4-Part Tutorial Series

Zero-Trust Homelab Access

Securely expose your home services to the internet through a cheap VPS — no port forwarding, no dynamic DNS, no exposed home IP. Just encrypted tunnels and identity-based access control.

4 focused guides

~2.5 hours total

Home IP stays hidden

Start Part 1

Why Pangolin in 2025

0 → 19k GitHub stars in under a year — fastest-growing tunnel project
Built-in identity-aware proxy with SSO/OIDC support
WireGuard-based tunnels — kernel-level performance
Your home IP never exposed — all traffic routes through VPS

Replace These Approaches

Cloudflare TunnelsTOS risk + no UDP
Port forwardingExposes home IP
Tailscale FunnelLimited control
ngrok Pro$20+/mo
Pangolin + RamNode$5/mo — full control

Series Roadmap

Part 1: Pangolin Setup — VPS-to-Home Tunnels

35 min

Deploy Pangolin on your VPS and establish encrypted WireGuard tunnels to your home network. Expose local services without opening router ports.

Part 2: Identity-Aware Access

40 min

Add SSO/OIDC authentication with per-service access policies. Control exactly who can reach each service with identity-based rules.

Part 3: Expose Home Services

45 min

Route Jellyfin, Home Assistant, Nextcloud, and other self-hosted apps through your VPS with automatic SSL and subdomain routing.

Part 4: Hardening & Monitoring

40 min

Lock down your tunnel with CrowdSec, Fail2ban, and Beszel. Set up access logging, intrusion detection, and real-time alerts.

What You'll Build

Secure Tunnel Infrastructure

• Pangolin server on your VPS with automatic SSL
• WireGuard tunnels from VPS to home network
• SSO/OIDC authentication with per-service policies
• Subdomain routing for each home service

Production Homelab Access

• Jellyfin, Home Assistant, Nextcloud exposed securely
• CrowdSec and Fail2ban intrusion prevention
• Beszel real-time monitoring dashboard
• Access logging and audit trails

Prerequisites

• A RamNode VPS — 1GB ($5/mo) is sufficient for tunnel routing
• Ubuntu 22.04 or 24.04 on the VPS
• A home server or device running Docker (Raspberry Pi, NUC, old PC, etc.)
• A domain name pointed to your VPS IP
• Basic familiarity with Docker and Linux command line

Just need a quick Pangolin setup?

Our standalone Pangolin deployment guide covers the basics in a streamlined walkthrough.

Quick Start