After a very enlightening discussion in a previous thread, I decided to plunge into a mesh type network to connect my various servers and devices.

Nebula has been fairly straight forward to set up so far, but I’m having some trouble with the details and am curious if anybody has successfully got Nebula up and running for their network.

Installation on Linux platforms has been a breeze. Windows I can’t seem to get working. I was able to install but the service refuses to start. Can’t find any documentation besides random GitHub issue threads. MacOS was easy to install but having issues due to a VPN that’s running already.

I use a VPN because I travel a lot. I also use my MacBook to SSH into my servers or access remote file storage. My previous network configuration was connecting via wireguard to my network. I was able to do this while maintaining an always on VPN with the mullvad app. With Nebula that VPN seems to muck things up.

I’m also curious if anybody has had experience setting up a dual config for Nextcloud. Essentially accessing a Nextcloud server from nebula with a trusted device while still allowing public access for things list public shared links.

      • PeachMan@lemmy.worldEnglish
        14·
        10 months ago

        I wouldn’t call it a clone, Tailscale didn’t invent mesh VPN’s. I believe Nebula is fully self hosted, while Tailscale makes initial connections through their servers. That means Nebula is more secure and private if you’re paranoid, but also harder to set up. They’re also based on different VPN protocols.

        Tailscale actually published a surprisingly unbiased comparison: https://tailscale.com/compare/nebula

        • daed@lemmy.worldEnglish
          33·
          10 months ago

          Should probably be pointed out (and I assume the tailscale link does), but Tailscale offers a fully self-hosted option called Headscale also

          • pluja@lemmy.worldEnglish
            8·
            10 months ago

            Tailscale does not offer this. It is a community project. Headscale is not official.

      • Encrypt-Keeper@lemmy.worldEnglish
        7·
        10 months ago

        Given that Nebula is older than Tailscale, and was inspired by tinc, it’d be more accurate to say that Tailscale is the clone.

        • goatsarah@thegoatery.dyndns.org
          1·
          10 months ago

          @Sanyanov Self hosting the server seems to me like it could almost be a misfeature: it relies on the server being accessible. In these days of CGNAT, there are a lot of people who would have to buy a VPS just to do that.

          • taladar@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
            5·
            10 months ago

            Self-hosting is essential for many commercial uses. You don’t want your critical infrastructure to rely on a third party which might or might not meet all regulatory requirements in your industry.

          • Sanyanov@lemmy.worldEnglish
            1·
            10 months ago

            There is a demand, and there is a supply. Decentralization trends lead more and more people to self-host, and you can’t get around it any other way.

  • X3I@lemmy.x3i.techEnglish
    5·
    10 months ago

    Yes, have it running and it works well. Nextcloud setup is sth that I will still have to set up but the only problem I see there is certificates. To debug Nebula, simply try executing it by hand, e.g. nebula --config /path/config.yml and see what the error message is. Or check your journalctl of course. Share the message here and we can have a look!

  • whiteocean@programming.devEnglish
    3·
    10 months ago

    I got a small network running with Linux, android and Windows, but seldom use it. Windows install worked fine, but it remember it was not well documented (needed to use some argument for it to setup the service). Don’t use nextcloud but I do have vaultwarden working over it.

    I’m planning to move to headscale due to the certificate management overhead.

    • brownmustardminion@lemmy.mlOPEnglish
      3·
      10 months ago

      My network is currently setup with wireguard. I have a VPS operating as a hub within a hub and spoke (or is it hub and wheel?) configuration. This has worked great with the exception that all traffic passes through the VPS. The benefit of a mesh network is that I can directly connect clients and data does not have to flow through an intermediary VPS.

  • Matt The Horwood@lemmy.horwood.cloudEnglish
    2·
    10 months ago

    I’ve not seen nebula, that looks a lot like tinc. Iight have to see how hard nebula is to get running.

    If your looking for a mesh VPN, tinc is very easy to setup