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Ask HN: What do you use for remote access?

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Re: Ask HN: What do you use for remote access?

#51
Glad you're asking!

I built Wormhole Network https://wormhole.network with the idea of making remote access very easy and as secure as possible.

Disclosure: This is SaaS and I've built it.

Wormhole builds an overlay network where you can run any L3 protocol really. By default we provide DHCP for IPv4 within the 100.64.0.0/24 (yes, just a /24 by default as it suits most users, it can be customised or even disabled under request). We have chosen this address space to increase the chances of non-overlapping with your own networks.

The advantage of running an overlay network like Wormhole are:

- No need to open ports anywhere or do any inbound NAT or PAT. All traffic is outgoing. By default UDP, but the protocol would fall back to 443/TCP if needed.

- The above means it works pretty much anywhere with an Internet connection that lets you browse the web.

- Your devices' IP addresses inside Wormhole could be always the same, regardless of where they are. Think of migrating your servers to a new hosting? Keep the same IP. Do you team mates move frequently, work from home at times or even from their favourite coffee place? No problems, they'll keep the same IP address.

- Full access between devices inside the network. It works like a real LAN. No need to open ports to reach out to your development server nor leave any other services reachable from the internet. You could lock down all inbound access from Internet to your servers and still reach them through Wormhole.

- All traffic is encrypted. Note: We don't roll our own crypto. We rely on SoftEther's (see below).

- No need to configure a VPN with your cloud/hosting provider, provision VPN hardware nor anything like that.

- Multiplatorm Linux, Windows and macOS.

- It all runs on free, open source software: SoftEther https://www.softether.org so you can audit the software (and it's not ours, people are using it all over the world for VPN)

The architecture is based on central servers that route the traffic among the peers in your network, hence why full connectivity can be accomplished always with only outbound connections. It is important to choose in which server you want to create your connection, so the latency is as low as possible.

Learn more about us in our documentation section: https://wormhole.network/docs/

We currently have a few hundred users and are looking into making the product better by listening to your feedback. We have a free tier without time or traffic limits, available in three regions (US East, Netherlands and Singapore); it just has user limits. No credit card needed to use it.

I'll be extremely happy to receive criticism, suggestions and any other feedback in general here or directed to pedro /at/ wormhole.network

Re: Ask HN: What do you use for remote access?

#52

IPv6. This allows my hosts to be accessible to the internet, even though they're behind routers/NAT devices.

I'd also like to know more about this.

If your ISP gives you a native IPv6 address you can connect to it remotely.

If not you'll need to configure a tunnel. You could find this is as easy as installing `miredo`, for example a debian system run:

    apt-get install miredo
That will then automatically give you a globally routable IPv6 address - which you can view via "ip -6 addr list", and which you can connect to remotely, again you'll need IPv6 on the remote system.

(e.g. I have IPv6 on my home network, and on my laptop. When traveling I can SSH to my home network via the IPv6 address I've got.)

Re: Ask HN: What do you use for remote access?

#53
post #40

I tunnel everything through ssh (both local and remote port forwarding) and in some cases for the exact use-case you have mentioned (web server running on a raspberry pi that is behind a NAT). It works for me. I've never set up a VPN and I'm not too knowledgable about them. Should I set one up? I don't know. Toyed with the idea a few weeks ago up until I read this post on StackOverflow ( http://serverfault.com/questi…

This. For anyone wondering about specifics, this is at least how I do it. * Portforward ssh access through your router to any ssh:able machine behind it. * Connect with (in my case) putty, under settings -> ssh -> tunnels, set up a dynamic forward with a local port. * Set up your browser to use a socks5 proxy on localhost:[yourchosenport] * Browse to whatever local address or name your raspberry has behind that NAT.…

Re: BONUS

This won't work if the firewall is blocking SSH traffic. Now, if it's just port 22 being blocked, then you setup your sshd to run on something like port 80. At an internship where I had a lot of downtime, I had to setup my sshd to run on 443 since work was blocking pretty much anything that wasn't web traffic. Luckily my domain wasn't on the company URL blacklist.

Re: Ask HN: What do you use for remote access?

#55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd also like to know more about this.

If your ISP gives you a native IPv6 address you can connect to it remotely. If not you'll need to configure a tunnel. You could find this is as easy as installing `miredo`, for example a debian system run: apt-get install miredo That will then automatically give you a globally routable IPv6 address - which you can view via "ip -6 addr list", and which you can connect to remotely, again you'll need IPv6 on the remote…

I must be missing something - if the tunnel is only on the PC, and outwards it's just ipv4, how does the router know to route it back without some fkrwrding configuration?

Re: Ask HN: What do you use for remote access?

#56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If your ISP gives you a native IPv6 address you can connect to it remotely. If not you'll need to configure a tunnel. You could find this is as easy as installing `miredo`, for example a debian system run: apt-get install miredo That will then automatically give you a globally routable IPv6 address - which you can view via "ip -6 addr list", and which you can connect to remotely, again you'll need IPv6 on the remote…

I must be missing something - if the tunnel is only on the PC, and outwards it's just ipv4, how does the router know to route it back without some fkrwrding configuration?

The other end of the tunnel knows how to reach your desktop, via the IPv4 address it has when the link was negotiated.

Just trust me, it works like magic :)

Re: Ask HN: What do you use for remote access?

#57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I must be missing something - if the tunnel is only on the PC, and outwards it's just ipv4, how does the router know to route it back without some fkrwrding configuration?

The other end of the tunnel knows how to reach your desktop, via the IPv4 address it has when the link was negotiated. Just trust me, it works like magic :)

Oh man. "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic". I must understand this technology! Indeed sounds magical.
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