Freedom Box: Host your own home privacy server with easy self install packages
Came across this solution on the web from https://freedomboxfoundation.org/ which sounds appealing would love to hear some thoughts about it as i`m tempted to get one. Seems good for those not too tech savvy as well as the ultra nerds.
I initally came across it as it offers a one click solution for installing a matrix home chat server for use with apps such as Riot IM, as well as Jabber Xmmp + more. (click here for features)
FreedomBox comes with automatic Open Source software updates powered by Debian
(the matrix section is in chapter 5. Sub-chapter 9) feel free to look at other sections as it does more like Tor, file synching, openvpn, SIP etc all as easy install modules. Configuring and setup will take some time to figure out but at least some of the headaches are gone!!.
Maybe its been discussed before? thought id share it anyways
I’ve been going through the process of setting up Freedombox on an old net top over the last week. Freedombox is very good. The difficulty lies in configuring the apps (I’m looking at you ejabberd) once installed.
We’ve already had this discussion but again : video tutorials are clearer for newbie.
A few days ago, to reinstall the BIOS of a laptop I mess with, I only understood what multiple writing howto meant with a single video tutorial because on a video tutorial, there are 100% of the setps needed.
Yes this project is very similar to the internet cube, which works with yunohost and gives you a vpn connection at home. It uses the same hardware components.
I amended the main post after reading more about it to add a link to the manual page of supported hardware.
I thought i best update the main post as vern mentioned Raspeberry Pi. It says it supports Raspberry Pi 2 and 3 Models B and B+. They have the orginal Raspberry Pi listed under depreciated hardware, whch means it was once supported and still works but gets no updates.
I still learning this concept of self hosting thxs for the info about the other projects as mentioned by Reinar,Haiemilio, Anonyme, Trefix. i`m gonna look at those too.
I``d be curious to hear more from Vaughan as he owns one also for Vaughan he mentioned having some issue with configuring some apps, if it helps i did notice on Riot IM, there is a Freedombox community room where people can chat and may able to solve your problem.
As a Noobie to home server hosting ive decided to take the plunge and order a Freedombox, ive only just placed the order tonight! & should hopefully arrive in 3 days! I am not sure what the nextcloud thing does or if i need it and fear it maybe too technical for me. I looked at younohost site also; but found pages were a bit vague and lacking in information (personally). The freedombox one seems to be the easiest one (i hope), then i can play around at setup my own Riot matrix server, which i hope will eventually get myself.friends & family off whatsapp. I`m excited for it to arrive, dare i say every household in the modern age could benefit from this and similar devices !!
I installed Debian on an old net top and installed Freedombox from the Debian repositories. All very straightforward. I then installed ejabberd and a had problem with server to server connections between my server and conversations.im. I spent ages messing with the ejabberd config file to no avail. Eventually I got chatting on the ejabberd public channel and one of the participants helped me to deduce that my pi-hole wasn’t resolving the dns requests correctly. The freedombox is no longer using the pi-hole until I get a chance to investigate and ejabberd is working beautifully. I’ll be trying other apps soon and may post here of any problems.
A Freedombox instance has a web front end through which apps are installed. It really is point and click, with usable default configurations set up by the Freedombox software. If you need or want to then you can play around with the configuration files for installed apps directly but this should only be necessary if the standard configuration is unsuitable for you. In my case the problem I encountered was nothing to do with either Freedombox or ejabberd but rather, my non-standard LAN DNS setup. If you have an old machine lying around and a bit of time to play with it then I’d say give it a try.
Yes, the Physical Freedombox in the main post picture comes with a SD Card which acts as its primary bootup drive with the software pre-installed for you (according to their website).
I only just discovered their forum, it isnt obvious on how to navigate to the link, i was looking for a forum link once beforee but it is kind of hidden, instead of “forum”, you have to click “get support” which then takes you to the forum. This may be a good place to look or post about your non-standard LAN DNS setup
I would have liked to have updated the main post with info about the pre installed SD card and their forum link but the edit function on the main post has vanished?! anyone know where it went? it would be useful if i could tidy up and add to the main post when new things are revealed.
