🌐 Your pocket private network: reach your machines from anywhere

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SSH into your desktop PC, a Raspberry Pi or a home server from your phone, on 4G, without opening a single port on your router. It takes 5 minutes with WireGuard-based mesh private networks. Developers who discover it never go back.

1. The idea in one sentence

Every device (phone, PC, server) joins your encrypted private network and gets a fixed address. They talk directly, as if they were in the same room, wherever they are in the world.

2. The simplest way: Tailscale

Tailscale is built on WireGuard and has a free plan for personal use.

1. Install Tailscale on the PC or server (Windows, macOS, Linux: curl -fsSL https://tailscale.com/install.sh | sh then sudo tailscale up).
2. Install the Tailscale app on the phone and sign in with the same account.
3. Each machine gets a 100.x.y.z address and a name (the MagicDNS feature).
4. From Termux or your SSH app: ```bash ssh me@my-pc # the machine's MagicDNS name ```

That's it: no port forwarding, no public IP, and it works through most 4G and public Wi-Fi networks.

Pro tips:

• Tailscale SSH: let Tailscale handle SSH authentication with your accounts (sudo tailscale up --ssh on the server).
• Exit node: route all the phone's traffic through your home connection when you're on sketchy public Wi-Fi.
• Open a web app running on your PC in the phone's browser (http://my-pc:3000): handy to test a site in development on a real phone.

3. The 100% self-hosted way: WireGuard

If you don't want to depend on any service: install WireGuard on a server with a public IP (or your router if it supports it), generate one config per device, and import it into the WireGuard Android app by scanning a QR code:

qrencode -t ansiutf8 < phone.conf   # shows the config as a QR code in the terminal

More work up front, but no middleman.

4. Show a local site to the world: tunnels

To show a project to a client without deploying it: Cloudflare Tunnel (cloudflared) and similar tools create a temporary public address to your machine. Remember to shut it down after the demo.

5. Termux, next level

Install the official add-ons from F-Droid:

• Termux:API: your scripts can access the phone: termux-battery-status, termux-notification, termux-clipboard-set, termux-location…
• Termux:Widget: run a script from a home screen widget. Example: a "Restart server" button: ```bash mkdir -p ~/.shortcuts echo 'ssh me@my-server "sudo systemctl restart my-app" && termux-notification -t "Server restarted"' > ~/.shortcuts/restart-server.sh chmod +x ~/.shortcuts/restart-server.sh ```
• Termux:Boot: run scripts when the phone starts.

6. Security

• Disable password authentication on your servers and use keys (see the developers guide).
• In the Tailscale admin console, remove a lost device immediately.
• A private network is only as safe as each device on it: screen lock on, system up to date.

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