This question is mainly for those that have family/friends depending on their self-hosted services/data. Does anyone have a plan for the worst case scenario in terms of data access/passwords/making sure your services are kept running if people depend on them? I know I sure don’t, it’s just a strange curiosity my brain thought up and I wondered if anyone else had considered this?
My encryption key dies with me and nobody will be bothered to save my drives and crack them.
Yeah, have a tech mate ready to step in, like a “porn buddy” https://youtube.com/shorts/kgu3PzpKhn4
I decided very long ago not to pollute the gene pool, so everything dies with me.
ETA: It’s comforting to know that 10 people agreed with my life decision. /s LOL
I bought a separate laptop and set it up with an encrypted password that both my wife and I know. It contains instructions on everything from my self hosted stuff to anything else related to my personal life that she would need. It’s 100% offline to keep it safe from a network compromise. This whole thing was especially important since I wanted to make sure my family could access all photos, calendar, contacts, etc for the last decade that are stored on my server.
It takes time to transfer everything to it (all in Obsidian) since it’s a brain dump… But it actually benefits me too. I’ve had a few times where I was like “how the hell did I set that up?” and had some instructions on there the helped lol.
Definitely recommend this to others to consider.
My will contains the master password for my keepass file, from there someone could theoretically handle everything.
It’s the theoretically part that i haven’t figured out. I know none of my family members would have any idea what to do with anything. I feel like All the Data will just be lost when i go… which is a huge issue as everything moves to digital.
You could make a document describing what each set of data is, if its useful to anyone but yourself, or if its safe to delete. You could offer suggestions of what to do with each set. I think of it as a treasure map that you leave behind. Maybe they will be interested in it, maybe they will pass it on to someone else.
I actually started doing that. It’s a living document, shared with others. It’s the best solution I’ve come up with. Knowing whether or not I can convey enough info to make it usable and able to be followed for a less technical person like other family members drives my adoption of software/hardware solutions.
Your family members are unable to ask someone else who knows something about it to help with it? X to doubt.
But… Why do you care? What kind of information is on there? Something like the Epstein files?
At least for me, the only stuff that’s really on there is some music, photos, backups. If it gets lost, nothing important really is lost.
You vastly overestimate boomers-era individuals (and really the entire general population). Beyond turning things on and ‘everything magically works’, most know fuck all about tech.
I know that if I croak tomorrow, while my ex partners and a couple friends would be able to piece together things, 1) they’d have to be informed that I’m dead, 2) they’d have to be asked to help with my different hosts, and 3) they’d need to remember where I physically put the password in case of emergency to access the main host (with all of the family’s important shit, like all of it). Assuming they got those three things done, they would have to convey to the ex/friend how to access the main node, and then figure out my password manager master password, and the mfa (multiple options), or assume it’s inaccessible and use the physical password to retrieve the data and restore… on an OS none of them has ever used before.
Assuming all that is doable, after the restore is to maintain the system and the containers, perpetually, as well as continue paying for the domains so they can access the services hosted on the nodes, and continue paying for my vps and the backup storage strategy (two different companies on two different continents alongside the local copy).
As I have literally almost died before (I was supposed to have died, according to doctors who saved me), I have tried to make this hypothetical situation easy, and still it would astonish me if they get past like step #2.
Yeah if your family is too prideful or stupid or whatever to ask your exes/friends about the “magic technology” (which like I said, asking someone who does know is super easy and sou don’t have to know anything), then I think they deserve to not get whatever is on your server, lol
the only stuff that’s really on there is some music, photos, backups. If it gets lost, nothing important really is lost.
Photos are pretty important to a lot of people, I know that’s the most obvious thing on my server that people would miss and not be able to get anywhere else
that’s very smart
No :/ my server will probably die with me. My people are going to complain why homeassistant isn’t working, why automated lights don’t turn on and why nothing has been added to the plex library in forever. Just not sure who they’ll complain to lol.
At the end of the day, its my hobby and they’ll just have to live with how it was before. The hardware will be there if anyone wants to start up their own thing, but I don’t see it happening.Since others were posting end of life style docs, here is another: https://www.erikdewey.com/bigbook.htm
That’s actually some good info there.
https://github.com/potatoqualitee/eol-dr
Seems pretty thorough.
My plan is using Shamir’s Secret Sharing (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shamir's_secret_sharing) to split my encrypted master password in 3: one for my wife, one for my mother and one for my best friend. In case I die, only 2 of those parts are needed to recover the password.
I want to be buried with my treasure, and as a data hoarder I will have to leave instructions for writing it all to tape.
hardware I’m giving to my sister most likely. Software? well that’s definitly dying with me. I’m the only one in my family that has any form of technical skill required to keep services going. They won’t know what to do with it.
The most I’m able to share is pictures and files.
I’ve made a note in a paper notebook with my master password for the password manager for my wife, but she’s totally uninterested in anything I do with my server - she tried to understand, but it didn’t work. At least she’ll have access to my emails and other stuff in case I die before her.
I know of this project: Dead Man Hand
I created a text file with all the IPs, server name, and function and some general notes. I don’t use good passwords in my home network, sue me. But my master password should go into the will stored with lawyer.
It’s enough to get started but my family will have to find someone to help them at some point as they don’t have the technical skills I do.
