A Tailscale Homelab

Introduction

It began as a simple task, as they often times do. I needed to provide a tunnel through my home network so my brother can access the local sports network. With a basic understanding of networking, and experience from submitting tickets to my ISP IT staff for advanced capabilities, I considered the options before me, could I host my own VPN server and allow my brother access via portforwarding? That would be the straightforward approach. The memories of configuring networking rules through outdated router interfaces started flooding back. No, I cried. I couldn’t bring myself to deal with the frustration of administering these devices, and fight over the real estate these configurations clutter up in the mental space in my brain.

Suddenly, it appeared.

On a late night surfing the internet, I happened upon a serendipitious mention of a technology known as Tailscale. “Tailscale,” I muttered in my disjointed mental voice. That’s not Tailwind. That’s new. And so the impetus began. As it turned out, Tailscale was exactly the solution I needed to get my brother tuned in and connect my homelab together for good.

[router IP assignment problem, managing static routes, DNS? frailty. MagicDNS is nice. digital nomad, devices may move someday and meet new neighbors / landlords]

The problem without a mesh network

Getting started with Tailscale

For the inclined reader, refer to the tailscale documentation on

All systems are go: The setup

My desire (and I might argue, need) for a capable, networked system of devices has grown over the years. My collection consists of my standard carry iPhone, a framework laptop, two desktops, two raspberry pi’s, a synology NAS, and the most recent addition to the family, the Bambu A1 3D printer.