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Tailscale raises $100M

tailscale.com

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Re: Tailscale raises $100M

#261

Post by ncmncm »

ibejoeb wrote: post #239
ncmncm wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought that Tailscale was pretty interesting. Avery Pennarun, its CTO, is somebody whose judgment I am used to trusting. Then I learned that to use it, I would be dependent on authenticating using a login on one of the unaccountable internet behemoths who could take away my account for any random reason or no expressed reason at all. No, thank you.

Is that generally true? A third-party authentication servive is needed just to get it going, or is that needed for specific use cases?

Apparently the third-party authentication service is needed just to get it going. If you get an "enterprise license" you can choose among more authentication services, but not yourself.

Some people suggest trying Nebula instead.

Re: Tailscale raises $100M

#262

Post by tomputer »

For almost a decade I have worked with IPsec and OpenVPN solutions for both client and site-to-site VPN tunnels. On enterprise hardware, community/proprietary software and at public cloud providers. I still work with these because today many vendors only support IPsec.

A few years ago I discovered WireGuard and I was really amazed how easy it was to setup a tunnel. Especially if you've dealt with IPsec before. It felt as easy as creating an SSH tunnel between two servers, with only 4 or 5 lines of code in a config on both sides.

Then last year I discovered Tailscale and I was blown away! How did this even work[1] without opening ports in the firewall? And how cool is it that I no longer have overlapping addresses[2] from other networks. Within 15 minutes I had my own mesh network between my Mac, iPhone, Raspberry Pi and other servers. Fantastic!

I'm on the Personal/Free plan but if this would no longer be free, I would be happy to pay for this service (shut up and take my money).

[1] https://tailscale.com/blog/how-tailscale-works/

[2] https://tailscale.com/kb/1015/100.x-addresses/

Re: Tailscale raises $100M

#263

Post by wmf »

colordrops wrote: post #240
lvh wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tailscale will let you use any SAML or OIDC provider you like in the Enterprise plan (presumably because of the cost of supporting the long tail of nonsense IdPs will produce). (Disclosure: I'm a (small) investor via Latacora's sibling fund, Lagomorphic.)

Don't you have to also trust Tailscales closed source coordinator node?

Which also applies to Tailscale's SD-WAN and cloud VPN competitors.

Re: Tailscale raises $100M

#264

Post by legalcorrection »

throw0101a wrote: post #106
Spivak wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, no one is going to allow unsolicited inbound connections even without NAT so you still have to have something to hook up the two ends in a P2P setting.

> Yeah, no one is going to allow unsolicited inbound connections even without NAT so you still have to have something to hook up the two ends in a P2P setting. Sure they are. All home routers that I'm aware of allow for port forwarding so folks can self-host a service: perhaps a game server (e.g., Minecraft), web, e-mail, etc. It's just going forward you can set up a separate subnet to put your gear in (especially if…

The point is for the user to not have to go configure their firewall.

Re: Tailscale raises $100M

#265

Post by biohax2015 »

Lightbody wrote: post #23
pilif wrote: post #9

With such a huge investment comes the obligation to eventually pay it back. Is this another one of my favourite tools going the way of Dropbox, 1Password and all other companies that were formed around what should be a platform feature, which took on way too large investment sums and were eventually forced to become the everything, losing sight of their core values? I sincerely hope not, but there's so much bad prece…

I haven't really felt like 1Password's product materially strayed from the original mission. If anything, I'm even more delighted with the team functionality, shared vaults, quick keyboard access in 1Password 8, etc. I wouldn't put them in the Dropbox bucket. Also, I think the value Tailscale provides is fairly unique and far from obviously a platform feature like file storage and perhaps even password management.

1Password is a phenomenal product. Idk what HN's obsession with ragging on it is about.

Re: Tailscale raises $100M

#266

Post by fwip »

Lightbody wrote: post #155
dx034 wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd assume they have a fallback option to provide access.

It's a very safe assumption: we're just automating Tailscale ACLs. Tailscale admins (3 of us) can still come in and manually change them.

That's reassuring, the phrasing of "nobody can access prod without a Slack bot" was worrying.

Re: Tailscale raises $100M

#267

Post by zellyn »

zepearl wrote: post #188
boesboes wrote: post #12

For anyone else who wonders wtf tailscale is: > Tailscale is a VPN service that makes the devices and applications you own accessible anywhere in the world, securely and effortlessly. It enables encrypted point-to-point connections using the open source WireGuard protocol, which means only devices on your private network can communicate with each other. It seems to take care of key distribution, nat-traversal, authen…

So basically Wireguard with automated key setup/distribution/identity management? (btw. I love Wireguard - currenly using it to route traffic between my servers + transfer media between my home and my mother's mediacenter with both PCs being behind their own router - she loves it too as so far there were no problems hehe)

That, plus fanatically good NAT Traversal: https://tailscale.com/blog/how-nat-traversal-works/

Re: Tailscale raises $100M

#268

Post by kyawzazaw »

ncmncm wrote: post #81
boesboes wrote: post #12

For anyone else who wonders wtf tailscale is: > Tailscale is a VPN service that makes the devices and applications you own accessible anywhere in the world, securely and effortlessly. It enables encrypted point-to-point connections using the open source WireGuard protocol, which means only devices on your private network can communicate with each other. It seems to take care of key distribution, nat-traversal, authen…

I thought that Tailscale was pretty interesting. Avery Pennarun, its CTO, is somebody whose judgment I am used to trusting. Then I learned that to use it, I would be dependent on authenticating using a login on one of the unaccountable internet behemoths who could take away my account for any random reason or no expressed reason at all. No, thank you.

Avery Pennarun is CEO.

David Crawshaw is CTO.

Re: Tailscale raises $100M

#269

Post by planb »

newhouseb wrote: post #7

Tailscale is my favorite (product) discovery of 2022. I initially set it up to use as a VPN to get around a misbehaving corporate firewall and accidentally realized it solved a whole bunch of other problems I didn't realize I had. Usually a new product doesn't even live up to the intended use case and so TS is really anomalous IMHO in how good it is. - SSH'ing into a raspberry pi I have at home that does random IoT s…

SSH'ing to a raspberry pi in my parent's basement where my beer is fermenting has been the killer use case for me. Their crappy IPS router does not allow port forwarding, but with Tailscale I can directly access the sensors. Only today I learned that I can even use Tailscale as an exit node (to the internet or the local network) and therefore use it like a normal VPN.

Re: Tailscale raises $100M

#270

Post by ncmncm »

josephruscio wrote: post #247
ncmncm wrote: post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You cannot do that. You might personally share a vision with somebody identifiable. But the vision you say you share is anyway not implemented. Make the service usable without depending on some internet behemoth who might yank my authentication credentials anytime without notice, and we can talk.

vision: (noun) the ability to think about or plan the future with imagination or wisdom. (verb) imagine

Vision is one thing, shared vision entirely another.
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