Necessary Context

- A client came up to me and wanted to setup a shop him for 200 USD.

- He did not have enough money for hosting.

- I said I could do him a solid and host it on my own custom-built server 💪.

It had been running for over a year primarily as my BitTorrent seeder, I2P node, Tor relay, Monero node, and for a while it was also hosting this site among many other things, so I was confident it could do it.

“It” being a 💻 beat-up ThinkPad T440p that I got for almost nothing at the recycling center (it had a damaged keyboard, touchpad, and display). It has been refurbished, upgraded and used as a personal laptop, but now it’s a server.

• i7 4th gen
• 16GB Crucial RAM
• 1TB Samsung 870 EVO
• Custom firmware (Libreboot)

This cost less than a month of a similar-spec VPS.

💻 The Server Has:

• Gentoo Linux (OS)
• Custom-compiled kernel & system (hardened + performance)
• 100% Free as in Freedom software
• SELinux (target option, confining the containers)
• Full disk encryption (LUKS) + USB KEY to unlock
• Automatic backups (rsync + tar cron job that backs it up to many other locations)
• WireGuard VPN (for bypassing dynamic IP)
• On Docker:
  • Redis
  • WordPress
  • Nginx
  • Prometheus
  • Monerod
  • MariaDB
  • Grafana
  • Wazuh Manager
  • Tor & I2Pd (router, relay, and hidden service for Monerod)

The Website Stuff:

• Nginx FastCGI Cache
• WordPress
  • Plugins:
    • WooCommerce
    • Monero WooCommerce Gateway
    • Redis Object Cache
    • WP Super Cache
    • WPS hide
• Cloudflare CDN
• ModSecurity (with OWASP-CRS on the VPS)
• Wireguard tunnel to vps to expose it to the web

The site can be accessed over here: https://freedompads.shop

Dont believe? 📹 Video proof: https://odysee.com/@nickbrazilian/thinkpad_wordpress

The website contents was not made by me, i just did the hosting configuration.

I dont sell thinkpads.