Total noob, but I set up TrueNAS/Nextcloud on an old laptop and it’s working great locally.
What would be the easiest secure way to access my files remotely from my phone and/or laptop?
Total noob, but I set up TrueNAS/Nextcloud on an old laptop and it’s working great locally.
What would be the easiest secure way to access my files remotely from my phone and/or laptop?
My recommendation would be some kind of VPN. If your looking for something plug and play and free, look into zerotier.
If your home internet connection sits behind CGNAT, like me, just buy a cheap vps and set up your own wireguard network.
Both solutions avoid exposing your services directly to the public internet which reduces attack vectors and adds an extra layer of encryption.
Idk what CGNAT is tbh so I doubt it.
Other comment mentioned OpenVPN, would you say Zerotier is an easier option?
CGNAT = Carrier Grade Network Address Translation. It makes it practically impossible to open ports to the public internet and in some extreme instances make zerotier very unstable. Typically you only have CGNAT if your internet connection is 4G or fixed wireless.
OpenVPN is just a VPN protocol. Roughly comparable to wireguard. It has been the gold standard for VPN technology for the past decade or so. Wireguard by comparison is much newer, and lighter to run. This typically results in faster throughput from a computational standpoint and devices where power is limited (cell phones), uses much less power by leveraging modern CPU encryption methods.
If you have the option to port forward on your home internet connection, its possible to setup a VPN connecting in a straight shot from your home to your roaming device. If you can’t port forward, you will need a main in the middle (the VPS) to establish and route the connections through.
Zerotier works off of a PTP style network and the free plan allows up to 50 devices when last I checked. I’m not sure on the availability of zerotier or wireguard on truenas as the last time I used TrueNAS was Scale 22.
My provider uses CGNAT in AUS and I’m on fiber then copper connection. Luckily they just had a option on their account page to turn it off.
Btw, Tailscale raised the free tier limits a while ago and it’s now an even more generous 100 devices/3 users
It is a NAT, but created by an operator. The operator does not give you a real IP address, but instead hides you behind his own NAT and gives you one private address.
I had literally just set this up on my truenas instance yesterday (even though I’ve been using ZeroTier for some time). The key thing to recognize is that truenas whipes out any modifications to its system after a reboot, hence the need for this script.
https://alan.norbauer.com/articles/zerotier-on-truenas
I’ve heard great things about tailscale, but just have had an opportunity to try it.