Hey all,
I just randomly ran across your Github, linked from a Reddit post. I read the first paragraph or two, i.e. you’re looking for tunneling solutions targeted toward self-hosters behind NAT, and was like “Oh? I got you!”. I’ve been working on this exact problem full-time for the past 2 1/2 years. Here’s my Github: GitHub - homeserverhq/hshq: HomeServer Infrastructure and Integrated Installer.
As opposed to a single service as an alternative to Cloudflare, my solution is everyone has their own relay. You’ll have to rent a cheap VPS from whatever provider as the RelayServer ($5-$10 per month), but it functions as the entire front-end router to your infrastructure. Plus, if its a service just for you or your family members to access, then don’t expose it to the public internet, just keep it on your private internet. The RelayServer provides numerous functions:
- Authenticated ingress point to private network for client devices (desktop/laptop/cellphone/tablet)
- Authenticated ingress point to host other HomeServers, i.e. a “private internet”
- Email relay with spam filter and store-and-forward (holds mail and resends if HomeServer is unreachable)
- Expose web services to the public internet via RelayServer and reverse-proxy https traffic through tunnel to HomeServer(s)
- Masquerade IP address, i.e. allows client devices to route internet-bound traffic using RelayServer’s IP
- Port forwarding with DNAT, i.e. to pass packets to certain ports directly to a backend host
- Separate data from access point
The installation takes about 15-20 minutes for base system, and another 45 minutes waiting around for everything else to install. I set this up to be easy for anyone to do, especially non-IT folks. I made some videos that explain it as well. Best place to start is here: Getting Started | HomeServerHQ Wiki. Basically, in a matter of an hour or two, you can have a full-scale production-grade infrastructure up and running with all of your favorite FOSS projects, and easily connect all of your devices. The code is 100% open-source, entirely bash script.
I am trying to build a support platform from this, because I know there is a lot of non-IT people that would want something like this, and answering questions and providing support takes time, and time is money. So my support forum is the only thing that I’m charging money for. It’s pretty cheap at $40 per year. It’s a Discourse forum just like this.
But my main goal right now is to get the word out, so any help on this would be appreciated. I’ve never had a Facebook/Twitter/X/Reddit account, or any other social media account, so I have zero reach ATM. I’ve been in heavy development mode for the past few years, but the infrastructure has really stabilized, and thus ready for distribution. If you do want to support me, that’s great, I appreciate it. I’ve blown through my savings putting this project together.
However, I didn’t join this forum just to hijack it. I’ll answer questions and engage here as well. Whoever is hosting this forum, thank you! I will contribute! I see boringproxy is sort of the main conversation here, so I’ll try to help as much as I can.
Cheers,
Dr. Doug