External access info for newbs

[engineer_james]

Cobbled together a TrueNas Scale server for Immich, and I can access it from other computers on my home network, but trying to access it from outside my house, and I just don't know where to start learning about that. Any suggestions? 

[NikolakiH]

The most secure option a newb like me can come up with is to set up a VPN like Wireguard or OpenVPN on your network to access it from outside as if you were on your LAN

[engineer_james]

52 minutes ago, NikolakiH said:

The most secure option a newb like me can come up with is to set up a VPN like Wireguard or OpenVPN on your network to access it from outside as if you were on your LAN

I agree, definitely the most secure option, and that's probably what I'll use for Admin stuff, but I'm wanting to set it up like Google Photos, and just invite family to it, VPN won't work for that. 

[NikolakiH]

Oh, I see. For that you'll want to use a DDNS service, or Dynamic DNS, to give your family a "website" URL they can just type into whatever app you're using to access it and port-forward the TrueNAS server. Without Dynamic DNS, your ISP will eventually give you a new public IP address and your family won't be able to connect until you tell them your new one, which will get pretty annoying.

 

You definitely need to be more careful about this since anyone with your IP could scan your network for open ports and hack your network, or they could just guess the password for one of your family members who has a weak password. You definitely want to keep your TrueNAS server and Immich up to date and limit Admin access to inside your network. You might want to isolate this server to a separate subnet on your network that has no access to the rest of your LAN, just the internet.