Hey, I’m Miggi. I study computer science in Germany & love programmer memes 😉
Yeah Matrix is a good choice 👍


Maybe use Docker with a UI like lazydocker or Portainer.
If you feel safe with Docker, perhaps experiment with Proxmox as a base. Then you can separate your environments into different VMs.


Matrix is a well-known self-hosted messenger. I use it for years now.


Both your containers need share at least one network. It looks like have created a external network. Good job. The next step is to configure your container to join the network. Do something like this:
services:
nginx-proxy-manager:
....
networks:
- nginx-proxy-manager_default # or just nginx
...
networks:
nginx:
name: nginx-proxy-manager_default
external: true
Don’t forget to also add the network in your audiobookshelf service.
Maybe this helps: https://docs.docker.com/compose/how-tos/networking/#use-an-existing-network


I have used some Hetzner products for some time now, including the Storage Box. The services they provide are great. My NAS backs up my important data to the Storage Box, and it just works fine. Sometimes I get emails that they need to do maintenance, but I never disturb my work. I think you can give it a try.
I think it’s still one of the best solutions.


Maybe AdGuard Home would be cool. Its a modern way to block ads via DNS (like PiHole, just newer)
I also used CrowdSec for almost a year, but as AI scrapers became more aggressive, CrowdSec alone wasn’t enough. The scrapers used distributed IP ranges and spoofed user agents, making them hard to detect and costing my Forgejo instance a lot in expensive routes. I tried custom CrowdSec rules but hit its limits.
Then I discovered Anubis. It’s been an excellent complement to CrowdSec — I now run both. In my experience they work very well together, so the question isn’t “A or B?” but rather “How can I combine them, if needed?”