Hi folks, I’m just getting into this hobby thanks to the posts in this community. So far, I’ve installed Ubuntu server 22.04 on an old laptop and got paperless working, and I’m pretty pumped. Now I would like to access it outside of my home network on my phone.

I have a Netgear R7000 with Advanced Tomato installed. Here’s my plan, but I don’t know if it would work… So I’m hoping for a peer review of sorts.

  • Get openVPN working on the router as a server.
  • make a certificate for my phone and use it as a client.
  • use my fedora laptop as the CA (?).

I think I need to use easy-RDA to make the keys and certificates…

Does that sound about right? It’s this a good approach or is there something better/easier/more effective?

If there’s a great tutorial around for accessing the home network externally, I’d super appreciate it. Would obviously prefer to do it myself and not pay for a service… I’ve been enjoying the learning experience!

  • CeeBee@lemmy.worldEnglish
    4·
    1 year ago

    Tailscale

    That’s the only word you need. Ultimately, traditional VPN is outdated and almost obsolete. Wireguard is the “next iteration” of network tunneling tech. And Tailscale just makes it super simple.

    • Meow.tar.gz@lemmy.goblackcat.comEnglish
      2·
      1 year ago

      +1 for Tailscale because it uses the WireGuard protocol. Tailscale just adds additional features on top of the WireGuard base. That much said, I am more interested in Slack’s Nebula project because it is completely open source. I like the approach Nebula is taking towards mesh networking. I’m just still struggling to get it working.

      • MigratingtoLemmy@lemmy.worldEnglish
        0·
        1 year ago

        Tailscale using headscale is basically hosting your personal Tailscale network, which is nice and makes it open source too, just FYI

        • Drudge@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
          0·
          1 year ago

          I just came across headscale…looks kinda neat. The docs have me a bit scared though - from the Installation section: “Configure Headscale by editing the configuration file”…uhm ya I’ll just go configure all of the things to do all of the stuff, hehe.

    • Drudge@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      Really, wow ok. Someone recommended that in another post, and I thought there must still be some value to doing it myself.

      So does all the traffic go through tailscale? I gotta watch a YouTube video…

      • zampson@lemm.eeEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        It’s what I use to remote access to my Starlink network. Have it running on a little Linux box, and publishes my internal subnet so I can access any device on my network with Tailscale running on just one PC.

        • RelativeArea0@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1·
          1 year ago

          Neat, I’ll admit that im a bit late with vpn bandwagon, I’ve been fiddling around with dynamic dns and prays to the network gods that my LAN wont encounter some replicating malware or nasty stuff (although im monitoring it and has logs). And yea, wow, this thing is fast and easy.

    • Dark Arc@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      I’ll pitch ZeroTier instead, it’s the same concept, but it’s more FOSS friendly, older, doesn’t have the non-networking “feature bloat” of Tailscale, and can handle some really niche cases like Ethernet bridging (should you ever care).

      Just:

      1. Go to their website, create an account, and create a network
      2. Add ZeroTier to the devices you need to connect
      3. Enter your network ID on those devices
      4. Approve the devices in the web control panel

      If you want to go full self hosting, you can do that too but you will need something with a static IP to control everything (https://docs.zerotier.com/self-hosting/network-controllers/?utm_source=ztp) this would replace the web panel parts.

      You can also do a LAN routing based solution pretty easily using something like a Raspberry Pi (or really any Linux computer).

  • Max-P@lemmy.max-p.meEnglish
    2·
    1 year ago

    You’re mostly correct, but you don’t need the laptop to act as a CA or anything. A CA is just a cryptographic key, you can generate them on the laptop, on the router, or wherever you want. All that matters is that the router and the clients agree on what the CA is.

    Alternatively, you can port forward from the router to the laptop and run the VPN on the laptop itself. That will open you up to more VPN protocols such as WireGuard which is newer, works so much better, and a whole lot easier to get set up. That stuff just works. Or you can forward the SSH port, and use SSH forwarding using an app like JuiceSSH as the way to enter your network.

  • Meow.tar.gz@lemmy.goblackcat.comEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    I personally am a fan of DIY when it comes to VPN. Check out Nebula. I’m working on building a Nebula-based network. Right now I’m using WireGuard tunnels. Pure WireGuard is diificult to scale but it does operate well scaled up.

  • Drudge@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
    0·
    1 year ago

    Big thanks to everyone that replied. Message received: ditch openVPN in favour of wireguard :-)

    • Drudge@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      0·
      1 year ago

      Uhm, status update: I just signed up for tailscale, and I’m able to access my home server after about 2 mins from first logging into the tailscale website. Wow…you guys weren’t kidding 🙃

      So what should I do next?

      • Bread@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        Nas, Media server, device auto backups to nas, game server, chatgpt instance, Lemmy instance, a website, wiki, nextcloud, pihole, or home assistant.

        If you intend to collect/store data or make more servers, a nas would probably be a good idea to have.

        • Drudge@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
          2·
          1 year ago

          Ok, I have an incoming Lenovo M93P SFF to upgrade my really old laptop as a server, so your list will be super helpful. Thanks!