I’m going to set up a WireGuard server on my router. I want my mom to be able to use it but she lives very far away so setup will need to be done remotely. What’s the best way to go about this? I need to share the WG config somehow.
She’s not great at computers either, so any tips on how to easily install and set things up on her computer would be appreciated.
I’ve been trying to avoid Tailscale or Netbird, but maybe that would be the best solution in the end. I’m not interested in self-hosting a relay or management service though, I feel like I’m way too inexperienced to secure such an important system. Should anyone compromise the VPS, both me and my mom’s devices would also be compromised (I assume).
Thanks!
I would walk her through a setup for Anydesk or other RDP software then just take control and do it yourself. No point in causing them stress if they get click happy.
I’m warming up to the idea of using some sort of RDP software. I saw that Anydesk is proprietary, do you have any experience with Rustdesk? I’ll do some research.
Thank you (and everyone else who has responded)!
As others have mentioned, Tailscale would be about the easiest to do, imo. However, I would still walk her through installing RDP. That way you can administer whatever may happen in the future, which is very likely to happen.
@versionc
The way ive done this is to set up the wireguard tunnel on my mothers router. right now thats an OpenWrt device. I did it while I was there but if I had to do it remote I’d buy a device, install OpenWrt and config it, and then ship it to her.For a remote nontechnical user, coaching them through installing a Tailscale client that registers to your account seems pretty accessible.
If you can get on a screen share with her through something like Signal desktop, then walking her through the steps and pasting a WG key in chat might not be so bad.
I suggest using a client that is easy for her to update without requiring a call. Another point for Tailscale I think.
Netbird is great and very user-friendly. Well, relatively. I had to bumble my way through the setup the first time and redo it, but certainly a lot easier than headscale/tailscale.
Why do you want to set this up, though?
Router based is best. If your router doesn’t support wg out of box. Use a rpi or something to create the tunnel on the network and then use a static route on the router to make the remote network routable. The rpi is the next hop for whatever your remote network address range is.
Where are you installing it for her, PC or router?
What OS is she running? Router?
What other remote tools do you have available?
I mean you’ve given us nothing to work with.
Frankly I’d just use Tailscale.
Sorry.
Where are you installing it for her, PC or router?
Her client will be on her laptop.
What OS is she running?
Windows.
What other remote tools do you have available?
More or less none. Any tools I’d need would have to be set up remotely on her device.
Frankly I’d just use Tailscale.
Yeah, I’m starting to lean towards Tailscale or Netbird.
Thanks.
Tailscale is good because it never breaks if your ISP switches your home IP on you. The only downside is that some public or corporate wifi networks will block the official Tailscale servers
