Using Tailscale

[FunkyBuddha]

I believe that one of the most useful free apps available is Tailscale. If you ever wanted to access your files in your home network without opening port(s) in your router, then Tailscale is the app to use. It provides a peer to peer Wireguard VPN tunnel. Permissions are managed through ACL (Access Control List). You want to explicitly define access rules to ensure that device access are based on specific needs. The app itself can be set up in minutes. The example below establishes access from your phone to shared folder(s) on your desktop.

Instructions:

• Install Tailscale on your desktop and phone
• Go to Tailscale website's admin page
• Create ACL to establish tags and access control
• Go to Machine section in Admin page and add tags "mydesktop" and "phone" to the appropriate device
• The sample ACL below allows your phone to access shared folders on your desktop (I purposely limited the ports for Samba shares )
• Note, "[email protected]" is the email you used to register your Tailscale account.

ACL Example:

Quote

{
    "acls": [
        // Allow phone access to mydesktop
        {
            "action": "accept",
            "src":    ["tag:phone"],
            "dst":    ["tag:mydesktop:137,138,139,445"],
        },
    ],
    // Define your tags here
    "tagOwners": {
        "tag:phone":      ["[email protected]"],
        "tag:mydesktop":  ["[email protected]"],
    },
}