Self-Hosted Alternatives to Popular Services

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Is it possible to self-host a VPN server over a cellular connection? (lemmit.online)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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The original was posted on /r/selfhosted by /u/anonhostpi on 2023-07-16 05:58:45.

I see that most self-hosted VPN setups are used for remote access to home labs, but what about mobile home labs?

I've had several thoughts for making a lab on the go, but I think I will run into the same wall with any of these setups.

Adding a home lab to my Field Service van
Adding a home lab to my Dad's camper
Doing a van conversion that adds a home lab
Adding a homelab to a boat/yacht for living on the water
Smaller setups: Homelab-in-a-backpack, cars with computing equipment (similar to modern EMS and police vehicles), etc.

But I think all setups have the same limitation: Almost all cellular networks have large amounts of NAT. I was thinking I could make use of a DDNS service, but I am not entirely sure that would work. Even if I got a nice cellular modem, I still think that VPN hosting may not work well due to all of the NAT.

I could try satellite solutions, but that wouldn't work for my smaller scale ideas.

Does anyone have any ideas or know of any mobile solutions that work? I am interested in a solution that is purely mobile (no dependency on a home network).

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I am running a remote security camera based in a RPI3 using an 4G HAT (SIM7600X). I can confirm I cannot reach the ports directly (most likely to NAT).

So outgoing connections are no problem at least. I sometimes setup a temporary reverse SSH Tunnel (to be able to configure the camera using an UI). I personally used a VM hosted in a cloud for that (using nginx in between to be able to use https), but you might also use a self hosted machine for that (DDNS as you already).

To start the SSH tunnel ondemand I was using a telegram bot (+ telegramcli), this might not be suitable for everything and is by far not the best or secure solution, but for my usecase it was a good fit.

So a reverse SSH tunnel might be a solution for you?

Cheers!