4 ms·

I’m seeing a lot of this same comment here, so I went to check out this tailscale thing, which clearly I must need. Can anybody explain what Tailscale is, does

I’m seeing a lot of this same comment here, so I went to check out this tailscale thing, which clearly I must need. Can anybody explain what Tailscale is, does, or why everybody seems to have it? Looking at their website, it’s just a huge wall of business jargon. Really! Read it. It’s nothing but a list of enterprise terminology. There’s a “how it works “ page full of more (different) jargon, acronyms and buzzwords, but no simple explanation of why everybody on this thread seems to be paying money for this thing? Any help? Should I just pay them my $6/month and hope I figure it out at some point?

KnuthIsGod 10mo ago
Basically it is managed Wireguard. Tailscale does say it, but it is buried under marketing speak.
- quaintdev 10mo ago
  This. People are doing the same thing that OP mentioned in this thread.
- walthamstow 10mo ago
  It's also P2P mesh rather than hub and spoke which is quite important
  - SOLAR_FIELDS 10mo ago
    It’s worth pointing out that it can be both. The hub and spoke model, relays, is often used for cloud setups where the overhead of installing clients on nodes is not worth the tradeoff
konradb 10mo ago
I don't think you need to pay $6 a month to try it out. Install it on all the machines you want. When you are running it on the machine, it is networked to the other machines that are running it. Now make an 'exit node' on one of those machines by selecting it in the UI, and all your gear can access the internet via that exit node. Your phone can run it. Your apple tv can run it. You can have multiple exit nodes. So you can have a worldwide network and not once did you have to open ports in firewalls etc.
- jasonkester 10mo ago
  So, somewhere on that website, there’s a free version that can be downloaded onto a desktop and run without signing up for their service? I think I understand what it does now. So, basically you leave a computer running at home, and this thing lets you pretend to be running your internet stuff through it while you’re on the road?
  - omnimus 10mo ago
    The service is free up to certain amount of connected people and devices. You most likely don't need to pay for it. I am pretty heavy user and don't. It is virtual private network orchestrator. It allows you to connect to other devices that you add to your network as long as they are connected to the internet. So your office computer, home server or NAS. If you have some home automation like home assistant you can connect to it from anywhere. That kind of stuff.
  - konradb 10mo ago
    > So, somewhere on that website, there’s a free version that can be downloaded onto a desktop and run without signing up for their service? If you go to https://tailscale.com/pricing?plan=personal https://tailscale.com/pricing?plan=personal The first plan on the left called 'Personal' is free. It uses a central orchestrator which is what requires you to sign up. If you prefer to self host your orchestrator you can look into Headscale, an alternative that seeks to be compatible with the clients. > So, basically you leave a computer running at home, and this thing lets you pretend to be running your internet stuff through it while you’re on the road? That's one thing you can do with it, yes. You can also run custom DNS entries across it, ACLs, it is very flexible.
    - jasonkester 10mo ago
      Ugh. On mobile, the first plan on the pricing page is “ starter” for $6. The plan to the right is partly visible, indicating that you can scroll that way. There’s nothing to indicate that you can scroll left. A less hostile website design would have (again) saved me a question.
frio 10mo ago
You don't need to get too far down the page to see "VPN", which is what it is. But on top of that primitive, it's also a bunch of software and networking niceties.
gertrunde 10mo ago
Basic version is it's a sort of developer focused zero trust network service. Encrypted overlay network based on wireguard tunnels, with network ACLs based around identity, and with lots of nice quality-of-life features, like DNS that just works and a bunch of other stuff. (Other stuff = internet egress from your tailscale network ('tailnet') through any chosen node, or feeding inbound traffic from a public IP to a chosen node, SSH tied into the network authentication. There is also https://github.com/juanfont/headscale https://github.com/juanfont/headscale - which is a open source implementation of some of tailscale's server side stuff, compatible with the normal tailscale clients. (And there are clients for a very wide range of stuff).
- jasonkester 10mo ago
  I can’t tell if you’re trying to help, or just getting into the spirit of the website’s “how it works (using ten pages of terminology and acronyms we just made up)” page.
  - arcanemachiner 10mo ago
    Your ignorance of the topic is no excuse to be rude to someone who's trying to help you.
  - viccis 10mo ago
    None of the terminology or acronyms that user used were made up or unique to this. I think you are blaming other people for your unfamiliarity with this kind of tech. It is simply a managed service that lets you hook devices up to an overlay network, in which they can communicate easily with each other just as though they were on a LAN even if they are far apart. For example, if you have a server you'd like to be able to SSH into on your home network, but you don't want to expose it to the internet, you can add both it and your laptop to a Tailscale network and then your laptop can connect directly to it over the Tailscale network no different than if you were at home.
    - jasonkester 10mo ago
      Sorry if I appeared rude. That was very much tongue in cheek. But notice how you just did a much better job of explaining what this thing does without using any jargon at all. The jargon helps if everyone already knows what you’re talking about. It hurts if anyone doesn’t. That’s what I’m poking fun at. There’s a trait in lots of engineers I’ve worked with over the years to be almost afraid to talk about tech stuff in layman terms. Like they’re worried that someone will think less of them because they used words instead of an acronym. Like they won’t get credit for knowing what a zero trust network is if they describe the concept in a way that regular people might understand. One of those guys was certainly in charge of this company’s website copy.
PeterStuer 10mo ago
A system by wich you can expose things on your private network (e.g. your home lan) so you can selectively and securely make them accesible from other places (e.g. over the Internet). You can do all this without tailscale by just configuring secure encrypted tunnels (wireshark, traefic, ...) yourself, but services like tailscale provide you with easy gui configuration for that. I personally use Pangolin, which is similar https://github.com/fosrl/pangolin https://github.com/fosrl/pangolin
npodbielski 10mo ago
It just virtual private network.
Lammy 10mo ago
It's a cryptographic key exchange system that allows nodes to open Wireguard tunnels between each other. They have a nice product, but I don't like how it spies on your “private” network by default: https://tailscale.com/kb/1011/log-mesh-traffic https://tailscale.com/kb/1011/log-mesh-traffic If you want to self-host, use NetBird instead.
- rynn 10mo ago
  Where spies == logging and they tell you, and provide clear opt out instructions
  - Lammy 10mo ago
    Imagine thinking most people read Knowledge Base articles and don't just take the defaults. They even manage to squeeze some FUD into the opt-out toggle's name.
remco_sch 10mo ago
It's a virtual network switch/router with DHCP, DNS, and lots more enterprisey features on top. You 'plug' devices into it using a VPN connection.
tomjen3 10mo ago
It’s a point to point vpn that works between devices even without a direct network connection. Their personal free plan is more than enough.
davnicwil 10mo ago
they have an excellent set of short intro videos [0] on youtube, that's what I used to get an overview and get set up. [0] https://youtu.be/sPdvyR7bLqI?si=2kIpHtNuJ52jEdmm https://youtu.be/sPdvyR7bLqI?si=2kIpHtNuJ52jEdmm
weinzierl 10mo ago
Extending the question: In my mind Tailscale was primarily to expose local services but answers here sound a bit as if people used it as a VpN replacement. If I do not want to expose local services but only protect me and hide from untrusted WiFi, would I better use a traditional VPN or Tailscale? My thinking is that Tailscale could be the better VPN because they have a clean business model while pure VPN companies are all shady.
- hhh 10mo ago
  Tailscale is an enterprise vpn, connecting multiple of your networks, where as consumer vpns just make your network traffic exit from their network. I run a tailscale exit node on an anonymous vps provider to give me a similar experience to a consumer vpn.
- barrkel 10mo ago
  Tailscale can tunnel all your traffic through a chosen exit node so you browse the web and whatnot as if you were at home (or wherever the exit node is), so in this way it's a bit like a VPN from a VPN company, but it doesn't give you a list of countries to select from. VPN companies aren't really in the business of selling VPNs. They sell proxies, especially proxies that let you appear to come from some country, and you typically connect to the proxy using the VPN functionality (particularly if you're using a consumer device instead of a laptop), but often you can use SOCKS5 instead. Tailscale isn't in the business of selling proxies.
- __jonas 10mo ago
  > In my mind Tailscale was primarily to expose local services You might be thinking of tailscale funnel: https://tailscale.com/kb/1223/funnel https://tailscale.com/kb/1223/funnel Which is nice, but still a beta feature. Tailscale itself is indeed a mesh VPN that lets you connect all your devices together. > If I do not want to expose local services but only protect me and hide from untrusted WiFi, would I better use a traditional VPN or Tailscale? It does NOT by default route all your internet traffic through one of its servers in order to hide it from your ISP, like the type of VPN you might be thinking of (Mullvad, ProtonVPN etc.). Though you CAN make it route all the traffic from one of your devices through another, which they call an 'Exit Node'. They also have an integration with Mullvad, which allows you to use Mullvad servers as an exit node. Doing that would be identical to just using Mullvad though.
rahimnathwani 10mo ago
Sign up for free using Google Sign In. Install the tailscale client on each of your devices. Each device will get an IP address from Tailscale. Think about that like a new LAN address. When you're away from home, you can access your home devices using the Tailscale IP addresses.
- nottorp 10mo ago
  They still tie you to Google?
  - fragmede 10mo ago
    Microsoft, Github, and Apple login are the other options if you don't want to use Google.
    - nottorp 10mo ago
      So zero options that will not tie their service to some other service still. So much for resilience.
      - als0 10mo ago
        You can self host with Headscale.
      - jpdb 10mo ago
        You can also use passkeys so you aren't tied to a centralized SSO provider.
        nottorp 10mo ago
        ... after i sign up for the service with a google/microsoft/whatever account, i suppose.
    - drnick1 10mo ago
      Great, yet another opportunity for Big Tech to track people. I’ll stick to my Wireguard setup, I have a fixed IP and would rather have full control of what is happening by setting up the keys myself than trust a third party.
QuiEgo 10mo ago
It's a wrapper around Wireguard that lets you use common SSO providers (Apple ID, Google, etc) to manage access. It also handles looking up the IP address of your "nodes" through their servers, so you don't need to host a domain/dns to find the WAN IP of your home network when you're external to it (this is assuming you don't pay for a fixed IP). Most people put an instance of it on a home server or NAS, and then they can use the very well designed and easy to use iOS/mac/etc client to access their home network when away. You can route all traffic through it, so basically your device operates as if you're on your home network. You can accomplish all of this stuff (setting up a VPN to your home network, DNS lookup to your home network) without Tailscale, but it makes it so much easier.
- ryandrake 10mo ago
  I was still completely mystified until your last sentence. And now I'm just mostly mystified. I, too, keep hearing Tailscale Tailscale Tailscale from HN commenters but have no idea why I'd need it. For anything I need to access on (or from) my home network I just use a VPN I've hosted in my home for the last decade or so.
  - QuiEgo 10mo ago
    If you've already got a VPN solution your happy with, Tailscale probably adds very little value for you. It's just basically the easiest / most user friendly way to setup a VPN to your home network. It can do way more than just being a VPN-to-home, but that's how most users use the free part.
    - yegle 10mo ago
      It's still valuable. You can access your server with your own VPN set up, but what if you want to share a server to a friend or a family member (examples includes VaultWarden/Bitwarden, Plex, Jellyfin)? If this is on Tailscale, you can just ask people to install tailscale client and login using one of the IdP, then ask them to accept the node you shared to them, and they can immediately access the server. The alternative would be 1) sending VPN configs over and maybe also configure their VPN client for them, or 2) expose the service on the Internet protected by some OAuth proxy which really only works for web apps. Neither is easy/trivial.
dxxvi 10mo ago
Not sure if anybody gives you the answer to "what is tailscale?". So, this is my answer (hopefully it's correct and simple enough to understand). Tailscale allows devices that can access the Internet (no matter how they access the Internet) to see each other. To do that, you create a tailscale network for yourself, then connect your devices to that network, then your devices can see each other. Other devices that are connecting to the Internet but not to our tailscale network won't see your devices. AI might explain it better :-) Don't know why I wanted to explain it.
- asielen 10mo ago
  So a VPN?
  - devilbunny 10mo ago
    A multipoint VPN that punches through NAT and can be configured to do a lot of neat things besides. Nothing that a network guru or even a sufficiently motivated hacker couldn’t do on their own, except that the maintenance is practically zero for the personal user and it’s actually easy enough for a very nontechnical person to use (not necessarily to set up, but to use), perhaps with a bit of coaching over the phone. Want to use a different exit point for your traffic? It’s a dropdown list. Share a file? Requires one config step on the client for macOS, once, and then it’s just in the share menu. Windows, Android, iOS are ready to go without that. Share whole directories? Going to require some command-line setup once per shared directory, but not after that. There are features that are much more enterprise-focused and not as useful for personal stuff, but everything above is in the free version. I’m not in tech at all, professionally, and never have been. I’m savvy for an end user - I can install Linux or a BSD, I can set up a network, I can install a VPN myself to get back to my home network - but I would never, ever call myself anything more than an interested layman. I probably could figure most of this out on my own, if I had to. Thing is, I don’t have to. It’s more than just Wireguard in a pretty wrapper. Try it. It won’t take long to figure out why so many people here like it, even if you may not want to use it.
gunalx 10mo ago
Also the free tier is sufficient for basically anything non power-user or enterprice.
rpdillon 10mo ago
For me: it's a way to access services I host on my homelab LAN from 3000 miles away. Having a router that automatically logs into that and routes TS addresses properly allows you to use all your devices connected to that router to access TS services with no further configuration. I host Kiwix, Copyparty, Llama.cpp, FreshRSS, and a bunch of other services on my homelab, and being able to access all of those remotely is convenient.
DANmode 10mo ago
Open their GitHub page?
ubittibu 10mo ago
It’s Wireguard for lazy people

KnuthIsGod 10mo ago

Basically it is managed Wireguard. Tailscale does say it, but it is buried under marketing speak.

quaintdev 10mo ago
This. People are doing the same thing that OP mentioned in this thread.
walthamstow 10mo ago
It's also P2P mesh rather than hub and spoke which is quite important
- SOLAR_FIELDS 10mo ago
  It’s worth pointing out that it can be both. The hub and spoke model, relays, is often used for cloud setups where the overhead of installing clients on nodes is not worth the tradeoff

konradb 10mo ago

I don't think you need to pay $6 a month to try it out. Install it on all the machines you want. When you are running it on the machine, it is networked to the other machines that are running it. Now make an 'exit node' on one of those machines by selecting it in the UI, and all your gear can access the internet via that exit node. Your phone can run it. Your apple tv can run it. You can have multiple exit nodes. So you can have a worldwide network and not once did you have to open ports in firewalls etc.

jasonkester 10mo ago
So, somewhere on that website, there’s a free version that can be downloaded onto a desktop and run without signing up for their service? I think I understand what it does now. So, basically you leave a computer running at home, and this thing lets you pretend to be running your internet stuff through it while you’re on the road?
- omnimus 10mo ago
  The service is free up to certain amount of connected people and devices. You most likely don't need to pay for it. I am pretty heavy user and don't. It is virtual private network orchestrator. It allows you to connect to other devices that you add to your network as long as they are connected to the internet. So your office computer, home server or NAS. If you have some home automation like home assistant you can connect to it from anywhere. That kind of stuff.
- konradb 10mo ago
  > So, somewhere on that website, there’s a free version that can be downloaded onto a desktop and run without signing up for their service? If you go to https://tailscale.com/pricing?plan=personal https://tailscale.com/pricing?plan=personal The first plan on the left called 'Personal' is free. It uses a central orchestrator which is what requires you to sign up. If you prefer to self host your orchestrator you can look into Headscale, an alternative that seeks to be compatible with the clients. > So, basically you leave a computer running at home, and this thing lets you pretend to be running your internet stuff through it while you’re on the road? That's one thing you can do with it, yes. You can also run custom DNS entries across it, ACLs, it is very flexible.
  - jasonkester 10mo ago
    Ugh. On mobile, the first plan on the pricing page is “ starter” for $6. The plan to the right is partly visible, indicating that you can scroll that way. There’s nothing to indicate that you can scroll left. A less hostile website design would have (again) saved me a question.

frio 10mo ago

You don't need to get too far down the page to see "VPN", which is what it is. But on top of that primitive, it's also a bunch of software and networking niceties.

gertrunde 10mo ago

Basic version is it's a sort of developer focused zero trust network service. Encrypted overlay network based on wireguard tunnels, with network ACLs based around identity, and with lots of nice quality-of-life features, like DNS that just works and a bunch of other stuff. (Other stuff = internet egress from your tailscale network ('tailnet') through any chosen node, or feeding inbound traffic from a public IP to a chosen node, SSH tied into the network authentication. There is also https://github.com/juanfont/headscale https://github.com/juanfont/headscale - which is a open source implementation of some of tailscale's server side stuff, compatible with the normal tailscale clients. (And there are clients for a very wide range of stuff).

jasonkester 10mo ago
I can’t tell if you’re trying to help, or just getting into the spirit of the website’s “how it works (using ten pages of terminology and acronyms we just made up)” page.
- arcanemachiner 10mo ago
  Your ignorance of the topic is no excuse to be rude to someone who's trying to help you.
- viccis 10mo ago
  None of the terminology or acronyms that user used were made up or unique to this. I think you are blaming other people for your unfamiliarity with this kind of tech. It is simply a managed service that lets you hook devices up to an overlay network, in which they can communicate easily with each other just as though they were on a LAN even if they are far apart. For example, if you have a server you'd like to be able to SSH into on your home network, but you don't want to expose it to the internet, you can add both it and your laptop to a Tailscale network and then your laptop can connect directly to it over the Tailscale network no different than if you were at home.
  - jasonkester 10mo ago
    Sorry if I appeared rude. That was very much tongue in cheek. But notice how you just did a much better job of explaining what this thing does without using any jargon at all. The jargon helps if everyone already knows what you’re talking about. It hurts if anyone doesn’t. That’s what I’m poking fun at. There’s a trait in lots of engineers I’ve worked with over the years to be almost afraid to talk about tech stuff in layman terms. Like they’re worried that someone will think less of them because they used words instead of an acronym. Like they won’t get credit for knowing what a zero trust network is if they describe the concept in a way that regular people might understand. One of those guys was certainly in charge of this company’s website copy.

PeterStuer 10mo ago

A system by wich you can expose things on your private network (e.g. your home lan) so you can selectively and securely make them accesible from other places (e.g. over the Internet). You can do all this without tailscale by just configuring secure encrypted tunnels (wireshark, traefic, ...) yourself, but services like tailscale provide you with easy gui configuration for that. I personally use Pangolin, which is similar https://github.com/fosrl/pangolin https://github.com/fosrl/pangolin

npodbielski 10mo ago

It just virtual private network.

Lammy 10mo ago

It's a cryptographic key exchange system that allows nodes to open Wireguard tunnels between each other. They have a nice product, but I don't like how it spies on your “private” network by default: https://tailscale.com/kb/1011/log-mesh-traffic https://tailscale.com/kb/1011/log-mesh-traffic If you want to self-host, use NetBird instead.

rynn 10mo ago
Where spies == logging and they tell you, and provide clear opt out instructions
- Lammy 10mo ago
  Imagine thinking most people read Knowledge Base articles and don't just take the defaults. They even manage to squeeze some FUD into the opt-out toggle's name.

remco_sch 10mo ago

It's a virtual network switch/router with DHCP, DNS, and lots more enterprisey features on top. You 'plug' devices into it using a VPN connection.

tomjen3 10mo ago

It’s a point to point vpn that works between devices even without a direct network connection. Their personal free plan is more than enough.

davnicwil 10mo ago

they have an excellent set of short intro videos [0] on youtube, that's what I used to get an overview and get set up. [0] https://youtu.be/sPdvyR7bLqI?si=2kIpHtNuJ52jEdmm https://youtu.be/sPdvyR7bLqI?si=2kIpHtNuJ52jEdmm

weinzierl 10mo ago

Extending the question: In my mind Tailscale was primarily to expose local services but answers here sound a bit as if people used it as a VpN replacement. If I do not want to expose local services but only protect me and hide from untrusted WiFi, would I better use a traditional VPN or Tailscale? My thinking is that Tailscale could be the better VPN because they have a clean business model while pure VPN companies are all shady.

hhh 10mo ago
Tailscale is an enterprise vpn, connecting multiple of your networks, where as consumer vpns just make your network traffic exit from their network. I run a tailscale exit node on an anonymous vps provider to give me a similar experience to a consumer vpn.
barrkel 10mo ago
Tailscale can tunnel all your traffic through a chosen exit node so you browse the web and whatnot as if you were at home (or wherever the exit node is), so in this way it's a bit like a VPN from a VPN company, but it doesn't give you a list of countries to select from. VPN companies aren't really in the business of selling VPNs. They sell proxies, especially proxies that let you appear to come from some country, and you typically connect to the proxy using the VPN functionality (particularly if you're using a consumer device instead of a laptop), but often you can use SOCKS5 instead. Tailscale isn't in the business of selling proxies.
__jonas 10mo ago
> In my mind Tailscale was primarily to expose local services You might be thinking of tailscale funnel: https://tailscale.com/kb/1223/funnel https://tailscale.com/kb/1223/funnel Which is nice, but still a beta feature. Tailscale itself is indeed a mesh VPN that lets you connect all your devices together. > If I do not want to expose local services but only protect me and hide from untrusted WiFi, would I better use a traditional VPN or Tailscale? It does NOT by default route all your internet traffic through one of its servers in order to hide it from your ISP, like the type of VPN you might be thinking of (Mullvad, ProtonVPN etc.). Though you CAN make it route all the traffic from one of your devices through another, which they call an 'Exit Node'. They also have an integration with Mullvad, which allows you to use Mullvad servers as an exit node. Doing that would be identical to just using Mullvad though.

rahimnathwani 10mo ago

Sign up for free using Google Sign In. Install the tailscale client on each of your devices. Each device will get an IP address from Tailscale. Think about that like a new LAN address. When you're away from home, you can access your home devices using the Tailscale IP addresses.

nottorp 10mo ago
They still tie you to Google?
- fragmede 10mo ago
  Microsoft, Github, and Apple login are the other options if you don't want to use Google.
  - nottorp 10mo ago
    So zero options that will not tie their service to some other service still. So much for resilience.
    - als0 10mo ago
      You can self host with Headscale.
    - jpdb 10mo ago
      You can also use passkeys so you aren't tied to a centralized SSO provider.
      - nottorp 10mo ago
        ... after i sign up for the service with a google/microsoft/whatever account, i suppose.
  - drnick1 10mo ago
    Great, yet another opportunity for Big Tech to track people. I’ll stick to my Wireguard setup, I have a fixed IP and would rather have full control of what is happening by setting up the keys myself than trust a third party.

QuiEgo 10mo ago

It's a wrapper around Wireguard that lets you use common SSO providers (Apple ID, Google, etc) to manage access. It also handles looking up the IP address of your "nodes" through their servers, so you don't need to host a domain/dns to find the WAN IP of your home network when you're external to it (this is assuming you don't pay for a fixed IP). Most people put an instance of it on a home server or NAS, and then they can use the very well designed and easy to use iOS/mac/etc client to access their home network when away. You can route all traffic through it, so basically your device operates as if you're on your home network. You can accomplish all of this stuff (setting up a VPN to your home network, DNS lookup to your home network) without Tailscale, but it makes it so much easier.

ryandrake 10mo ago
I was still completely mystified until your last sentence. And now I'm just mostly mystified. I, too, keep hearing Tailscale Tailscale Tailscale from HN commenters but have no idea why I'd need it. For anything I need to access on (or from) my home network I just use a VPN I've hosted in my home for the last decade or so.
- QuiEgo 10mo ago
  If you've already got a VPN solution your happy with, Tailscale probably adds very little value for you. It's just basically the easiest / most user friendly way to setup a VPN to your home network. It can do way more than just being a VPN-to-home, but that's how most users use the free part.
  - yegle 10mo ago
    It's still valuable. You can access your server with your own VPN set up, but what if you want to share a server to a friend or a family member (examples includes VaultWarden/Bitwarden, Plex, Jellyfin)? If this is on Tailscale, you can just ask people to install tailscale client and login using one of the IdP, then ask them to accept the node you shared to them, and they can immediately access the server. The alternative would be 1) sending VPN configs over and maybe also configure their VPN client for them, or 2) expose the service on the Internet protected by some OAuth proxy which really only works for web apps. Neither is easy/trivial.

dxxvi 10mo ago

Not sure if anybody gives you the answer to "what is tailscale?". So, this is my answer (hopefully it's correct and simple enough to understand). Tailscale allows devices that can access the Internet (no matter how they access the Internet) to see each other. To do that, you create a tailscale network for yourself, then connect your devices to that network, then your devices can see each other. Other devices that are connecting to the Internet but not to our tailscale network won't see your devices. AI might explain it better :-) Don't know why I wanted to explain it.

asielen 10mo ago
So a VPN?
- devilbunny 10mo ago
  A multipoint VPN that punches through NAT and can be configured to do a lot of neat things besides. Nothing that a network guru or even a sufficiently motivated hacker couldn’t do on their own, except that the maintenance is practically zero for the personal user and it’s actually easy enough for a very nontechnical person to use (not necessarily to set up, but to use), perhaps with a bit of coaching over the phone. Want to use a different exit point for your traffic? It’s a dropdown list. Share a file? Requires one config step on the client for macOS, once, and then it’s just in the share menu. Windows, Android, iOS are ready to go without that. Share whole directories? Going to require some command-line setup once per shared directory, but not after that. There are features that are much more enterprise-focused and not as useful for personal stuff, but everything above is in the free version. I’m not in tech at all, professionally, and never have been. I’m savvy for an end user - I can install Linux or a BSD, I can set up a network, I can install a VPN myself to get back to my home network - but I would never, ever call myself anything more than an interested layman. I probably could figure most of this out on my own, if I had to. Thing is, I don’t have to. It’s more than just Wireguard in a pretty wrapper. Try it. It won’t take long to figure out why so many people here like it, even if you may not want to use it.

gunalx 10mo ago

Also the free tier is sufficient for basically anything non power-user or enterprice.

rpdillon 10mo ago

For me: it's a way to access services I host on my homelab LAN from 3000 miles away. Having a router that automatically logs into that and routes TS addresses properly allows you to use all your devices connected to that router to access TS services with no further configuration. I host Kiwix, Copyparty, Llama.cpp, FreshRSS, and a bunch of other services on my homelab, and being able to access all of those remotely is convenient.

DANmode 10mo ago

Open their GitHub page?

ubittibu 10mo ago

It’s Wireguard for lazy people