1y ago

ELI5 Cloudflare Tunnel

So everyone is talking about cloudflare tunnels and I decided to give it a shot.

However, I find the learning curve quite hard and would really appreciate a short introduction into how they work and how do I set them up…

In my current infrastructure I am running a reverse proxy with SSL and Authentik, but nothing is exposed outside. I access my network via a VPN but would like to try out and consider CF. Might be easier for the family.

How does authentication work? Is it really a secure way to expose internal services?

Thanks!

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54 comments

I use a VPS, not Cloudflair, but it's the exact same concept.
CF will have an exposed IP that you point your domains A record to. On your CF instance, you would then tunnel (I'm guessing they offer wireguard) into your home network, just like you are currently doing from your personal device.
A big difference here is you will put a reverse proxy on CF that will authenticate SSL with users. The proxy then will pass unencrypted http down the tunnel for your web services to respond to.
A couple days ago, someone asked (I think on this instance), "can you protect yourself from your VPS?", which I think would be your next question.
<Opinion>
I pay for a VPS, because if it's free, you or your data is some how the product.
</Opinion>
- where can you get free VPS at? Amazon has a "free tier" but I think it eventually runs out.
  
  I believe Cloudflair tunnels is free. That's where my comment was rooted.
  
  Oracle

54 comments