Can you actually hide an ip for free? reddit / selfhosted ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Hackatoa · 2023-09-28 04:31 Hey, so i have a domain configured through Cloudflare and i also run game servers. I want to basically hide my ip when sharing my server. I cant really justify clouflares spectrum. I tried using nginx then realized the flaw since it is http/s traffic only. I dont really want to use game specific solutions either as i want something i could use for any type of server if i need. like an ssh server. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ericjhmining · 2023-09-28 04:35 I don't think cloudflare offers any free options for being the proxy to your game server. At least none that I could figure out. Maybe someone else will have some info but I think they charge to setup that kind of config. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- SammyDavidJuniorJr · 2023-09-28 04:56 Tailscale funnels maybe? https://tailscale.com/kb/1223/tailscale-funnel/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- cloudswithflaire · 2023-09-28 04:56 Nginx is in fact not only for http(s) or tcp. It's ["Stream"](https://docs.nginx.com/nginx/admin-guide/load-balancer/tcp- udp-load-balancer/) functions easily handles udp traffic. Back in the day I rented a dedicated IP from Winscribe VPN and port- forwarded to that. If I had to do it again at present, I'd get a cheap ($1-$2) VPS as close to me, with the lowest latency as I could find, then use it as Tailscale endpoint, with nginx sending the traffic back correctly. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Hackatoa · 2023-09-28 04:59 cloudflare is http/s only though, at least the free version. I might look at some vps options that something ive been meaning to do. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- cloudswithflaire · 2023-09-28 05:06 You really don’t need anything too fancy for this. 1 vcore and 1gb of memory would be plenty. Just make sure you pay attention to the network speeds and bandwidth limits in relation to how you’re planning to use the thing. An Oracle Free Tier server would actually be pretty perfect for this (assuming you’re able to get one, and the latency between you and the data center isn’t too bad) Someone else mentioned Tailscale Funnels, that could drastically simplify things for you, if it’s a good fit for your use case. Would urge you to read up on it. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Hackatoa · 2023-09-28 05:12 i browsed around so im going to do some research on the tailscale funnels because ive never seen them before and then ill proably look around at some vps if i feel its a better option. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- cloudswithflaire · 2023-09-28 05:18 The VPS would be where you run the Tailscale Endpoint. They aren't separate suggestions; you need one for the other. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Defiant-Ad-5513 · 2023-09-28 05:20 You could tunnel tcp over an argo tunnel with cloudflare and then everybody who want's to connect must first run cloudflared so not the cleanest solution. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Hackatoa · 2023-09-28 05:22 oh okay now i understands so basically im turned the vps into the node i am connecting to and that ip of the vps would be used. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Hackatoa · 2023-09-28 05:26 yeah this doesnt really work well for me since im trying to host a game server and dont really want to make it more difficult to connect to. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- cloudswithflaire · 2023-09-28 05:27 Exactly. A commercial VPN with a dedicated IP would cost you substantially more than a $1-2/month VPS, and likely not yield results as good. A good way to look at it is that you are just renting the something with a dedicated IP to be able to use in place of your home IP. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- globus8 · 2023-09-28 05:41 I am new to this, but I plan to host some of my things with the help of cloudflare tunnel which is free. So I don't have to have open ports on my router. I have a domain and dynamic IP.I don't know if it will hide my IP for sure but I tought it would since it is a tunnel. I am trying to understand networking right now so if anyone can comment on it. Also if anyone know.. Can I ssh into my server with cloudflare tunnel since I have a dynamic IP and I'm affrait it would change? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Halllo5 · 2023-09-28 05:45 Oracle Free tier gives you essentially free public ips. I can use one of the free vms to forward traffic through a Wireguard tunnel and hide your ip like that ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Hackatoa · 2023-09-28 06:28 yes this i believe to be working perfectly with an oracle vm so thank you ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Hackatoa · 2023-09-28 06:29 thank you for your help i ended up setting up an oracle vm with tailscale and it works ---------------------------------------------------------------------- cloudswithflaire · 2023-09-28 07:02 That’s great! I’ve been trying to deploy an oracle free tier vm for 3 weeks now without any luck, so I’m glad you were able to get one. Last little pro-tip, you get a free dedicated public IP that you can move with you from service to service. It’s awesome for setting up DNS or SSL certs and not have to edit them. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- NikStalwart · 2023-09-28 07:58 So the question is (or should be): what do you mean by 'hide' and what do you mean by 'IP'? There is nothing (inherently) special about an IP that you would want to hide. The reason people like to use cloudflare et al as proxies is to mitigate intentional and unintentional DoS. Using Clouddflare for CDN/cache duties means you can reduce your traffic usage almost to zero (in the case of static websites) which allows you to have a fairly wimpy machine as your origin. Using cloudflare (or any other service) merely to proxy non-cacheable, non-HTTP traffic without further mitigation does not actually protect you. Simple example: suppose you run a Minecraft server at home. Your residential link is 100/20. You rent a VPS that can do 250/250. You proxy your Minecraft traffic through your VPS. Someone can saturate your home's bandwidth and your VPS is doing *literally nothing* for you. Now, if you are carefull, you can set up traffic shaping, network monitoring and similar on your VPS. But, if you had the skill to do it, you would not be asking this question in the first place. So my question is: what do you mean by "hide" and what do you mean by "IP"? There are reasons I don't want to host services out of my home network and am quite happy to cowardly hide behind my IP's NAT. After all, let my ISP pay $100,000 for routers so I can get away with something for $40. But you cannot have your cake and eat it too. You cannot 'hide' your IP *and* serve external clients at the same time. If you wanted me to install cloudflared/tailscale to play games with you, I'd probably tell you to sod off. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Wdrussell1 · 2023-09-28 08:10 Caution on this though. They will delete your VM without warning. I had a game server running for three months and it just disappeared. No email or anything. I know it's free but. A heads up or something would be nice. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- PhilipLGriffiths88 · 2023-09-28 08:17 Alternative to Tailscale Funnel, you could also use zrok.io. It's an open source alternative which can be self-hosted or has a free SaaS. It also includes cool features like 'private sharing'. I work on the parent project. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- CC-5576-03 · 2023-09-28 11:29 Why do you want to hide your public IP? If you're running a public game server that is at risk of a ddos attack then you should use a real hosting service, if you're just running a server for your buddies then there's not really any risk. Use a whitelist if the server allows it. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- glotzerhotze · 2023-09-28 13:16 Can you get a traffic-ticket for speeding if you don‘t drive a car? There‘s your answer. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- PassiveLemon · 2023-09-28 13:19 a whitelist doesn’t stop people from trying to connect and/or figuring out your public ip ---------------------------------------------------------------------- CC-5576-03 · 2023-09-28 13:23 The whitelist just prevents bots from connecting. No one is gonna ddos your private server and your public is, well, public. You don't need to hide it unless you're painting a target on your back by running a public server or some controversial blog or something. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- PassiveLemon · 2023-09-28 13:28 Indeed, i was just pointing that out ---------------------------------------------------------------------- abroadineuro · 2023-09-28 16:33 can't even sign up. Tired multiple times already, many others also :/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- idealistdoit · 2023-09-28 19:36 The free Cloudflare proxy will take web requests from the internet, and ask your local server for the pages on behalf of the user who is visiting the cloudflare server. Since you have a Dynamic ip address, you will need a script that will update CloudFlare's DNS entries with your current external IP address. Regarding SSH, you won't be able to SSH into your cloudflare address because cloudflare's free service works with browser/web requests, not ssh. There are additional options that you can get from CloudFlare that works with SSH like 'Cloudflare Zero Trust' Also, one final note, even if you set up a cloudflare proxy you have to be careful to set your web server to only respond to requests from cloudflare. If your local web server responds to the internet in general also, eventually, a web scanner will find your local server and add it to an index with the domain served on the security certificate and "the wrong people" will be able to look it up and find your local IP address. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- globus8 · 2023-09-28 21:24 Yea I was planning to get that 'Cloudflare Zero Trust' free plan. Well I have to look more into it. Thank you for the explanation, it does connect pieces in my head.