I have several machines that need direct in/out traffic through router port forwarding.
I have things setup already right now, using my domain name , pointing at my current static IP issued by the ISP.
But I will be transferring to another ISP and they don’t offer static IPs. What’s worst is the IPs issued are not only dynamic, but also private (so dynamic dns solution can’t help)
So I need a way to maintain my exact setup (and port forwards) on the new ISP and I’m willing to pay for VPN like service if I have to. But I heard routing traffic through VPNs will slow down traffic which is my concern. I’m assuming VPN traffic is slow because of it having to hop around lots of proxy servers? If there was a VPN that just gives you static IP w/o proxy hopping, that would be best. I don’t need the privacy, i just need the static IP and speed.
Looking forward to some helpful suggestions.
Tailscale and a cheap VPS running the exit node tends to be a common route.
Lets you expose services out without opening anything localy and gets you full control out from the VPS without ISP meddeling.
There are other alternatives but tailscale has the best free tier with upto 100 devices, exit node+router, solid access control and mfa.
hmmm i see… i’ve head bout tailscale… but how’s the speed? will all traffic from home have to go thru the VPS (slowing down connection, and consuming costly VPS bandwidth)?
Tailscale negotiates a direct VPN to the VPS and all traffic going through the VPN goes through the VPS.
As for bandwidth its not really that expensive unless you need like 30-50tb per month type numbers.
If its specific machines you can install tailscale on those also and they make a direct connection.
I got on my phone,laptop,tablet etc so wherever i am it will use tailscale as middleman to find open ports and establish a vpn to home network.
You can get a a VPS with unlimited bandwidth, I use IONOS at work, it’s a 500mb connection on their end (1gig at work) we have multiple people streaming video/downloading files without issue.
Instead of the “cheap VPS” part, you might find you can use one of the free instances you can get in Oracle Cloud’s free offering.
Cloudflare works well
And are you talking bout their service called Cloudflared? Because if so, will I need to create a cloudflare tunnel for each port i want to open?
No, you should be able to create one tunnel and pass all your traffic through it I haven’t played with ports tho, only sub domains (i have a reverse proxy behind it)
The easiest would be to use Cloudflare Tunnels. It is also free.
What do you mean the addresses are private? Are you double NAT-ed?
As others have mentioned, tailscale or Cloudflare tunnels can solve your problem
There are VPNS that offer public IPs, some more enterprise grade VPNs can offer static IPs as well. But its not cheap.
Another way if traffic is mostly HTTP(S) based you can use cloudflare, seems to be the norm here.
Why are you moving to an ISP that does not support your needs? are you moving?
The current ISP’s service have been terrible… frequent down times, that usually take 5-24 hours to resolve. It’s unbearable. We were thinking of getting starlink too.
Yes all traffic i need to forward are http based… so that cloudflare thing, did u mean the cloudflared tunnel thing they have? if so, i think I will need to create different tunnels for each port I want to open right?
the other issue that I have is i need a fixed IP in order to access remote databases we use in development. It’s a security thing (our remote database server whitelists connecting IP)
I knew when you described being behind CGNAT that you were talking about Starlink. Starlink isn’t necessarily a solution to your problems. I have it, and it’s recently been pretty slow where I am, and their support is famously difficult to work with. If you have a terrestrial option, it’s probably worth taking a good look at whether you really want Starlink. A few hours of reading in r/starlink may be able to help.
For your other issue, it seems like the best answer is for your employer to provide a VPN (a real VPN, hosted by the employer, not some janky BorgVPN thing whose only purpose is paying YouTubers to lie about what people use their service for.) That has the additional advantage of greatly simplifying the whitelist, which is good for security.
