diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index ca33cdb..110f10b 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -30,21 +30,27 @@ This repository provides a Docker Compose setup for running a self-hosted n8n in
     cd n8n-self-hosted
     ```
 
-2.  **Configure the environment:**
+2.  **Create the shared network:**
+    This setup uses a shared network to easily connect to external databases. If you haven't already, create the network:
+    ```bash
+    docker network create shared_network
+    ```
+
+3.  **Configure the environment:**
     Open the `.env` file and update the variables with your own settings.
 
-3.  **Start the application:**
+4.  **Start the application:**
     ```bash
     ./start-docker.sh
     ```
     This will start all the services in detached mode and scale the `n8n-worker` service to 2 replicas.
 
-4.  **Restart the application:**
+5.  **Restart the application:**
     ```bash
     ./restart-docker.sh
     ```
 
-5.  **Update the application:**
+6.  **Update the application:**
     ```bash
     ./update-docker.sh
     ```
@@ -60,6 +66,17 @@ To create a backup, run:
 ```
 This will create a compressed SQL dump of your PostgreSQL database in the `local_files/backups/` directory. It is recommended to run this script regularly (e.g., using a cron job).
 
+## Connecting to External Databases
+
+This n8n setup is part of a larger ecosystem of self-hosted services that can all run on the same `shared_network`. This allows n8n to securely connect to them using their container names as hostnames.
+
+Check out these pre-configured databases that work out-of-the-box with this n8n instance:
+
+-   [**postgresql-self-hosted**](https://github.com/AiratTop/postgresql-self-hosted): A simple and robust PostgreSQL setup.
+-   [**mysql-self-hosted**](https://github.com/AiratTop/mysql-self-hosted): A self-hosted MySQL instance.
+-   [**clickhouse-self-hosted**](https://github.com/AiratTop/clickhouse-self-hosted): High-performance columnar database for analytics.
+-   [**qdrant-self-hosted**](https://github.com/AiratTop/qdrant-self-hosted): A vector database for AI applications.
+
 ## Services
 
 - `caddy`: Reverse proxy
@@ -80,4 +97,4 @@ This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the [LICENSE](LICENSE) file
 
 - Website: [airat.top](https://airat.top)
 - GitHub: [@AiratTop](https://github.com/AiratTop)
-- Repository: [n8n-self-hosted](https://github.com/AiratTop/n8n-self-hosted)
\ No newline at end of file
+- Repository: [n8n-self-hosted](https://github.com/AiratTop/n8n-self-hosted)
diff --git a/backup.sh b/backup.sh
index 279bb71..098ccb5 100755
--- a/backup.sh
+++ b/backup.sh
@@ -9,4 +9,4 @@ BACKUP_DIR="local_files/backups"
 mkdir -p "${BACKUP_DIR}"
 
 # Dump the PostgreSQL database and compress it.
-docker-compose exec -T n8n-psql pg_dump -U n8n -d n8n_db | gzip > "${BACKUP_DIR}/psql_n8ndb_$(date +%F_%H-%M-%S).sql.gz"
+docker compose exec -T n8n-psql pg_dump -U n8n -d n8n_db | gzip > "${BACKUP_DIR}/psql_n8ndb_$(date +%F_%H-%M-%S).sql.gz"
diff --git a/docker-compose.yml b/docker-compose.yml
index 88591f1..f5c4b54 100644
--- a/docker-compose.yml
+++ b/docker-compose.yml
@@ -148,4 +148,5 @@ services:
 networks:
   shared_network:
     name: shared_network
-    driver: bridge
\ No newline at end of file
+    driver: bridge
+    external: true
\ No newline at end of file