Submitted 6 months ago by WeirdGoesPro@lemmy.dbzer0.com to selfhosted@lemmy.world
My self-hosting experience is primarily with Plex and qBittorrent, but I’m trying to get a digital library set up that will be available remotely. I’ve been reading about some options, but I’m not sure about what is best to use or how to deploy it.
What is the best way to make Kavita available to remote users safely from a home server?
I was asking the same question a year ago and now Im running 30-40 services, all available remotely using VPN.
Everyone is talking about tailscale and how easy it is to setup (never tried it), but I went for pure wireguard VPN and IMO its not complicated at all. I have 3 devices with access to VPN, but I also use reverse proxy NPM (+ pihole as DNS server) just to be able to use custom domain like nextcloud.example instead of typing IP:PORT. I dont feel comfortable with opening ports to public, but had 0 issues with wireguard port opened (so far).
Just giving you an example, other people here might have better advices
Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I’ve seen in this thread:
| Fewer Letters | More Letters |
|---|---|
| HTTP | Hypertext Transfer Protocol, the Web |
| HTTPS | HTTP over SSL |
| IP | Internet Protocol |
| SSL | Secure Sockets Layer, for transparent encryption |
| VPN | Virtual Private Network |
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given that you’re looking at vpns I’m assuming you can’t do port forwarding on your network. Am I right?
Have you seen zerotier? it lets you create a virtual network. super easy to setup but in the default configuration you’re relying on a third party service. not sure if that’s ok with you.
The most user-friendly way to do it is hosting it on a https server. for this you need a reverse proxy. checkout caddy. or if you’re on docker try traefik.
Most home isps don’t let you open port 80 and 443 so you have to use alternative ports which is ok for https but it will make renewing certificates really hard. you have to do it with dns. if it works great. but in my experience it was usually finicky.
godzillabacter@lemmy.world 6 months ago
You’ll have to strike a balance between security and ease. Your two major options are reverse proxy and VPN (Tailscale is one option for VPN)
For reverse proxy, you functionally open the app to the internet. Anyone with the correct web address can access the login page. This is inherently less secure than VPN, but not irresponsibly so. Beyond the reverse proxy itself, you’ll also have to learn how to configure an HTTPS certificate to increase security since it will be open to the internet.
For VPN, every user you want to be able to access the service has to be tied into the VPN and have the VPN running throughout their access. Tailscale is arguably the easiest way to configure a VPN right now, as you won’t have to manually deal with VPN configuration files for every device. VPN use will functionally make it like you’re on your home network. VPN access to your network should not be given to tons of people if at all possible.
tristan@aussie.zone 6 months ago
Tailscale also has the funnel option to open up a single service to the outside world without needing a reverse proxy and has its own ssl certificates
WeirdGoesPro@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 months ago
This is what I’m looking for! Would I basically pay for a remote server that bounces the signal through Tailscale securely?