You must own a domain name in order to send/recieve email as well as expose services to the public internet. Your domain name can be whatever you want. As long as someone doesn't already own it, you can buy it. All domain name providers have a search function that you can use to see if a particular name of your choosing is available.
You can also add secondary domains later for things like email, etc. However, the first domain is what all of your services will be installed on for your private network, and is difficult to change later, so choose your primary domain name wisely. Here are a few provider options:
The HomeServer is the back-end machine where your data and services will reside. Ideally this machine will be physically located safely in your home. The next section, Prepare HomeServer, provides more details on purchasing and setting up your machine in your home.
Ensure you select one of the above version(s). The installation will not start otherwise! Support for other versions and distros will be added over time.
With all available services installed, the HomeServer uses around 12-15GB at idle. Certain non-essential services will be disabled by default with lower RAM.
The average photo size is around 5MB, thus 100GB can store around 20,000 photos.
The RelayServer is the front-end internet-facing machine where your services will be accessed and relayed through, such as email, access to your private network(VPN), masquerade your IP address, federated services, and/or any websites that you may want to host publicly. You must be able to open ports on this machine. For the typical home user, using a virtual private server (VPS) in the cloud is an acceptable route. This is discussed shortly in further detail (Setup RelayServer). It will cost around $10 per month for a server with these specifications. None of your data is stored on this machine. It is only a means of relaying through to your HomeServer as well as an egress point for masquerading your IP address.
Ensure you select one of the above version(s). The installation will not start otherwise! Support for other versions and distros will be added over time.
To access the servers via terminal remotely, you'll need an SSH terminal application. Here are a couple of options:
Most operating systems come with a default note taking program, but one with a much richer feature set for Windows is Notepad++:
For any device that will be used to access your private network remotely, it will need WireGuard installed. It is available in every app store, and from the WireGuard website as well: