this post was submitted on 01 Apr 2026
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Isn't it easier to set up a VPN than expose it to the internet?
and then you are giving access to your lan to people whose computer you don’t control and might be full of malware.
Tbh I forgot about giving access to others, my homelab is for me only lol
You only have to give them access to a specific port on a specific machine, not your entire LAN.
My VPN has a 'media' usergroup who can only access the, read-only, NFS exports of my media library.
If you're just installing Wireguard and enabling IP forwarding, yeah it would not be secure. But using a mesh VPN, like Tailscale/Headscale, gives you A LOT more tools to control access.
yeah but even with plain wireguard the peers can be limited. you just have to figure out the firewall rules, or use opnsense as your wireguard server because it figures the harder part out for you.
it’s not that it cannot be done. the issue is that something as simple as acceding a service should not require to configure wire guard and routing rules. plenty of FOSS projects are safe to expose through a simple reverse proxy
I have my doubts about that. Personally I would never do that.
Oh absolutely, difference being that you only need to expose the service once, versus helping however many people set up VPNs to access the service on your LAN
I know way too many people who won't remember to toggle it on, or just won't deal with it
It's just not convenient enough
they need a VPN app that toggles automatically. turn off when they happen to connect to your network, otherwise on, and only forward jellyfin and such apps through it.
they need a VPN app that toggles automatically. turn off when they happen to connect to your network, otherwise on, and only forward jellyfin and such apps through it.