the critter forum

Probably not what this thread was made for but i think its close enough

So, i was planning on setting up a vpn for my home servrr but after running into a bunch of issues(probably me not doing enough research and being impatient :P) i gave up and learnt that port forwarding does what i wanted the vpn to do, but im assuming everyone isn't recommending to get a vpn for no good reason, so if someone could explain to me in simple terms what the differences between a vpn and port forwarding is i would greatly appreciate it

FreyaFoxglove wrote: Tue Jul 01, 2025 4:55 pm if someone could explain to me in simple terms what the differences between a vpn and port forwarding is i would greatly appreciate it

Alright, i'll try to make it as simple as possible.

A VPN (virtual private network) is a network of devices that are on the same "local" network, but in different physical locations.
For example, imagine that you want to access a local machine that has no internet access on your home network, but you aren't there. If you have set up a VPN to your home network, if you connect to it, you can manage that machine like you were on your home network.

Port fordwarding is an entirely different concept. Online applications use ports to communicate with their clients. For example, HTTP uses port 80, HTTPS uses the port 443 and other services use other ports by default, but you can technically set it to what port you want.
Port forwarding is the process of opening a port from your router to allow data to be sent from your server. You also need to configure the firewall on your router and your server to make sure no port that you don't need is open.
If you use a residential connection, some ports may be blocked by default (like the default HTTP/HTTPS ports and email-related ports) and may need extra steps to open them, depending on your ISP.

i'm sorry if my answers seem a bit complicated, networking in general can be fairly complicated at times.

gettie wrote: Wed Jul 02, 2025 8:02 am i'm sorry if my answers seem a bit complicated, networking in general can be fairly complicated at times.

Fair enough
And i think i get it
So a vpn is you connecting to your network
And port forwarding is your network sending information to you

Follow up question:
I have a jellyfin server port forwarded currently, should i switch to using a vpn or is it effectively the same in this case?

FreyaFoxglove wrote: Wed Jul 02, 2025 9:25 am So a vpn is you connecting to your network
And port forwarding is your network sending information to you

maybe i didn't clarify that part. setting up a vpn means that you can have remote access to your local network. nobody who doesn't have the necessary credentials to connect can have access to it.

port forwarding is opening up your service to the internet, with all of its pros and cons.

FreyaFoxglove wrote: Wed Jul 02, 2025 9:25 am I have a jellyfin server port forwarded currently, should i switch to using a vpn or is it effectively the same in this case?

considering that you want to use it for yourself, using a vpn is the best choice. opening a jellyfin server to the internet sounds like a really bad idea.

For a personal access VPN I use Netbird, others use Tailscale or ZeroTier for example

I FIGURED OUT THE MOST BASIC VPN(tailscale)

yeah turns out i just forgot to change the ip when trying to connect off of my local network :P

got a jellyfin server and a navidrome server running in containers
only took a day to figure out with 90% of it automated
feeling good :3

Great!! Well done

yay, congrats!!! if you want to learn bit more about WireGuard, there's a post for that :3c WireGuard tips n tricks

speaking of, since I will be going on a holiday soon, I might need a way to tell people I'm away and that I will be unable to keep the server powered on, so I could just take the 32-bit Raspberry Pi Model 2 that has been barely used in total and have it serve as a temporary webserver, hmm!