Does Tailscale/Netbird replace DDNS?

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1

Hi again.

Status: IPoE, MAP-E (CG-NAT), rotating IPv6 address, network n00b, married w/langoliers

Situation: Since the end of August I've been trying to follow this FUTO wiki to create a homelab from scratch, but I opted for different hard/software than what the guide recommends and now I'm stuck in the mud.

I'm making slow progress overall thanks to help on this forum, but things like DDNS are still confounding me. (I could probably get it to work if I weren't stubbornly married to freedns.afraid.org...)

I'm wondering if I can proceed without DDNS in my use-case, so I'd like to ask your advice.

My primary goal with my homelab is to cut Google and Apple's cloud services out of my home (or at least downgrade to the smallest tier). I've got a NAS, and I expect Immich to need the most resources going forward. I figured that I needed DDNS in order to give me and my family remote access those media files as my IP address periodically changed, but now I'm wondering if I can get all that to work with just Tailscale or Netbird.

So my technical question is, in a relatively simple use-case like this, is there a meaningful difference between configuring a DDNS (somehow :weary_face: ) and using the "magic" of Tailscale's mesh network?

And on a more philosophical level: In an earlier post a user suggested that third-party apps like Tailscale were maybe sort-of antithetical to the open-source ethos of OpenWrt, and so power users here would probably prefer different solutions. I get that in principle, but does that apply in this case? Tailscale & Netbird are 3rd party companies, but so are the DDNS providers and the domain registrars. I'd like to understand this stuff better, so I'd love to hear your opinion.

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netbird or tailscale uses centralized coordination server, like stun or turn for modern voip / video calling applications.

DDNS also works. It is just different place (you avoid) to pay the bills.

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3

For the rotating ipv6 addresses you use ddns to get access to your home via ipv6.

WireGuard can be used for this you create a wg tunnel via ipv6 which can route both ipv4 and ipv6 traffic

My notes about setting up a WirGuard server might be helpful
https://share.google/iNs4fHFZEGjQgoZw4

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4

Thank you for the help, but it seems like with my IPoE contract I wouldn't be able to set up Wireguard without buying a VPS :frowning: I tried a few times back in September, but no luck.

5

If you have a public ipv6 address and the ISP allows incoming udp traffic it should be possible.

But if not see the paragraph in the Introduction section about alternatives when you do not have a public ipv4 or ipv6 address or the ISP does not allow incoming udp traffic.

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6

Ah, I didn't see your Netbird write-up before--thank you! I'll give it a try. I already have it installed, but I sort of got lost a few weeks ago and haven't picked it back up since.

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7

In principle you can manage to punch upnp or natpmp hole through cgnat just like netbirds do behind the scenes.