tldr: I’d like to set up a reverse proxy with a domain and an SSL cert so my partner and I can access a few selfhosted services on the internet but I’m not sure what the best/safest way to do it is. Asking my partner to use tailsclae or wireguard is asking too much unfortunately. I was curious to know what you all recommend.

I have some services running on my LAN that I currently access via tailscale. Some of these services would see some benefit from being accessible on the internet (ex. Immich sharing via a link, switching over from Plex to Jellyfin without requiring my family to learn how to use a VPN, homeassistant voice stuff, etc.) but I’m kind of unsure what the best approach is. Hosting services on the internet has risk and I’d like to reduce that risk as much as possible.

  1. I know a reverse proxy would be beneficial here so I can put all the services on one box and access them via subdomains but where should I host that proxy? On my LAN using a dynamic DNS service? In the cloud? If in the cloud, should I avoid a plan where you share cpu resources with other users and get a dedicated box?

  2. Should I purchase a memorable domain or a domain with a random string of characters so no one could reasonably guess it? Does it matter?

  3. What’s the best way to geo-restrict access? Fail2ban? Realistically, the only people that I might give access to live within a couple hundred miles of me.

  4. Any other tips or info you care to share would be greatly appreciated.

  5. Feel free to talk me out of it as well.

  • a_fancy_kiwi@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
    1·
    14 hours ago

    I’ve run into a weird issue where on my phone, tailscale will disconnect and refuse to reconnect for a seemingly random amount of time but usually less than hour. It doesn’t happen often but it is often enough that I’ve started to notice. I’m not sure if it’s a network issue or app issue but during that time, I can’t connect to my services. All that to say, my tolerance for that is higher than my partner’s; the first time something didn’t work, they would stop using it lol

    • ikidd@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      14 hours ago

      So I have it running on about 20 phones for customers of mine that use Blue Iris with it. But these are all Apple devices, I’m the only one with Android. I’ve never had a complaint except one person that couldn’t get on at all, and we found that for some reason the Blue Iris app was blacklisted in the network settings from using the VPN. But that’s the closest I’ve seen to your problem.

      I wonder if you set up a ping every 15 seconds from the device to the server if that would keep the tunnel active and prevent the disconnect. I don’t think tailscale has a keepalive function like a wireguard connection. If that’s too much of a pain, you might want to just implement Wireguard yourself since you can set a KeepAlive value and the tunnel won’t go idle. Tailscale is probably wanting to reduce their overhead so they don’t include a keepalive.