"Thanks" to AI crawler bots, "resident IP Proxy services" (they are botnets, period) and SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) The Open Web we wanted has become more like the digital equivalent of an abusive relationship.

So I am un-optimising my web presence. Static pages only, Pure content, no optimisations, keeping crawlers at bay. Digital self-defence to get back to what we, the people, wanted the internet to be. The internet of people.

1/5

No cloudflare, I rely on the DDoS protection from my hosting providers. Everything on my "own" machines (well, technically Virtual Private Servers for 5-10โ‚ฌ/month with a bare bone Red Hat Enterprise Linux install, administration via ssh access). Should one of my machines get under attack by excessive traffic and go offline, so be it. It'll be back after a short while. I can live with that. And so should you, my dear friends. Call it SlowHosting ๐Ÿ˜Š More relaxed, more forgiving.

2/5

My servers and services are humming along nicely since quite some years that way. email server, web server, my Forgejo instance, uptime monitor, some little tools โ€” all managed with a terminal and some shell scripts. The most expensive part of my #SelfHost setup are the domain names renewal fees ;)

3/5

And at home I have my Cute Homelab that is, well, at home and not publicly accessible. That's where I can experiment and play. I try to document all that stuff in a rather ad-hoc manner on my blog [1] and my public gist collection [2]. I hope that sharing all of that inspires you to experiment yourself! To make your own mistakes and have your own success moments. And share your experiences. Trust me, it's totally worth it.

4/5

[1] https://jan.wildeboer.net
[2] https://codeberg.org/jwildeboer/gists

Addendum: I use https://crowdsec.net on my public servers since 2 years now and it serves me well. It collects data from many volunteers out there analyses them and feeds my firewall. I also run a few shell scripts to add local decisions. While this is all happily humming in the background, the number of entries tells you that even a small server like mine is under continuous attack.

Excerpt from my crowdsec statistics on one of my public servers. It blocks thousands of IP addresses and ranges and updates itself continuously.

| Reason                            โ”‚ Origin   โ”‚ Action โ”‚ Count โ”‚
โ”‚ crowdsecurity/http-cve-2021-42013 โ”‚ crowdsec โ”‚ ban    โ”‚ 1     โ”‚
โ”‚ SMTP bruteforce                   โ”‚ cscli    โ”‚ ban    โ”‚ 56    โ”‚
โ”‚ http:exploit                      โ”‚ CAPI     โ”‚ ban    โ”‚ 10904 โ”‚
โ”‚ http:scan                         โ”‚ CAPI     โ”‚ ban    โ”‚ 3087  โ”‚
โ”‚ crowdsecurity/CVE-2017-9841       โ”‚ crowdsec โ”‚ ban    โ”‚ 1     โ”‚
โ”‚ crowdsecurity/http-bad-user-agent โ”‚ crowdsec โ”‚ ban    โ”‚ 3     โ”‚
โ”‚ crowdsecurity/http-cve-2021-41773 โ”‚ crowdsec โ”‚ ban    โ”‚ 1     โ”‚
โ”‚ AI Crawler                        โ”‚ cscli    โ”‚ ban    โ”‚ 665   โ”‚
โ”‚ firehol_botscout_7d               โ”‚ lists    โ”‚ ban    โ”‚ 2379  โ”‚
โ”‚ generic:scan                      โ”‚ CAPI     โ”‚ ban    โ”‚ 1302  โ”‚
โ”‚ pop3/imap:bruteforce              โ”‚ CAPI     โ”‚ ban    โ”‚ 637   โ”‚
โ”‚ smtp:spam                         โ”‚ CAPI     โ”‚ ban    โ”‚ 231   โ”‚
โ”‚ SASL bruteforce                   โ”‚ cscli    โ”‚ ban    โ”‚ 513   โ”‚
โ”‚ firehol_greensnow                 โ”‚ lists    โ”‚ ban    โ”‚ 6599  โ”‚
โ”‚ http:crawl                        โ”‚ CAPI     โ”‚ ban    โ”‚ 19    โ”‚
โ”‚ crowdsecurity/http-probing        โ”‚ crowdsec โ”‚ ban    โ”‚ 1     โ”‚
โ”‚ Spam                              โ”‚ cscli    โ”‚ ban    โ”‚ 7     โ”‚
Excerpt from my crowdsec statistics on one of my public servers. It blocks thousands of IP addresses and ranges and updates itself continuously. | Reason โ”‚ Origin โ”‚ Action โ”‚ Count โ”‚ โ”‚ crowdsecurity/http-cve-2021-42013 โ”‚ crowdsec โ”‚ ban โ”‚ 1 โ”‚ โ”‚ SMTP bruteforce โ”‚ cscli โ”‚ ban โ”‚ 56 โ”‚ โ”‚ http:exploit โ”‚ CAPI โ”‚ ban โ”‚ 10904 โ”‚ โ”‚ http:scan โ”‚ CAPI โ”‚ ban โ”‚ 3087 โ”‚ โ”‚ crowdsecurity/CVE-2017-9841 โ”‚ crowdsec โ”‚ ban โ”‚ 1 โ”‚ โ”‚ crowdsecurity/http-bad-user-agent โ”‚ crowdsec โ”‚ ban โ”‚ 3 โ”‚ โ”‚ crowdsecurity/http-cve-2021-41773 โ”‚ crowdsec โ”‚ ban โ”‚ 1 โ”‚ โ”‚ AI Crawler โ”‚ cscli โ”‚ ban โ”‚ 665 โ”‚ โ”‚ firehol_botscout_7d โ”‚ lists โ”‚ ban โ”‚ 2379 โ”‚ โ”‚ generic:scan โ”‚ CAPI โ”‚ ban โ”‚ 1302 โ”‚ โ”‚ pop3/imap:bruteforce โ”‚ CAPI โ”‚ ban โ”‚ 637 โ”‚ โ”‚ smtp:spam โ”‚ CAPI โ”‚ ban โ”‚ 231 โ”‚ โ”‚ SASL bruteforce โ”‚ cscli โ”‚ ban โ”‚ 513 โ”‚ โ”‚ firehol_greensnow โ”‚ lists โ”‚ ban โ”‚ 6599 โ”‚ โ”‚ http:crawl โ”‚ CAPI โ”‚ ban โ”‚ 19 โ”‚ โ”‚ crowdsecurity/http-probing โ”‚ crowdsec โ”‚ ban โ”‚ 1 โ”‚ โ”‚ Spam โ”‚ cscli โ”‚ ban โ”‚ 7 โ”‚