Self-Hosting Discoveries: Part 1 of ???

Recent random surfing and curiosity got me into "self-hosting" a few apps that normally I would have left up to the big cloud companies like Google and Microsoft and others...

Generally, that means 

1) Install "Windows Subsystem for Linux" or WSL on your Windows 11 Home PC

2) Install Docker Desktop and register for a free tier membership

3) Download and configure whatever app you want to self-host available in Docker container form

4) Install Tailscale distributed VPN and register for a free tier membership, then setup your nodes (i.e. your host PC, and whatever peripheral you want to access it from, probably your smartphone)

5) Test if everything works! 

However, there are a LOT of little niggles that causes a lot of problems in practice, at least on my personal desktop (Win11, NOT Pro), which I guess I *could* have solved by using an old PC to host these apps...

a) startup sequence

The startup sequence was kinda screwed up, as the Docker Desktop refused to initialize properly, which means none of the containers (apps) works either. Keeps complaining about not "signed in", even though it just opens up my browser, and my browser *is* signed into Docker. Had to close Docker Desktop completely, then reopen it. 

THEN the services won't open, kept complaining about port not open. Had to Powershell admin mode, then net stop hns to fix that. THEN the containers in Docker Desktop will start normally. 

b) Can't resume from sleep? 

This may be my PC's own fault, but the net effect is if my PC went to sleep I can't be sure this thing will keep running. 

c) Containers are still a mystic art

There are many ways to configure a container, and many of them require the use of CLI, or editing a Docker Compose file (YAML). 

There are more, but I am figuring them out... slowly.