Networking for AI Services: VPN and Remote Access

What this article covers

• How to securely access your AI services from anywhere.
• How to use Tailscale as a VPN.
• How to reach Ollama remotely without port forwarding.
• Links to detailed guides.

Introduction

When you self-host AI services at home, you’ll often want to use them while away. Opening ports on your router is risky. Tailscale offers a secure alternative: a VPN without port forwarding, built on WireGuard.

Contents

• Tailscale: Secure Networking - VPN setup, accessing Ollama remotely, subnet routers, ACLs.
• Cloudflare Tunnel - Secure remote access without a public IP.
• Nginx Proxy Manager - Reverse proxy with web UI.
• WireGuard - Your own VPN for AI services.

Further reading

• Self-Hosting Overview
• Network Security
• Setting Up a Firewall
• Ollama Network Access
• Ollama Configuration