Moving virtual home

Relocating my web server to the UK

web
Hosting options in the UK
Author

Lesley K. Duff

Published

9 February 2026

Modified

9 February 2026

Keywords

Debian, Virtualmin, Docker, Nginx, Portainer, Forgejo

Happy New Year!

Yes, I’m aware it’s February and a long time since my last post. What can I say but busy, busy, busy.

I noticed my VPS provider was now offering hosting in the UK so I’ve relocated my virtual home from continental Europe to I think Manchester UK. Nice to have options closer to home than Dublin or London.

I did have a look at the web hosting scene and one sadness is that a lot of the smaller local Scottish companies that used to be an option have either ceased trading or been merged into larger companies and no longer offer web hosting in Scotland. One of my longer term ambitions is to try and go local where I can to get more of my code and data stored neared to me. Trying to be greener and minimise traffic.

In rebuilding a fresh server I’ve been having fun with

  • Debian (Linux OS)
  • Virtualmin (Server and website admin)
  • Docker (containerised applications)
  • nginx (web server/proxy for applications)
  • Portainer (managing containers)
  • Forgejo (‘GitHub’-like local hosting of source code repositories)

That last one has added interest as it has ‘actions’ that work the same way as on GitHub, so I’m looking to set up more automated pipelines. It will probably mean less activity on my GitHub repo while I experiment in my own sandbox.

Reuse

Citation

BibTeX citation:
@online{duff2026,
  author = {Duff, Lesley K.},
  title = {Moving Virtual Home},
  date = {2026-02-09},
  url = {https://www.dataquine.dev/blog/2026/02/moving-virtual-home/},
  langid = {en-GB}
}
For attribution, please cite this work as:
Duff, Lesley K. 2026. “Moving Virtual Home.” February 9, 2026. https://www.dataquine.dev/blog/2026/02/moving-virtual-home/.