Help accessing my unRAID server via my iPhone and WireGuard?

VPN
1

Alrighty so, I have FINALLY set up my very first home server running unRAID, and I am just in the process of getting everything all set up. FYI I am a super new user to all this it is literally baby’s first home server rn. I am pretty much learning everything as I go.
I have the server set up and running. I am in the process of transferring data across to it, as well as setting up services like immich and Jellyfin.

A big reason that I always wanted this home server was to access my files while away from home. I do photography, and there are always pictures and just random files I wanna access while out and about, so this seemed like it’d be perfect.

I had the notion that I would be able to remote into my server by connecting to my home network via a VPN. I have followed multiple tutorials now but I just CANNOT get it to work. And since I am so new and inexperienced with this, it’s hard to pinpoint where I am going wrong.

I have tried to configure my ISP/router network settings, port forwarding and all that (TalkTalk Amazon Eero), but it’s all done via the app and I find it super not very intuative so not sure if I have gone wrong there. I have also set up duck dns as per the tutorials as well as WireGuard.

It is just- when I activate the VPN, I am not connected to anything. I cannot access Google on my phone to check my IP, and attempting to connect to my server via the iOS Files app doesn’t work - which it does work fine when simply on WiFi on my phone.

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So could anyone point me in some direction here or have any suggestions on how I could get this to work / where I might be going wrong ?

(the main tutorial I have been following. I understand that the WireGuard app is now built in, and I have found those settings in the VPN manager)

2

wiregaurd is easy to set up imo, can be a bit frustrating but the 3 times ive set it up (forgetting completely each time) twice it worked straight away and once i was being an idiot.

go to settings, vpn manager, add tunnel. local name, name it if you want, then click generate keypair. apply. next add peer which is each device allowed to connect. Peer name comes in handy to track whats what, peer type of access set to remote tunneled access, generate keypair, generate key. apply. once applied click the little eye symbol to the right side of the delete peer button, this gives you a qr code you can scan in the wiregaurd app on you phone, makes set up very easy.

Thats all the setup done, you just need to go into your router to do the port forwarding of the udp port which its tells you what it is under the local endpoint part of the tunnel you created.

the top banner of the tunnel has toggle boxes for active/inactive, basic/advanced autostart on/off. you will want the tunnel active and autostart on, but at least active or it wont work!

hope this helps.

3

I find tailscale very good and easy to set up. Create an account on their website, then install the tailscale plugin on unraid and then on your phone and voila, you’re done

4

Sounds like you might have the same problem as me, behind a cgnat. Google ‘talktalk cgnat’ and see what people are saying.

5

Been using this for a few years now. If you post screenshots (blank out your public IPs) and we can help. On the iPhone, I have WireGuard vpn connect only when I’m outside my own WiFi.

I also route all my phone traffic to my house. You don’t have to, but I like tunneling when I’m out in public.

6
  • 1 for Tailscale, hate how easy it works lol
7

Once you get your vpn working. I use FE file explorer on my iphone to have a good file manager. I can access all my files

8

I had a similar issue when setting this up a while back, another user got me to change the DNS Server in the wireguard app to 8.8.8.8. Select your VPN in the Wireguard app, press edit and in the section for DNS servers change the entry to 8.8.8.8, then save.

This worked for me anyway, so you might have some luck with it.

9

Look into Tailscale . Log into Tailscale with google account and turn on 2fa . This is what I do and it works. I use to use wireguard but wireguard setup is a hit or a miss. . It works really well or doesn’t work at all.

10

Yes, tailscale is easier, go on ibracorp webiste and youtube channel, you will have all the explanation and steps to follow.

11

I always had trouble with WireGuard. I wound up using the Tailscale plugin on UnRaid, and the app on my phone. It was much easier to set up.

But, if you do choose to go that route, don’t use the container version. I never got that one to work. The plugin is a lot better.

12

I had tried Tailscale too ! Do you need to faff around with ISP/network/router settings like port forwarding for Tailscale to work? But I just couldn’t even seem to get that to work either…!

Although, I have just tried again, and on 4G - not connected to home WiFi on my phone - I can access Google and YouTube whilst connected to Tailscale, with the exit node set to ‘unraid’, however I still cannot connect to my server via the iOS files app to browse the shares, I get the error message saying “There was a problem connecting to the server. Socket is not connected” :confused:

13

Oh gosh… what is that ? Is this issue plaguing you too ? Are you struggling to find a fix ??

14

Ah. I was just doing this !! The only thing was that I was unsure as to what info exactly would be useful for people to help diagnose. What would you like to see to help? Screenshots of my ISP networking/port forwarding settings? Screenshots from the unRAID VPN settings? My WireGuard settings on my phone?

15

I literally just posted a reply about Tailscale just as you posted this lol, but I shall have a look at those! I say I tried Tailscale briefly earlier too, and I was following a YouTube tutorial, but not sure if it was ibracorp exactly…

16

Highjacking your response to just ask whether you have experience installing Tailscale when docker for Syncthing is installed. In my experience, Tailscale does not work when Syncthing is active, and vice versa. I have tried both, the Tailscale docker and plugin.

So far I have not found a solution to this so I am just using Syncthing to backup files but unable to use Tailscale to access unraid outside of my local network. I wanted to post a separate post on the subreddit but haven’t gotten around to that yet.

17

I saw the plugin version, how does that work?

I tried to install it, and so now in my Tailscale account there are 3 machines;
the unRAID machine from the docker version of Tailscale - which is able to be used as the exit node, my iPhone, and now there is the plugin version of Tailscale showing up as a new machine, but I cannot set it as an exit node - it says that I need to “Re-run tailscale up with the --advertise-exit-node flag to enable this option.” but I have no idea how to do that LOL

18

I don’t think that’s a VPN problem, Someone can correct me if I am wrong. Someone I know also has problems accessing shares even in their local network right now with their new unraid machine and we are still trying to figure out what the problem is. Someone said that disabling NETbios in the unraid shares settings could work, but we haven’t tried that yet.

Edit: and no, you don’t need to open any ports on your router for tailscale to work. If you’re going to only use VPN, I recommend closing all the ports you have open right now

Edit 2: when you connect to the server to get access to your shares you should also use the unraid IP instead of tailscale’s IP

19

Make sure to enable advanced settings and enable IP forwarding and Unraid services listening on Tailscale IP. I reckon that’s your problem.

20

The only fix I could find was to pay an extra fiver a month for a proper IP. People said it could be done with tailscale or zerotier but I just could not get it working. The instant I called my isp and the IP went live, wireguard went back to being exactly as it was with my old isp.