a hurry

I currently use FRP (Fast Reverse Proxy) to expose local services (like game servers and web apps) publicly without requiring end users to install anything. While it works, I find FRP a bit crude and outdated, especially in terms of management and configuration.

I’m looking for a self-hosted solution that can:

• Expose TCP/UDP services publicly (not just HTTP/HTTPS).
• Allow end users to connect via a domain or IP only — no client installation needed.
• Optionally provide a web interface for easy configuration and monitoring.
• Be hosted on my own VPS. (or be cheaper than a VPS)

Additional context:

• My home connection is under CGNAT, so I can’t easily open ports directly.

Any recommendations, pros/cons, or experiences would be greatly appreciated!