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Using Fail2ban to protect exposed services
(arvind.io)
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this post was submitted on 13 Nov 2025
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Yes, I run many services and website on the public web from my homelab. Harden your server first. Like disabling root ssh login.
Also enable auto updates on your server. Use your router/server to block some counties using geoip (especially if those services are meant for only a couple of people within your county maybe?). You could also use block lists, there any many bad ip lists out there.
Configure rate limits in Nginx.
You also mentioned fail2ban. You can define many rules and actions. Like blocking ips that might go over your previously defined rate limits. Or 4xx action for ips that request a lot of non existing pages (404 errors) .
Also captcha won't cut it anymore today. Try https://github.com/TecharoHQ/anubis
Of course expose only what you want to expose, so only open ports in your firewall you really want to open. Ideally put everything behind a reverse proxy like Nginx.
Let's start with all of the things mentioned above. Ping me later if want to know more or have questions.
Do you have any tutorials or guides on this handy?
Yeah, definitely all my users are in the same town/region/country as me. So this could be doable.
Hm, currently using Caddy as my reverse proxy. I guess there's some module for this.
The only port I need open is 443 for accessing Jellyfin and Immich. I can definitely block 22 from the public internet. And fuck it no automatic redirects from 80 to 443. TLS or bust.
Caddy is also fine.
I wrote a blog about server hardining and you might find it useful: https://blog.melroy.org/2023/server-hardening/