Home Assistant remote access options?

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peejayw

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#303803 10-Mar-2023 08:51

I know there are a few options for remotely accessing your Home Assistant and I wonder what most people here are using? Watching a youtuber who suggests using Cloudflare which looks interesting. A domain name is required and he suggests using Freenom for that but that appears to be not currently available. Any other suggestions in the free/cheap category?

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#3048417 10-Mar-2023 08:55

Another one to look at is Tailscale. Really easy to set up and available for a range of platforms.

huckster

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#3048419 10-Mar-2023 08:55

I followed, probably, that very video. Freenom worked at that time, and I initially set it up that way but I do have a domain name for personal use so used that in the end.

Chippo

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#3048421 10-Mar-2023 08:56

Nabu Casa - obviously. With the advantage of also funding the Home Assistant project.

Alternatively- If you’re not that familiar with VPNs then Tailscale might be for you. Otherwise WireGuard on its own is simple enough.

Personally, I use my own domain, static IP and port forwarding. Home Assistant sits behind Nginx which does the HTTPS reverse proxy. This solution is “free” for me because I need the domain and static IP for other things. But would be ~$90 per year.

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evilonenz

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#3048443 10-Mar-2023 09:08

The easiest and safest way I've found doing it, without using Home Assistant Cloud, is using the Cloudflared add-on and tunneling through that with some ACLs applied. Obviously as mentioned you'll need a domain name, but there are a couple of free (or close to) options out there.

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andysh

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#3048446 10-Mar-2023 09:11

I am the same as @chippo - I run Home Assistant behind nginx and have a static IP with a domain,

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timmmay

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#3048449 10-Mar-2023 09:16

I have remote access to Home Assistant using two methods:

WireGuard into my Fritzbox 7590 - this is great on my phone with the HA app and was very easy to set up.
Online using CloudFlare Tunnel and CloudFlare Zero Trust. This takes a lot more effort to set up, requires a domain (I had domains already), etc. It's good to use on my work PC when I'm at work, but also works fine on my phone. I used two tutorials, first this one for the initial set up, then this one, but maybe just use the second. Once the tunnel is set up I find it easiest to configure the tunnel to forward to Nginx on localhost http and a non-standard port, rather than using domain names.

WireGuard is the easiest / quickest / best method I think. I only did the CloudFlare tunnel as I'm hosting a few other things using that method and it was easy to do.

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rscole86

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#3048452 10-Mar-2023 09:25

Nabu Casa, makes you feel warm and fuzzy by contributing to Home Assistant, as I don't have the skills or time to contribute otherwise.

I also have Wireguard on a separate device for remote access.

Silvrav

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#3048455 10-Mar-2023 09:28

I recently moved from duckdns to cloudflare - no more need to open ports and expose these ports to the outside world.

They also have great offers on domain names - bought mine for $30 for 10 years.

I do have a static address as well that I use for other stuff so could go that option, but pefer the extra security of no port forwarding and cloudflare SSL.

Note, have a backup option as cloudlfare is an addon, so if it ever stops or auto updates and the watchdog feature doesnt work you wont have access. For that reason i have a backup VPN connection into my server so that I can remote access my installation locally if need be.

andysh

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#3048459 10-Mar-2023 09:54

Sounds like I should have a look at Cloudflare tunnels...

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freitasm

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#3048462 10-Mar-2023 10:07

I have Cloudflared runnng as a docker container on my NAS with lots of services being exposed through that. Using Cloudflare Zero Trust for access control.

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MarkM536

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#3048465 10-Mar-2023 10:16

VPN on my router has been my method.
I choose a VPN as a method to access my CCTV too. Handy to access everything in the network when away from home (like my Christmas lights controllers).

An 'always on' VPN is set for addresses in the 192.168.1.0/24 range, so other apps data doesn't go through the VPN.

Although sending all data through your home VPN maybe good if you don't want the public wifi network owner to see what sites your device is connecting to, or so Facebook, etc, doesn't know you are away on holiday.

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kyhwana2

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#3048477 10-Mar-2023 10:38

another vote for tailscale too, the free tier should work for you.

boosacnoodle

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#3048481 10-Mar-2023 10:47

I have CG-NAT IPv4 and vanilla IPv6 at home so have limited options compared to vanilla IPv4 where you can just port forward.

I'm using Tailscale for connectivity between the Raspberry Pi (which is running Traefik to deliver multiple services) to a DigitalOcean droplet (which is running an Nginx reverse proxy so that I don't need to manage SSL separately).

Using the HA Cloud if that's all you're using will likely be easiest. This is just DuckDNS and some other elements bundled and exposed as a username / password combo for a few $ a month.

Silvrav

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#3048492 10-Mar-2023 11:09

boosacnoodle:

I have CG-NAT IPv4 and vanilla IPv6 at home so have limited options compared to vanilla IPv4 where you can just port forward.

I'm using Tailscale for connectivity between the Raspberry Pi (which is running Traefik to deliver multiple services) to a DigitalOcean droplet (which is running an Nginx reverse proxy so that I don't need to manage SSL separately).

Using the HA Cloud if that's all you're using will likely be easiest. This is just DuckDNS and some other elements bundled and exposed as a username / password combo for a few $ a month.

Cloudflare I believe works with CG-NAT as well.

peejayw

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#3048648 10-Mar-2023 14:08

Wow, so much info to digest, thanks everyone, Geekzone is an amazing place.

I'm supposed to respect my elders, but it's getting harder and harder for me to find one now.

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