I’m pretty new to selfhosting and homelabs, and I would appreciate a simple-worded explanation here. Details are always welcome!
So, I have a home network with a dynamic external IP address. I already have my Synology NAS exposed to the Internet with DDNS - this was done using the interface, so didn’t require much technical knowledge.
Now, I would like to add another server (currently testing with Raspberry Pi) in the same LAN that would also be externally reachable, either through a subdomain (preferable), or through specific ports. How do I go about it?
P.S. Apparently, what I’ve tried on the router does work, it’s just that my NAS was sitting in the DMZ. Now it works!
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Welcome to the wonderful world of reverse proxies!
Whispers “try proxmox”
I will eventually!
But for all I understand, it is to put many services on one machine, and I already have a NAS that is not going anywhere
I’ve gone the other way. I used to run a Proxmox cluster, then someone gave me a Synology NAS. Now it’s rare that I spin up Proxmox and instead use a mix of VMs, containers and Synology/Synocommunity apps.
Interesting!
But I don’t want to mix it too much. I do have a Docker on it with just some essentials, but overall I’d like to keep NAS a storage unit and give the rest to a different server.
I treat NAS as an essential service and the other server as a place to play around without pressure to screw anything
VPN is definitely the way to go for home networks. Your router even has one built in. OpenVPN and Wireguard are good.
If you really want to expose stuff like this the proper way is to isolate your home network from your internet exposed network using a VLAN. Then use a reverse proxy, like caddy and place everything behind it.
Another benefit of a reverse proxy is you don’t need to setup https certs on everything just the proxy.
You do need a business or prosumer router for this though. Something like Firewalla or setting up a OpenWRT or OPNsense.
Synology also has there quick connect service as well. While not great if you keep UPNP off and ensure your firewall and login rate limiting is turned on it may be better then just directly exposing stuff. But its had its fair share of problems so yeah.
Consider not self hosting everything. For example if all your family cares about is private photo storage, consider using a open source E2EE encrypted service for photos on the cloud like Ente Photos. Then you can use VPN for the rest. https://www.privacyguides.org/ has some recommendations for privacy friendly stuff.
Also consider the fallout that would happen if you are hacked. If all your photos and other things get leaked because your setup was not secure was it really any better than using big tech?
If nothing else please tell me you are using properly setup https certs from Let’s Encrypt or another good CA. Using a firewall and have login rate limiting setup on everything that is exposed. You can also test your SSL setup using something like https://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/
No truly private photos ever enter the NAS, so on that front it should be fine.
VPN is not an option for several reasons, unfortunately.
But I do have a Let’s Encrypt certificate, firewall and I ban IP after 5 unsuccessful login attempts. I also have SSH disabled completely.
SSL Test gave me a rating of A
NAT translation, i use my openwrt router for that
You need a reserve proxy. That’s a piece of software that takes the requests and puts them toward the correct endpoint.
You need to create port forwards in the router and direct 80 and 443 (or whatever you’re using) toward the host of the reverse proxy and that is listening to on those ports. If it recognized the requests are for nas.your.domain, it will forward the requests to the NAS.
Common reverse proxies are nginx or caddy. You can install it on your raspberry, it doesn’t need it’s own device.
If you don’t want that, you can create different port forwards on your router (e.g. 8080 and 8443 to the Raspi) and configure your service on the Raspi corresponding. But it doesn’t scale well and you’d need to call everything with the port and the reverse proxy is the usual solution.
There’s an issue with that first part. Do I configure it right? Should <domain>:8100 be redirected to 192.168.0.113:81 in this case?
External 80 to internal 80 and external 443 to internal 443
With this config you don’t have to deal with ports later, as http is 80, https is 443 by default.
If you run some container on port 81, you have to deal with that in the reverse proxy, not in the router. E.g. redirect something.domian.tld to 192.168.0.103:81
If you use docker check out nginxproxymanager, it has a very beginner friendly admin webui. You shouldn’t forward the admin ui’s port, you need to access it only from your lan.
Actually, I do - 81 is exactly the default port for nginx proxy manager. I just tried to expose it as a testing example, and already closed it back after a success (apparently port forwarding worked just fine, it’s just that DMZ messed with it)
And since we’re talking about this, what do I do with it next? I have it on my Pi, how do I ensure traffic is distributed through it as a reverse proxy? Do I need to expose ports 80 and 443 and then it would work automagically all by itself?
You type the ip of the rpi on the router, so from an external call the router will forward it to the rpi. Or I don’t know what is your question.
Things may seem automagical in the networking scene, but you can config anything the way you want. Even in nginxproxymanager you can edit the underlying actual nginx configs with their full power. The automagic is just the default setting.
Where do I type rpi’s IP, just in port forwarding? Or somewhere else?
I want for Nginx proxy, controlled through the Manager, to direct traffic to different physical servers based on subdomain.
I put in nas.my.domain and I get my Synology on its DSM port. I put in pi.my.domain and I get a service on my Pi.
This only guarantees your WANip:8100 will map to 192.168.0.113:81, and doesn’t address whether or not dns resolution is correct. I would also be weary of using port numbers on wikipedia’s known ports list, as some ISPs will filter those upstream. The last thing is that your router may not want to hairpin that traffic, so if you’re not coming in from the outside it might not be a valid test.
Thanks for the pieces of advice! Yes, I tried to connect from external (mobile) network as well.
Who is externally reaching these servers?
Joe public? Or just you and people you trust?If it’s Joe public, I wouldn’t have the entry point on my home network (I might VPS tunnel, or just VPS host it).
If it’s just me and people I trust, I would use VPN for access, as opposed to exposing all these services publicly
Your stuff is more likely to get scanned sitting in a VPS with no firewall than behind a firewall on a home network
Just me and the people I trust, but there are certain inconveniences around using VPN for access.
First, I live in the jurisdiction that is heavily restrictive, so VPN is commonly in use to bypass censorship
Second, I sometimes access my data from computers I trust but can’t install VPN clients on
Third, I share my NAS resources with my family, and getting my mom to use a VPN every time she syncs her photos is near impossible
So, fully recognizing the risks, I feel like I have to expose a lot of my services.
Remember that with services facing public internet it’s not about if you get hacked but when you get hacked. It’s personal photos on someone elses hands then.
I do remember that and take quite a few precautions. Also, nothing that can be serioisly used against me is in there.
Not sure why you’re downvote, you’re absolutely right. People scan for open ports all day long and will eventually find your shit and try to break in. In my work environment, I see thousands of login attempts daily on brand new accounts, just because something discovered they exist and want to check it out.
If you mean HTTP server, what you need is a reverse proxy and name-based virtual hosts. I usually use nginx for such tasks, but you may choose another web server that has these features.
Thanks!
I recommend caddy as a webserver, it’s very powerful, but the config is super simple compared to old school stuff like nginx or apache.
Heard quite a few positive reviews on that one, thanks!
Best solution you most likely want to go for. Or use multiple ports.
You can either:
A) Use a different port, just set up the new service to run on a port that’s not used by the other service.
B) If it’s a TCP service use a reverse proxy and a subdomain.
If you go with IPv6, all your devices/servers have their own IP. These IPs are valid in your LAN as well a externally.
But it’s still important to use a reverse proxy (e.g. for TLS).
Oh, nice! So I don’t have just one, but many external IPs, one for every local device?
Router gets the public IP. Login to it, find port forwarding option. You’ll pick a public port. IE 443 and forward it to a local IP:port combo, IE 192.168.0.101:443.
Then you can pick another public port and forward it to a different private IP:port combo.
If you want a subdomain, you forward one port to one host and have it do the work. IE configure Nginx to do whatever you want.
EDIT: or you use IPv6. Everything is a public IP.
Thanks!
Looks like you got it! Congrats.
Yup
Or he just uses a reverse proxy like nginx. So all can be hosted behind the same port (443)
Not yet, but want to figure it out properly.
Honestly Cloudflare Tunnels could be a very simple way to do it. I’ve always had tremendous luck with it. By using CF you can let them do all the heavy lifting instead of hosting your own… as long as you trust them.
They are a plague with how prevalent they have become.
The internet shouldn’t put all its eggs into one basket.
It’s just another centralized entity which will lead to monopolized power. It goes against what we are trying to do with federated networks like Lemmy and mastodon.
What’s a better alternative that offer good ddos protection and tunnels
You can use frp to do the same thing a CloudFlare tunnel does without giving them your unencrypted data.
While not supportive of Big Tech, I do appreciate your piece of advice, and understand self-hosting needs differ!
P.S. Also beware, seems like there’s a new attack through Tunnels:
Thanks for the heads up!
If you have a prosumer router I suggest you to use the ddns in the router plus a reverse proxy. This would be the cleanest solution.
If you can not, once everything is working with your external access to the synology, the dsm has a built-in reverse proxy so it can redirect http requests to another server. Although this proxy is really simple and limited it can get the work done if you setup is simple enough.
Thanks! Syno one didn’t work properly, but I got it to work through different means
Check it again, I used it for years before switching to something with more features
Will try!
You’ll need to direct that port for the given service in the router control panel.
For your current server you have a port forwarding for that port already. Just add a port forwarding rule for the new service.
Tried doing that - here’s how I’ve set it up:
Expected behavior: now when I enter <my domain>:8100, I reach 192.168.0.113:81
Real behavior: connection times out
Stupid question, but is the service reachable at all? What if you map 81 to 81? Or whichever port the other, confirmed-to-work service uses? What if you map that other service to 8100?
Reachable through LAN, but not by URL, even if I port 81 to 81
P.S. Solved! NAS was sitting in the DMZ and this broke forwarding.
What if you try reaching it through your public IP?
Worked eventually, was about DMZ on the router for my NAS
![[SOLVED] ELI5: How to put several servers on one external IP?](https://lemmy.today/pictrs/image/1d84332e-92e8-4bad-bfdd-4c9fd08c3870.png){kind=link}