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Hosting

Hosting

Dens on Linux or Windows can host one den; the Flatpak and the Android app can’t. The den lives on your computer, and members connect to it over the internet. You need:

  • A computer that stays on. The den is only up while it runs. A normal PC is enough, or a server.
  • Upload speed. A new den’s limits need about 20 Mbps of upload when every call is full; you can lower or raise them.
  • A domain name, such as den.example.com. Any registrar sells them, usually for $10 to $20 a year.
  • Your router’s settings, to forward four ports to this computer.

Besides Dens, a den needs only Caddy, a small web server that gets it a free HTTPS certificate. Members’ Dens finds the den again by itself whenever it moves or comes back.

Turn hosting on

In Settings, under System, turn on Host a den on this computer. It asks for your local password, since it opens Dens to the internet. If another program already uses one of the den’s ports, the setting says which, and how to give the den another.

Create the den

The home page now shows Create your den: give it a name, its public address (https:// and your domain), and your owner account. This works before the steps below, since Dens reaches its own den directly.

Point your domain at your home

In your domain’s DNS settings, add an A record for your den’s name, pointing at your home’s public IP address (search “what is my IP” from this computer). Add an AAAA record if your connection has an IPv6 address too. A home address can change; many routers and DNS providers offer dynamic DNS, which keeps the record up to date.

Set up Caddy

Use your own domain in place of den.example.com.

Install it from your distribution (apt install caddy, dnf install caddy, pacman -S caddy; on Bazzite, rpm-ostree install caddy and a restart). Then:

sudo tee /etc/caddy/Caddyfile <<'EOF'
den.example.com {
	reverse_proxy 127.0.0.1:8485
}
EOF
sudo systemctl enable caddy
sudo systemctl restart caddy

If your system runs a firewall, let the den’s ports through it. Fedora and Bazzite do:

sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-service=http --add-service=https
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=7881/udp --add-port=7882/tcp
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

Forward the ports

In your router’s settings, often under port forwarding, forward these to this computer, and reserve this computer’s local address (a DHCP reservation) so the forwarding keeps pointing at it:

PortProtocolFor
80TCPCaddy getting its certificate
443TCPMembers connecting
7881UDPVoice and screen share
7882TCPVoice and screen share, where UDP is blocked

Some internet providers share one public address among many customers (CGNAT), and then forwarding can’t work. A small rented server with an address of its own can host the den instead.

Invite someone, and test a call

In the den’s Manage, under Invites, create one and send it to a friend. Your own calls work before any port is forwarded, so the test is a call from outside your home: your friend, or a laptop on your phone’s hotspot. Calls go straight to the address your domain points at, so a tunnel or CDN that carries your den’s website can’t carry its calls.

Running the den

Everything is in the den’s Manage: click the den’s name at the top of its channel list. Roles, invites, channels, limits and the soundboard work as you’d expect; what’s different:

  • Invites are the only way in. Each expires and works a set number of times. Dens keeps no IP addresses, so someone banned can come back under a new name with a new invite: revoke the one they used.
  • Staff act only on people of a lower rank. The exception is moving someone between calls, which staff do to anyone but the owner. The owner promotes moderators from ⋯ on a profile, and sets the den’s limits.
  • Limits cap files, storage, and how big calls and screen shares get; the calls section shows the upload they need when full. Lower them if calls stutter.
  • Auto-delete deletes messages older than a number of days, in channels and DMs, and members see the setting. A backup keeps what it held until you delete the backup.
  • Calls are end-to-end encrypted. Neither you nor anyone holding the computer can hear or watch them, and a member whose Dens is too old to seal them can’t join one until they update.
  • A new address. Change it in General, and keep the old name pointing at the den for a while, so members who were offline find the new one.
  • Updates. Your den updates along with the Dens that hosts it. If you’d rather keep them apart, host the den from an install of its own.

On a server

A den can live on a machine that stays on, such as a home server or a small rented one, which needs no desktop or browser: everything on it is a command, and you keep running the den from your own computer, as its owner. Install Dens there over SSH as on any Linux; on a rented server, the provider’s firewall stands in for the router.

If the server has only root

Make an account for yourself first, and name it when you install: Dens’s commands answer that one account, and it can’t be root. Then run this page’s sudo commands as root, and the others as that account.

adduser alice
curl -fsSLO https://releases.dens.chat/install.sh
sh install.sh --user alice

In a Proxmox or Incus container, use Debian 13 with nesting on. The first time, the installer stops and says why: LXC adds a setting that turns off the locks Dens runs under. Switch it off, as root, and run the installer again:

mkdir -p /etc/systemd/system/service.d
ln -s /dev/null /etc/systemd/system/service.d/zzz-lxc-service.conf
systemctl daemon-reload

Moving a den there. On the computer that hosts it now, in Settings under System, choose Move the den to another computer: it turns hosting off and downloads the den’s export, a file that holds only the den, locked with your local password. Members can’t reach the den until the server hosts it, so do the rest in one go:

scp dens-main-den-20261023-153000.backup alice@server.example:
ssh alice@server.example
sudo dens restore dens-main-den-20261023-153000.backup
dens den hosting on

Set Caddy up on the server as above, and move the four port forwards to it, or on a rented server, point your domain’s record at it. Then, back on your computer, Hosting in the settings offers Remove from this computer, which checks that the server serves the den before deleting your copy. From then on your Dens reaches the den like any member’s.

Starting a new den there instead:

dens password
dens den hosting on
dens den create "My Den" https://den.example.com

The last prints the den’s owner invite. Paste it into Add a den on your own computer, and you join as the den’s owner.

If your computer can’t reach the den at home

Some routers can’t reach their own public address from inside the home. Give your computer a hosts entry, a line that points your den’s name at the server’s local address, such as 192.168.1.20:

echo '192.168.1.20 den.example.com' | sudo tee -a /etc/hosts

On Windows, in Terminal (Admin):

Add-Content C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts "`n192.168.1.20 den.example.com"

From the command line

  • dens status says whether the den serves, and why not when it can’t, and when a new version is out.
  • dens den hosting off and on turn hosting off and on.
  • dens password changes the local password, given the current one.
  • dens backup writes a backup into the folder you’re in; copy it off the server.
  • dens den owner-invite hands the den to whoever joins with the invite it prints (Backups and moving).
  • dens logs --level debug, then dens logs after the problem happens again, saves the logs to send (Sending logs).
  • sudo dens update updates; members reconnect by themselves.

A second den

One install hosts one den. A second den on the same computer is a second instance: run the installer with --instance and a name, and ports of its own (--client-port, --den-port, --media-udp-port and --media-tcp-port; on Windows, -Instance, -ClientPort and so on, given as its guide shows), turn hosting on in its settings, and give Caddy a second site.

UsageBackups and moving