The goal is to run a server that my friends and I can connect to over the internet without the server box getting owned by various malicious actors on the inter

The goal is to run a server that my friends and I can connect to over the internet without the server box getting owned by various malicious actors on the internet. I expect to write the entirety of the server and client networking code myself. There is a good chance that the server will not be a dedicated computer, but instead somebody’s regular desktop machine.