I have a spare PC which I can use as a server, host, or whatever discourse needs. It is connected to my storage server, so plenty of storage (130TB + 8tb of ssd’s in the pc itself) and has good specs, 64gb of ram, intel i9-12900k and 2x Nvidia Titan. I just want to make a forum that I can host online through that PC, so no one needs to connect to my wifi to run it, and can just go and run it off their mobile network. Basically I previously used a whatsapp group, but it’s just getting uncategorised, so I have decided to setup a forum. I don’t want to spend money, cause why would I. It should be easy to follow since I am a beginner, and yeah some extra guides on stuff like how do I forward the ports and stuff from local to the internet to make it work online. I have referred to other topics, but I can’t really understand. Thanks for the help.

You can see Install Discourse on a residential internet with Cloudflare Tunnel You’ll need email as discussed. If you try hard you can use mailgun pay as you go, but they make it hard to figure out how to get in that plan. It’s $1/1000 emails.

It’s not practically possible because you need managed email services to avoid your notifications being blocked. And they cost money. You will need to budget at least $10 a month.

You could use a service such as Mailjet which is free.

Can you sign up without a credit card?

Stand me corrected, thanks. I wonder how long that will last?!

Mailjet has been around since 2010, seems like it’s here for a lot longer - even more so considering they were recently taken over by Sinch.

Not the company, the free product. That must lose money.

The free tier has been available since launch, if I recall correctly. Sure - it loses money, but it gains a lot of customers. If the tier has been around for so long, they must be benefiting from it one way or another.

There are scores of SMTP providers you can find online, and almost all of them have a free-tier which doesn’t require a credit card. To expose the service to the internet, you can use something like Cloudflare tunnels (Free), without opening up a port on your router. But this is a huge security risk, as it allows an adversary to exploit vulnerabilities on discourse or anything else you expose using tunnels to establish a foothold on the server, and completely compromise your home network. If you end up doing this, at the very least you might want to place your server in the DMZ network of your router, and not open any ports to it. Do any admin work directly on the server.

[image] Robert: $10 a month I can think of spending that. Let me have sometime to think for it. [image] Mol: recommended service for free emails which is reliable and quite generous Looks good :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes: I will use it then. [image] Mol: loses money, but it gains a lot of customers. If the tier has been around for so long Just like youtube :slightly_smiling_face: [image] Ja: your server in the DMZ network of your router I will do that, as i see this is the only way i can do it for now as you are telling. So i have no other choice. Btw, can I test discourse with my home network first. Without exposing it to internet, to just see if it works good.

Installing discourse for free?

Product Support Self-hosting

anon82911141 June 12, 2024, 9:44am 5

Yes, it’s the recommended service for free emails which is reliable and quite generous.

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Installing discourse for free?

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