4 mo. ago • 100%

[solved - I was looking for mDNS] Is there a kde-connect like VPN?

My issue is that many of my remote desktop apps require knowing the IP adress of the other PC. I'm looking for a VPN that auto-discovers other devices on the same network. That way I could just "ssh" into the same IP every time, because it would be IP inside of a virtual network. Ideally I am looking a solution that does not require internet connection.

Thanks.

Edit: I should probably specify my usecase. I have a portable desktop and use VNC from a laptop to connect to it. To do that I need the IP of the desktop but that's different on a different network. This can be solved by using hostname.local as the "IP". (hostname is the "ubuntu" in "bob@ubuntu$:~/Documents") The solution is quite simple, I just haven't known about it.

23 comments

I don’t think you need a VPN here since you’re using an already secure protocol. Sounds like you’re mostly wanting a static IP address. You can configure the local router to hand out static IPs. Local DNS works too.

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- Static IPs are not a thing in most countries. You need an overlay network or dynamic DNS like NoIP.
  
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  Static IPs handed out by your local router are not dependent on having a static IP from your ISP. You do not need one to have the other. You can always have static IPs on your local network.
  
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- Thanks, it does indeed work. I guess I'll add a wireguard tunnel so that I won't have to bother with the "do you trust the fingerprint?" every time I'm on a different network or when the IP changes.
  
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DNS hostnames

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- I don't want to be mean but searching "DNS hostnames" just gives generic AI generated "DNS explained" articles. This answer is helpful only if you already know that mDNS exists.
  
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  Sorry was busy but wanted to make the comment at least earlier. I think .local is specific to mDNS, but using just the hostname (ie; mypcname) should work as well.
  
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couldnt you use device / hostname instead?

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- Unfortunately the router at my gf's house does not resolve the hostname, so no. Though thanks for the suggestion, I feel kinda stupid for not trying that.
  
  Edit: I'm a noob. Solved by adding ".local" suffix after the hostname.
  
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You can configure wireguard to achieve this solution.

You can always enable mDNS/DNS-SD (aka zeroconf) protocol as well

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- Thanks, I did not know about mDNS. I will use this.
  
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I'm looking for a VPN that auto-discovers other devices on the same network.

What does that mean? What are you actually trying to do?

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Ipv6, Nebula, headscale, tailscale

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- Headscale is a downstream of tailscale, meaning it has a fraction of the features and is maintained by Tailscale employees.
  
  But great for less trust.
  
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  Tail scale is currently in the building goodwill phase of the startup, there will come a day when the enshitification starts
  
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  Yeah, but tailscale forces you to use logins from proprietary platforms, which is the reason I don't use it. It doesn't support a simple account creation and login with just an email and password.
  
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Bit confused about what you're looking for. If you're just SSH/VNC ing into devices on the same local network, then you can simply use their local IP address, which you can find with a command like ip addr and will rarely change, or their hostname if your network is configured properly. There are several GUIs that can remember connection info for you, so you likely will only need it once. It's also quite easy to scan the local network for SSH servers if you have nmap (nmap -p22 <your ip address range, e.g. 192.168.0.1/24>). If you need to connect to a device on your home network from a different network, any VPN software can achieve that. I'm not aware of any remote desktop solution that doesn't require a network connection, but your network doesn't necessarily need to be connected to the Internet.

Are you looking for a GUI that combines all those things?

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Not sure I understand either but when I need to tinker with devices from another network through the Internet I usually rely on Tailscale or setup my own dedicated VPN using e.g OpenVPN.

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