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submitted 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

(Sorry if this is too off-topic:) ISPs seem designed to funnel people to capitalist cloud services, or at least I feel like that. And it endlessly frustrates me.

The reason is even though IPv6 addresses are widely available (unlike IPv4), most ISPs won't allow consumers to request a static rather than a dynamic IPv6 prefix along with a couple of IPv6 reverse DNS entries.

Instead, this functionality is gatekept behind expensive premium or even business contracts, in many cases even requiring legal paperwork proving you have a registered business, so that the common user is completely unable to self-host e.g. a fully functional IPv6-only mail server with reverse DNS, even if they wanted to.

The common workaround is to suck up to the cloud, and rent a VPS, or some other foreign controlled machine that can be easily intercepted and messed with, and where the service can be surveilled better by big money.

I'm posting this since I hope more people will realize that this is going on, and both complain to their ISPs, but most notably to regulatory bodies and to generally spread the word. If we want true digital autonomy to be more common, I feel like this needs to be fixed for consumer landline contracts.

Or did I miss something that makes this make sense outside of a big money capitalist angle?

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[-] [email protected] 97 points 5 days ago

If you’re looking for sympathy, you got it. Fuck the state.

If you’re looking for solutions, use a cheap $5/mo VPS that exists purely as your gateway host. Run everything you want on your home machines, then tunnel the traffic to your gateway and reverse-proxy it there. Your data stays in your hands, you can spin up and expose new services publicly in a matter of minutes, AND your home IP isn’t vulnerable to doxxing or DoS.

[-] [email protected] 25 points 5 days ago

use a cheap $5/mo VPS that exists purely as your gateway host

Now, why so expensive?
https://racknerdtracker.com/?sort=price
Disclaimer: I never used Racknerd (nor any other VPS).

[-] [email protected] 7 points 4 days ago

"JUST $10.28/YEAR - WOW!!" Laughed out loud at that, and I'll have to give this a look. Currently I just use nginx and duckdns to expose my home IP for my self hosted stuff.

[-] [email protected] 13 points 5 days ago

I've used them for years with literally zero issues. Performance a for a cheap VPS. And since all the real work happens on my machines, if they enshittify, I can easily move elsewhere.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 4 days ago

Thank you sir!

[-] [email protected] 1 points 4 days ago

Didn't dig in too far into the options, but those prices are crazy low. Thanks for pointing us there.

[-] [email protected] 10 points 5 days ago

Thanks king, this actually makes sense!

[-] [email protected] 9 points 5 days ago

I basically do exactly this, but I am running the reverse proxy on my home computer: the VPS is literally just acting as a proxy, for which I use wireguard to tunnel the connection. So far it's worked great, though initial setup was a pain.

[-] [email protected] 6 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

This is a great suggestion!

Lest anyone miss the buried lede, this approach means that traffic is pre-encrypted as it passes through the gateway VPS - so even if your VPS gets hacked, it’s way harder to steal credentials and break into the services running on your home network.

[-] [email protected] 3 points 4 days ago

So you essentially have a DMZ between your VPS and home network that is divided by your reverse proxy?

[-] [email protected] 9 points 5 days ago

Is there a more detailed guide to this practice and the pros/cons?

[-] [email protected] 4 points 4 days ago

This is @[email protected]‘s work, not mine - but it’s pretty similar to how I’d set things up:

https://wiki.gardiol.org/doku.php?id=networking%3Assh_tunnel

[-] [email protected] 4 points 4 days ago

Really appreciated the reference!

Good to know my wiki is of any use to somebody.

:)

this post was submitted on 29 May 2025
248 points (90.5% liked)

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