Programming and self hosting the results when I was ~14 is what led me to a tech background. No university, but I’ve been working professionally in both IT and software for over a decade and self hosting even longer.

I’m not actually and you tell from that. Did you follow a guide / what precise steps did you perform?

My pleasure. Feel free to reach out if you have additional questions.

I do recommend this example docker compose though: https://github.com/n8n-io/n8n/tree/master/docker/compose/withPostgresAndWorker

That one spins up N8N with a worker that handles your workflows, which is useful if you want to scale up in the future. In any case either compose file would let you access N8N locally on port 5678, and the port can be altered in the compose file itself, where you change the left side to the port you want. https://docs.docker.com/compose/compose-file/05-services/#ports

Traefik is just a reverse proxy. All that really matters is the ports you have it listening on and your current, if any, reverse proxy. And even if your preference is say, nginx w/ npm (nginx proxy manager) that’s not to say you can’t just reverse proxy to Traefik (though not recommended).

I will say however that Traefik is not required for N8N, it’s just an example in their docs. All it does is listen on port 5678, so you just use that port in your reverse proxy configuration. They do have a docker compose file without Traefik here: https://github.com/n8n-io/n8n/blob/master/docker/compose/withPostgres/docker-compose.yml

I’ve been using Porkbun for over 5 years and haven’t had any issues. I switched from a mix of Google Domains and Namecheap.

Generally the country based TLDs have that problem. That isn’t unique to porkbun or .de

I second this. They’re upfront about pricing and don’t have many different products so the interface isn’t overwhelming.

I checked the quick start, that aren’t deterring people from using Docker, they’re saying you shouldn’t use the Docker CLI to launch it, and instead use docker-compose. Which is fair, compose is a much better format for persistent containers and being able to use l easily manage and migrate them.

I would start by getting a Kill-A-Watt (or generic) so you can measure power draw (under artificial load). The price between a 600W UPS and a 1000W UPS can be dramatic. When I hear “small server” I think of an R210ii / similar platform that uses less wattage than a old fashioned light bulb.

Highly available. For example, being able to run multiple instances of it and if one server goes down the other picks up slack.

Schrodinger’s backups.

What you’re looking for is a reverse proxy, or in this case, a TCP reverse proxy. I believe only NGINX plus (paid?) supports that. You’re probably better off using haproxy.

I haven’t done it so I can’t help in that front, but I found this: https://www.linuxbabe.com/mail-server/smtp-imap-proxy-with-haproxy-debian-ubuntu-centos

Which is close to your scenario (I just looked at the first result). Otherwise the search term “haproxy imap” or “haproxy mail server” may help you find something, maybe throwing in wireguard or VPN.

You create a “Torrent Blackhole” download client, set the Blackhole folder to somewhere irrelevant (nothing should end up here anyway if you don’t have an indexer setup, I set mine to /tmp). Set the watch folder to the one you want it to watch for new files.

When you add a book, it’ll go in the activity tab and either auto import if it matches a book with your settings, or you’ll get the option to manual import it and select the author, book, series, etc.

Keep in mind you still have to add the author under “Add New”.

So you set up a download folder, that is where it expects new files. Then you can drop them in there and it should be detected for automatic import (if it is confident), otherwise manual import (where you select the author & book & format). You still need to add the author to the library in order to have it manage it.

I’ll be on my computer later so if you’re still having trouble let me know and I can try and put together a step by step guide.

I use Readarr, it’s an automation tool such as Sonarr and Radarr. You don’t necessarily need to use it to do the download portion and could only use it for sorting / folder structure, but that might be overkill.

I imported all my Audible audio books (I used OpenAudible to download them) without much issue.

+1 for a used Lenovo. I have a Lenovo ThinkCentre M710q I used to run as a server I got for ~$50 with an i7-7700. Only thing it was missing was an A/C adapter which set me back ~$30 IIRC.

When I’m looking, I’ll browse eBay’s desktop category sorted by ending soonest auction only and occasionally something will pop up that is worth it.