I already owned my own home server that I built for running a file server and other random things. Currently all I’m paying for is $2.50/month for a proxy server on Google Cloud so I don’t have to expose my stuff directly to the internet.
It’s a bit of a janky solution, but I’m just running an openvpn server on the lowest tier vps which my home server auto-connects to on boot. From there it’s just iptables rules to reroute the external traffic through the VPN. I’ve also used it to proxy Minecraft servers and a few other things.
Does that mean my actual home server is behind a VPN connection but has its traffic transparently routed to the external VPS, which eliminates the need for opening ports on the residential router?
Yeah the choice of VPN doesn’t really matter here. I would just configure it to not push a default route to cut down on the amount of traffic going through. You could even use something like ZeroTier if you wanted.
I already owned my own home server that I built for running a file server and other random things. Currently all I’m paying for is $2.50/month for a proxy server on Google Cloud so I don’t have to expose my stuff directly to the internet.
How does that Google cloud proxy server work?
It’s a bit of a janky solution, but I’m just running an openvpn server on the lowest tier vps which my home server auto-connects to on boot. From there it’s just iptables rules to reroute the external traffic through the VPN. I’ve also used it to proxy Minecraft servers and a few other things.
Does that mean my actual home server is behind a VPN connection but has its traffic transparently routed to the external VPS, which eliminates the need for opening ports on the residential router?
Yeah, that’s originally why I had it set up this way because I was somewhere where I wasn’t able to open any ports.
Would something like WireGuard do the same thing?
Yeah the choice of VPN doesn’t really matter here. I would just configure it to not push a default route to cut down on the amount of traffic going through. You could even use something like ZeroTier if you wanted.