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Free — no monthly cost Use your own hardware DDNS included

Set up DevMonk Connect
on your Home Server

Already have a spare PC, Raspberry Pi, or NAS at home? Turn it into a fully remote-accessible server — for free. This guide explains everything, including the router setup.

The challenge
Why home servers are a little trickier

Unlike a VPS, your home server sits behind your internet router. The router acts like a reception desk — all visitors from the internet arrive at the router's address, but the router doesn't automatically know which device inside the house they want to reach. You need to give it instructions.

There's also a second challenge: most home internet connections give you a different public IP address every few days (this is called a "dynamic IP"). So the address of your home keeps changing. That's what DDNS solves.

🏢 VPS
Fixed public IP — never changes
No router setup needed
Costs €4–15/month
Limited storage
🏠 Home Server
Completely free to run
Use any hardware (PC, Pi, NAS)
Unlimited local storage
Needs router port forwarding
IP changes — use DDNS
The big picture
How a home server setup works end-to-end
YOUR HOME NETWORK INTERNET Your phone (at work / café) DDNS Server ddns.devops-monk.com Stores: home.yourname.com → 82.x.x.x (your IP) heartbeat every 5 min DNS lookup HTTPS :443 🏠 Router Public IP: 82.x.x.x Port forward 80, 443 → 192.168.1.50 forwards to 192.168.1.50 🖥 Home Server (192.168.1.50) nginx :80 and :443 devmonk :7474 ✓ TLS (Let's Encrypt) cert auto-renewed DDNS heartbeat updates IP if changed LEGEND HTTPS traffic (you browsing) DDNS heartbeat (IP updates) Port forward (router rule)
Every component labelled. DDNS keeps your address working even when your home IP changes.
What is DDNS?
Dynamic DNS — your home's permanent address

Your home internet IP address changes every few days (your ISP assigns a new one). Without DDNS, your domain would stop pointing to your home and you'd lose access. DDNS fixes this automatically.

Day 1 IP: 82.10.5.1 home.you.com → 82.10.5.1 ✓ 3 days later ISP changes your IP to 41.20.8.99 ⚡ 5 min later DevMonk sends heartbeat pulse to DDNS server 💓 Seconds later DNS updated home.you.com → 41.20.8.99 ✓ You never notice — the domain always works 🎉
🏠
DevMonk DDNS is built in. When you install DevMonk Connect, just enable DDNS in the config file with your hostname and token. The agent updates your IP every 5 minutes automatically. Get a free hostname at ddns.devops-monk.com.
Router setup
Port forwarding — opening the right doors

Your router is the gatekeeper. Visitors from the internet knock on your router's public IP address. You need to tell the router: "When someone knocks on port 443, send them to my home server at 192.168.1.50."

🌍 Visitor Opens browser home.you.com :443 🏠 Router 82.x.x.x (public) :80 → 192.168.1.50:80 :443 → 192.168.1.50:443 :51820 → 192.168.1.50 (VPN) forwards 🖥 Home Server 192.168.1.50 (local IP) nginx :443 devmonk ✓ Connection complete Dashboard loads in browser
📖
How to find Port Forwarding in your router: Log in to your router (usually at 192.168.1.1 or 192.168.0.1 in your browser). Look for "Port Forwarding", "Virtual Server", or "NAT" in the menu. The exact name depends on your router brand (TP-Link, ASUS, Netgear, BT, Sky, etc).
Required ports
What to open on your router and firewall
PortProtocolUsed forOpen on router?
80TCP HTTP redirect to HTTPS, and Let's Encrypt certificate verification ✓ Yes — forward to your server
443TCP Main HTTPS door — dashboard, terminal, file manager, everything ✓ Yes — forward to your server
51820UDP WireGuard VPN — only needed if you use the VPN feature Optional — VPN users only
7474TCP DevMonk agent internal port ✗ Do NOT open — stays internal

Also open these on your server's firewall (if you use ufw):

ufw allow 80/tcp ufw allow 443/tcp ufw allow 51820/udp # only if using VPN ufw enable
Step-by-step
Full setup walkthrough
1
Give your home server a fixed local IP
Go to your router settings → DHCP Reservation (or "Static Lease"). Find your home server's MAC address and assign it a permanent local IP like 192.168.1.50. Without this, the server's local address might change and your port forward would break.
2
Set up port forwarding on your router
In your router's admin panel, create two forwarding rules:

Rule 1: External port 80 → 192.168.1.50 port 80 (TCP) Rule 2: External port 443 → 192.168.1.50 port 443 (TCP) Rule 3: External port 51820 → 192.168.1.50 port 51820 (UDP) [VPN only]
3
Get a free DDNS hostname
Visit ddns.devops-monk.com and register a free hostname like myhome.ddns.devops-monk.com. Save the token you're given — you'll put it in the DevMonk config file.
4
Install DevMonk Connect
On your home server (needs Linux):
curl -fsSL https://get.devops-monk.com | bash
5
Enable DDNS in the config file
Edit the config at /etc/devmonk-agent.yaml:
ddns: enabled: true hostname: "myhome" # your chosen hostname token: "tok_xxxxxxxx" # from ddns.devops-monk.com
DevMonk will now send a heartbeat every 5 minutes and automatically update your IP if it changes.
6
Set up nginx + free HTTPS certificate
Install nginx and get a TLS certificate from Let's Encrypt for your DDNS hostname:
apt install nginx certbot python3-certbot-nginx -y certbot --nginx -d myhome.ddns.devops-monk.com
The certificate auto-renews every 90 days — you don't need to do anything.
7
Create your account & log in
Open https://myhome.ddns.devops-monk.com/setup in your browser. Set your username and password. Then log in at https://myhome.ddns.devops-monk.com — you're done! 🎉
Troubleshooting
Common problems and fixes
🔴
Can't reach the server from outside
Check port forwarding rules are saved and pointing to the right local IP. Check your server's firewall (ufw). Try visiting http://your-public-ip directly first.
🟡
Domain stopped working
Your home IP probably changed. Check the DDNS dashboard to see if the IP was updated. Make sure the DevMonk agent is running: systemctl status devmonk-agent
🟡
Certificate error in browser
Run certbot renew --dry-run. Make sure port 80 is open on both your router AND server firewall so Let's Encrypt can verify your domain.
🔵
ISP blocks ports 80/443
Some ISPs block ports 80/443 on home connections. Use an alternative port (e.g. 8443) in nginx, then add a port forward for that. Or consider a cheap VPS instead.

Ready to set up your home server?

Install DevMonk Connect with one command. Register your free DDNS hostname first.

Get free DDNS hostname → Rather use a VPS? →
Also see
☁️ VPS setup 🔐 WireGuard VPN 🌐 Reverse Proxy & TLS 📖 Full docs