ORIGINAL REDDIT POST
How to access my home network on always-on VPN?
I'm trying to figure out how to self-host my Navidrome library so it is accessible by my phone when I have VPN always-on both on the server (which is an old laptop) and the phone. I'm very new to self-hosting and have no idea what to do and how could I do…
I'm trying to figure out how to self-host my Navidrome library so it is accessible by my phone when I have VPN always-on both on the server (which is an old laptop) and the phone. I'm very new to self-hosting and have no idea what to do and how could I do what I need
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I thought OP was saying about using something to bridge the devices ( VPN ) between each other . If he wants to use a vpn service , Tailscale has the mullvad add on which is great
sadly, that wouldn't work on an android phone, since they don't allow two VPNs at the same time, so Tailscale is only an option if you want to use Mullvad
put it on the same mesh could you explain that in more detail? I only vaguely understand what a mesh is
Cloudflare tunnel if you're okay with paying 11$ a year for a domain that would make my server reachable on the internet for any device under the domain I'm paying for, right?
Is Navidrome based on a docker container ? If so , rent a domain and use it for accessing the Navidrome server . If it’s not a docker container, I think you can have both Tailscale and something else running and with Tailscale you can access what you want with a funnel created
Sure. A mesh VPN (Tailscale or NetBird are the easy ones, both free for personal use) gives every device a stable private IP inside one flat overlay network. Phone, laptop, home server each run the client and get an address like 100.x.y.z, and they reach each other directly over encrypted WireGuard tunnels no matter which physical network they're on. There's no central "VPN server" you dial into — that's the mesh part. Why it matters for your case: phones only run one VPN profile at a time, so "always-on VPN plus exceptions for home" is exactly the fragile combination that keeps breaking. A mesh flips it around: the mesh IS your always-on VPN, and the home server is just another peer, reachable at the same IP from home Wi-Fi, LTE, a hotel, anywhere. If you also want your general traffic to exit somewhere else for privacy, you set an exit node — a box at home, or Tailscale's built-in Mullvad option — and one tunnel covers both jobs. And if you want the whole home LAN rather than a single box: run the client on one machine at home and enable subnet routing. It advertises your 192.168.x.0/24 to the mesh and everything at home becomes reachable without installing anything else.
Tailscale , you simply download it and click connect . Made it be enabled at all times in your devices and you are good to go
Devices, plural. Install it in everything you'll want to connect to (easy method). Log in on all those things using a Gmail/OAUTH account (easy method). Then use the TS IP to communicate with each device over that VPN. Though I'm not sure if it'll work behind an existing VPN connection
Classic split-tunnel problem. Easier to reach the server through the VPN as well, put it on the same mesh instead of trying to exempt local subnets. Exemptions work right until the phone decides otherwise, usually when you're out and can't debug it.
Tailscale is probably easier as per the other reply but you could also consider WireGuard. The best guide for it I have read is actually on the Pi-hole website. https://docs.pi-hole.net/guides/vpn/wireguard/
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