And WSL 2 is the “Linux within windows” if I recall. And your other recommendation is a Linux vm with dockers running inside it? I’ll give that a try if I decide to switch to dockers again instead of just a vm. My original use case was to have a downloader and vpn bundled inside one docker so the rest of the system doesn’t see the vpn connection, but decided to use a vm to accomplish it instead due to “windows+docker” issues.
Lots of great information and suggestions in this discussion. Thank you everyone who are offering your input. I’d like to ask as well, how easy is it to setup docker for use in windows? I ask this because almost every guide I’ve found has docker running in Linux. I realize you are able to setup a docker in windows, but I was struggling to get basic instructions for windows, and even the tutorial in docker required me to switch back to docker types that don’t work in windows.
As godless has stated, and I was also using astril when I was in China. For a personal option, I am not aware of a personal vpn that also includes obfuscation and is not using blocked vpn technologies/techniques.
If you live in a country with the regular vpn protocols being blocked, you will need to be more specific with a vpn that obfuscates the network connection. Something like Astril or expressvpn will both have tunnel obfuscation. At that point it’s less about hiding your activity, and more about gaining access to other sites because I wouldn’t vouch for the privacy on those two vpns.
Please re-read the original post re: tailscale.
Very true. It runs at good throttled speeds and the biggest power consumers are the hard drives themselves. Not to mention everyone else recommending different OS but no mention of hardware except people recommending synology boxes.
Simplest I’ve found personally is using an old Pc and getting a PCIE sas/SATA expansion card to allow more drives to be added if you need more than the normal data limit. Use windows server 2019 or 2022. The trial periods for these are 180 days that can be renewed another 5 times which gives a long time before you reinstall the OS. Then you share the folder/drive like normal. It’s simplest because it’s still a GUI and windows.
You can also pool drives so that multiple drives appear like a single drive, this is supported in windows itself (I forget the name in settings) or you can look at something like “drivepool”. I use this to have a “main pool” with a few large drives and then a “backup pool” which is mostly old 1tb or larger drives and use a program like “cobain reflector” to automate a backup of the main pool. Nice thing about “drive pool” is, if the server goes down for any reason, I can still pull each drive out and read whatever is on each drive without having to process them back into a “pool”. The files are just natively visible. Feel free to ask for extra info if anyone is interested.
Recently set up Nextcloud, but ran into trouble getting it to connect with a domain because of Starlink being the ISP. Found out about tailscale and have been getting things connected and accessible with Tailscale’s magic DNS that it uses.
Currently trying to figure out how to use the iOS tailscale app to connect to an exit node, which will be my server at home, but it’s not easy. Apparently it can be done through the shortcuts and automation on the iPhone, but can’t sort out a way to connect easily that doesn’t throw errors with no good documentation to say what I’ve done wrong.