Pro: 1Gb upload and download speeds on free Internet provided by the HOA. Con: As a self hoster, I have zero control over it. No port forwarding, no DMZ, no bridge mode. It’s Starbucks free WiFi with a wired connection.
Option A: Buy Google Fiber and don’t use free Internet. Option B: Create some elaborate tunnel through a VPS.
My public self hosted activities are fairly low bandwidth (password manager, SSH). I have a vague idea that I could point my domain to a low cost VPS that has a VPN tunnel into my home network for any incoming connection needs. That may require me to fill in port forwards on both systems but whatever. Tailscale is serving most of my remote needs but I still need a few ports. This does not fix the issue of online gaming port forwards (Nintendo Switch online requires a huge forwarded range for best performance) but oh well for now.
UPDATE: I think they’re using this system. https://www.cambiumnetworks.com/markets/multi-family-living/ The personal Wi-Fi overview makes it clear each AP is given it’s own VLAN which sounds a whole lot like the whole building is sharing one IP and there’s no way I’m going to get my own Internet access. They even detail how you can roam the building and maintain your WiFi connection across your neighbor’s and the common areas APs. This is the IPV4 future.
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Haven’t had to use port forwarding for gaming in like 30 or so years, so I just looked up Nintendo’s website…
Within the port range, enter the starting port and the ending port to forward. For the Nintendo Switch console, this is port 1024 through 65535
LMAO, no thanks, that’s not happening.
For your question, you could likely route everything through a tunnel and manage the port forwarding on the other end of the tunnel.
WTF? Nintendo wants you to get that wide open? 🤣
I actually gave it 44000-65535 and it’s connecting well. That’s another reason why I wanted a more robust network: IOT VLAN to segregate that risk.
That’s how I have it at home. 6 VLANs total. Even IoT and Media/games are separated from each other.
If they’re providing IPv6 to you, port forwarding shouldn’t be necessary most of the time for online gaming.
Are they allowing UPnP upstream?
This. 100% this. Ipv6 underrated.
Assuming the Switch supports ipv6, and given how backward Nintendo’s tech tends to be, it wouldn’t surprise me if they didn’t.
Although at least nintendo.com has an AAAA record.
Option A modified: get a router, install OpenWRT, install wireguard, get a VPS, create a tunnel, profit
Or with opnsense as well
Yeah any FOSS OS that can do a router
Option b of course, rent cheapest vps, ionos.ca offers plans for 2$ per month, it’ll be cheaper than Google fiber, you can also use sshuttle https://github.com/sshuttle/sshuttle on your openwrt router and connect everything to it be it by cable or wireless, then Nintendo gaming will also have that port forwarding because your whole traffic is going to go through vps
Set up a cheap VPS on DigitalOcean or the like, and run a Tailscale exit node. Put Tailscale on your devices at home (or get a 2nd router that allows you to run Tailscale on it) and join them to the same Tailnet. That’s the easiest way to accomplish this without getting too far into the weeds.
I’m currently running option B since I had the same issue where I was living when I built my server. I have a DigitalOcean vps and an openvpn tunnel between that and my home server, and the vps just forwards and masquerades all traffic. I’ve definitely had issues with speeds, and in the past it’s fluctuated so could’ve been an issue with something besides the vpn. It’s been a while since I’ve used it for streaming or game servers, but last I remember the speed wasn’t too bad. Playing factorio there was some noticeable latency but still playable although other games might not work as well. I’ve also done self-hosted broadcasts using owncast and that worked fine.
I would do option A, but instead of just not using the free internet, I would use it for everything else not needing server services. So like streaming or general browsing.
Just leaving the Google fiber as a dedicated pipe for all my self hosted services
You can do this kind of split with pfSense easily
I just got a Ubiquti Dream Machine that can do fail over so the other connection won’t be completely wasted but $70 per month could be saved by finding another way.
why get a low cost vps to route the traffic through when you can just run the app on the vps?
It depends on the app. Yes, I could run my password manager on the VPS since that takes up virtually no space or bandwidth. The odd IP camera needs to be local, the Minecraft server with mods needs local CPU power and RAM (presumably).
Storage size, privacy, security, operating cost…I can think of several reasons. I use a cheap vps to help me route traffic to my ebook server, and I don’t have to pay for extra storage on the vps to hold all my comic books, which can be quite large when scanned in HD.
