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Show HN: TailGuard – Bridge your WireGuard router into Tailscale via a container

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149 points juhovh | 2 comments | 10 Sep 25 03:42 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source

My elderly parents are behind a 5G connection in rural areas, and I help them manage their network from overseas. I found a reasonably priced 5G router that can do external antennas required for it to work, but the only reasonable ways to get access to it is either through OpenVPN or WireGuard, the latter of which is much more lightweight and preferred with the memory constraints of the device.

The problem with WireGuard is that it requires handling key management oneself, and configuring the keys to every device you want to access it from. It also doesn't play nicely together with other VPNs, meaning I ended up connecting and disconnecting VPNs whenever I wanted to use them. This is especially evident on my phone, which only allows one VPN app at a time.

I was already using Tailscale as an easy way to handle homelab access with SSO, even if some computers are behind ISP CGNAT, and came up with this idea of spinning up a Docker container to connect the two. I found some suggestions for it online, but nothing ready to use. It ended up being more work than I expected to fine tune the routing, IPv6, firewall settings, re-resolving the DNS of the router on IP address changes etc.

I got it very stable eventually though, and wanted to share with everyone else. I think it's cool to have the WireGuard router looking like any other Tailscale node in my tailnet now.

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syntaxing ◴[10 Sep 25 19:12 UTC] No.45202297[source]▶
Neat idea but getting a 5G GL inet router would probably be more robust. Built in tailscale and wireguard so you don’t have to worry about this. Best thing about GL inet routers are the IMEI cloning. It’s pretty popular for wireless ISP like T-Mobile and Verizon 5G home internet.
replies(1): >>45205704 #
1. juhovh ◴[10 Sep 25 23:40 UTC] No.45205704[source]▶
While I have no experience of their 5G routers specifically, based on my experiences with other GL.iNet routers and the TG-Link I have, I don't disagree. The Deco they have has the benefit of easy mesh wifi setup with fast roaming, but the easier access and configurability of GL.iNet are generally nice, and they're fairly affordable.
replies(1): >>45206881 #
2. syntaxing ◴[11 Sep 25 02:09 UTC] No.45206881[source]▶
Since you have tailscale, and assuming your parents don’t do anything fancy, you can always double NAT. It especially doesn’t matter since you’re on CGNAT. Use the gl inet router as the primary and attach a mesh router behind it. You’ll be able to configure the secondary router through the primary.