General Questions About Config Optimization

Ok so I’m happy to provide detailed specifics/outputs from my system, but I have more of a general question than a “i have a specific error how do I fix this” question.

I am running Nextcloud through the plugin for TrueNAS on an old gaming box ( Intel(R) Core™ i5-3570K CPU @ 3.40GHz, 24 gb RAM, 1000 base t intel networking) and pointing to it from a jail on that TrueNAS installation set up with nginx as a reverse proxy. It’s pretty snappy on my internal network but I’m getting a lot of timeouts when accessing through public IP. An average of 3 speed tests through LibreSpeed turns up an upload speed of roughly 40 mbps from ATT here in the US.

I’m a novice on sysadmin stuff and it was already a significant lift getting the darn thing available at all on public IP, and it seems to me that there’s many different things that could still be causing the slowdown issue. It could be a problem on the host machine, that I would be significantly better off (at least with regard to accessing files on NC) installing the software differently, ie running a headless ubuntu server and installing NC directly on to that, etc etc. It could be a problem with the router/modem combo unit (Humax BGW320-500) leased to us by the ISP, either hardware that’s bad for this job or badly configured for this job. It could be a problem with the DNS, the name server, the reverse proxy etc etc etc.

Before I dig in to possible fixes, I wanted to ask people who know better than me what they think is the most promising area of focus for troubleshooting, where to start before moving on to the other possible areas of concern, so I can direct my searching on those areas and hopefully have more info than I do now if I have to open a more specific topic in that area.

What I may require first is a bit of a gut check on expectations re: how snappy this setup could possibly be, with repurposed/rigged up hardware. I know the hardware I’m using is not server hardware, but I don’t know if that would, by itself, be responsible for the difference between “quite responsive” and “Not at all responsive”

As far as hardware specs, that should be more than sufficient for a small instance.

Do you also access via reverse proxy when on-network?

Yes. I don’t notice any difference in responsiveness accessing from the reverse proxy or directly, when on the internal network, both vv quick to load and navigate.