Networking on plzhans blog

VPN/Remote Access Guide - Which One Should You Pick

Thu, 03 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Overview

To securely access your home server, NAS, or office internal network from outside, you need a VPN. Instead of exposing services directly to the internet via port forwarding, the basic idea is to connect through a VPN tunnel as if you were on the same network. This blog has posts covering three very different approaches (Tailscale, WireGuard, wg-easy) — even though they’re all called “VPN,” their setup, security model, and operational burden are completely different, so you should pick the one that fits your situation.

How to Install WireGuard and Set Up Client Connections

Fri, 10 Jul 2026 08:20:00 +0000

Overview

WireGuard is a tool that lets you configure a peer-to-peer VPN with simple setup and lightweight performance.

This article covers the entire flow of installing WireGuard on a Linux server, configuring the server key, firewall, and service, and then connecting from a Mac client.

It goes through server key generation, wg0 configuration, opening UDP port 51820, client Peer registration, and connection verification in order, so you can follow the same steps to set it up.

Installing Tailscale on Linux - Secure Remote VPN Setup

Fri, 03 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Overview

Tailscale is a VPN service that ties multiple devices together as if they were on a single private network. Even when a Linux server, NAS, laptop, and smartphone are in different locations, they can be connected as though they were on the same internal network.

A typical server connection requires opening an inbound port from the outside into the server. This approach requires router port forwarding, firewall permissions, and a public IP, and if misconfigured it can expose the server directly to the internet.

Keeping the OpenVPN Client IP with a wg-easy WireGuard MASQUERADE Exception

Thu, 19 Mar 2026 06:06:00 +0000

Summary

Because of WireGuard(wg-easy)’s default NAT (MASQUERADE) setting, when a request is sent to an internal network (e.g., an OpenVPN private network), the final server sees the VPN server IP as the request IP.

By excluding a specific range from the MASQUERADE target, the OpenVPN client’s private IP is passed through as the request IP as-is.

Clearing DNS Cache on Windows/Linux/macOS

Sun, 22 Feb 2026 16:11:00 +0000

Overview

During practical work, there are cases where DNS records are changed in domain settings but the changes are not immediately reflected on the local PC or server.

This happens because the OS or applications (such as browsers) cache DNS responses locally.

This article summarizes how to flush the local DNS cache on Windows, Linux, and macOS.