Private Networking Category (Software-Defined Networks)

Would there be interest in a category for tools that create software-defined networks/private VPNs? This has clear utility for people self-hosting other tools we recommend on local devices without requiring they expose their self-hosted services to the internet via port forwarding.

Tailscale

I personally use Tailscale myself for the record.

ZeroTier

  • Weird software license
  • Not sure if mobile apps are open source? WebUI also is not but there are FOSS control plane GUI alternatives

Others?

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I want to try ZeroTier and TailScale/Headscale for this exact purpose of sharing an internal network resource such as my LAN to the internet without actually exposing the home network to the whole internet. But real life is demanding a lot from me right now and I have yet the free time to fully explore it.

Other options: PiVPN? selfhosted on something like a NanoPi R4S instead of a RP4

Tailscale sounds the easier to set up tho, but I don’t like that you have to login into their server, aside from that I don’t know if there would be a real privacy advance on self-hosting it, assuming everything on the tunnel is encrypted.

wouldn’t it make much more sense to add these when Self-hosting overview page · Issue #1686 · privacyguides/privacyguides.org · GitHub is done?

It does make sense but I didn’t know that page was on development!

Both tailscale and Zerotier clients are open source but not GPL, source code is available and while compiled binaries not reproducible (an issue on how certain framework add random salt), but you can download audit and build yourself.

I don’t understand what the issue with no-gpl software licenses IMHO (and most developer agree as Github provide solid evidence on no-gpl favouritism), as from privacy standpoint what matters is auditable code and quick vulnerability remedy.

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Vula sounds interesting,

Any one tried it?

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+1 for the Private Networking category.

I’m doing research into this now and PG always helps me to make good decisions. I also appreciate PG’s balance between usability and privacy. Private networking would be a welcome new addition IMO. Maybe also include Headscale?

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