Hi everyone, I want to connect to my home internet remotely, let’s say at a university, to browse specific websites that only my home IP has access to. I’m really confused which route I should take. Should I set up a VPS or a VPN? I would really appreciate if someone could guide me or give me a link that will allow me to achieve this! Thanks!
P.S: I have a PC at home that I can have turned on 24/7. I would prefer if I don’t have to buy additional hardware such as routers orrr VPN routers.
EDIT: For anyone looking for a solution to a similar problem, just download Tailscale, login, set the desired home PC as an exit node, then install it on whatever device you want, login with the same device, and you’ll be able to use your home internet IP wherever you are as a VPN service. No need to manually set everything up yourself. Saves a lot of time and ensures you don’t mess with anything that you don’t know about!
If you want the simplest solution, install Tailscale and set your home PC as the exit node. No need to mess with configuration for VPN, port forwarding, etc. Based on WireGuard, you can expect good performance too.
Do you actually need a VPN or just access to your home PC? Something like a splashtop personal or TeamViewer can give you access as well without needing to expose your PC to the internet.
The ideal would be running a VPN server on a router but without buying hardware I’d go the software route personally.
I am looking for something similar but depends on whether you have a static IP or not. Based in India we have a carrier NAT and thus the Public IP keeps changing and its imposssible to connect from outside. Looking into tailscale
You need an OpenVPN, or better yet a Wireguard VPN server at your home. You can run this on your router if it has that feature, or on your always-on PC if you set up port forwarding to it on your router. I have an OpenVPN server set up in my pfSense software router, but these days I usually use Wireguard since it connects quicker and is a little faster (only 1-2% though) and I set the Wireguard server up on a Windows Server 2016 box on my LAN. The software I used is very easy… Wireguard Server for Windows. Once WGS4W is set up set up port forwarding on your router to the IP address of your always-on PC. For this to work you will also need to set up dynamic DNS so you can connect to your home LAN from the internet by DNS name instead of IP address.
I did this perhaps a decade ago with a Raspberry pi running OpenVPN. Can be a little frustrating to get the settings right, but I’m sure the options have gotten better. Also check your router, some can do it themselves and it’s just an option you need to turn on.
Do be aware of the security risks of opening up a port to the public internet.
Both my crap routers came with openvpn servers built in and I wasn’t looking for that feature when I bought them. Before you go wasting time, check to see if your router offers this option.
I JUST TRIED IT AND IT’S PERFECT! No messing with anything, just installing, setting my PC as an exit node, and that’s it! All the DNS and IP assignment are done by the program. It is a fkin life saver! Thanks for this!
Can’t use local IP’s whilst connected via Tailscale as you normally would when home though right? What’s the best vpn setup to use for this functionality? I want to use my home 192 local range from anywhere in the world by connecting to a vpn hosted at home
Yes, because I need mic access as well so TeamViewer and other RD connections aren’t enough. Sometimes, I need to be accessing it on my phone so it’s much easier to just set up a VPN and be done with it.
Hey, thanks for your input! Just a heads up that someone has recommended that I use Tailscale to do all of this automatically for free. It assigns DNS and IP automatically, and the only thing you need to do is login via the account and set the desired PC as an exit node.
Since you do the same thing, you might want to check it out. If you do, please do tell me how the internet speed compares when using Tailscale vs manually setting up a VPN.