Sorry, I’m new to this:
I’m trying to use Nextcloud. I got through step 1, downloading and then unzipping the .zip file. I got to step 2, downloading the Mac client (.pkg file). When I open the client, it asks for a server address. How do I obtain this address?
Depends, where you unzipped the file. Did you upload it to a server or did you just unzip it to your local drive?
I unzipped it to my local drive
Where did you install your Nextcloud server? Can you access it via the web-interface?
All I did was unzip the .zip file so now there’s a folder in the Downloads part of my local drive. I do not think it can me accessed on the web.
You need a Nextcloud server first. You can’t just use the client.
Setting up the server is step 1 of the installation process? I unzipped the file, what do I do next?
Put it on a Webserver (you need a system with Linux + PHP + Database):
https://docs.nextcloud.com/server/12/admin_manual/installation/index.html
It can work at for some webhosting companies, but it depends a bit on their setup and the overall performance in generally very limited. A VPS is much better. Of if you want to test, you can try the raspberry pi (not the best performance but a nice thing to start with, there are ready to go images, e.g. the NextcloudPi: https://ownyourbits.com/2017/02/13/nextcloud-ready-raspberry-pi-image/).
So it’s required to use a web server? I was under the impression that anyone could host their own server.
So it’s required to use a web server? I was under the impression that anyone could host their own server.
That’s right, but if you want to connet via network or internet, you need a little bit of infrastructure for handling the net communication (Linux and Web server) and a persistance instance (database or filesystem) to save data centralized. And nextcloud server is written in PHP. Because of this, you need an PHP interpretor. All of the above is something you find on every hosted server.
You’ll find details here: Installation — Nextcloud 12 Server Administration Manual 12 documentation