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Comment by rahimnathwani

5 hours ago

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Install the tailscale client on each of your devices.

Each device will get an IP address from Tailscale. Think about that like a new LAN address.

When you're away from home, you can access your home devices using the Tailscale IP addresses.

9 comments

rahimnathwani

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bogwog  3 hours ago

So basically wireguard, but you have to pay for it, and you have create an account through Google/Apple/Microsoft/whatever.

Wireguard is not that hard to set up manually. If you've added SSH keys to your Github account, it's pretty much the same thing. Find a youtube video or something, and you're good. You might not even need to install a wireguard server yourself, as some routers have that built in (like my Ubiquity EdgeRouter)

  • rainsford  2 hours ago

    It's not really "basically wireguard" and you don't have to pay for it for personal use. Wireguard is indeed pretty easy to set up, but basic Wireguard doesn't get you the two most significant features of Tailscale, mesh connections and access controls.

    Tailscale does use Wireguard, but it establishes connections between each of your devices, in many cases these will be direct connections even if the devices in question are behind NAT or firewalls. Not every use-case benefits from this over a more traditional hub and spoke VPN model, but for those that do, it would be much more complicated to roll your own version of this. The built-in access controls are also something you could roll your own version of on top of Wireguard, but certainly not as easily as Tailscale makes it.

    There's also a third major "feature" that is really just an amalgamation of everything Tailscale builds in and how it's intended to be used, which is that your network works and looks the same even as devices move around if you fully set up your environment to be Tailscale based. Again not everyone needs this, but it can be useful for those that do, and it's not something you get from vanilla Wireguard without additional effort.

  • daveoc64  2 hours ago

    Tailscale is free for pretty much everything you'd want to do as a home user.

    It also doesn't constantly try and ram any paid offerings down your throat.

    I was originally put off by how much Tailscale is evangelised here, but after trying it, I can see why it's so popular.

    I have my Ubuntu server acting as a Tailscale exit node.

    I can route any of my devices through it when I'm away from home (e.g. phone, tablet, laptop).

    It works like a VPN in that regard.

    Last year, I was on a plane and happened to sit next to an employee of Tailscale.

    I told him that I thought his product was cool (and had used it throughout the flight to route my in-flight Wi-fi traffic back to the UK) but that I had no need to pay for it!