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Personal Remote Access Guide

While Cloudflare Zero Trust is used for official corporate resources, you may need a simpler way to access your personal work PC via SSH from home or while traveling. This guide covers Twingate and Tailscale for personal developer use.

Tailscale (Mesh VPN)​

Tailscale is based on WireGuard and creates a secure mesh network between your devices. It is extremely easy to set up and works through most NATs and firewalls.

Setup on Host (Work PC)​

  1. Sign up at tailscale.com.
  2. Install Tailscale:
    • Linux: curl -fsSL https://tailscale.com/install.sh | sh
    • macOS/Windows: Download from the official site.
  3. Login: Run sudo tailscale up (Linux) or use the GUI.
  4. Get your IP: Run tailscale ip -4 or check the Tailscale Dashboard.

Setup on Client (Home PC/Laptop)​

  1. Install Tailscale and login with the same account.
  2. Connect: Simply SSH using the Tailscale IP found in step 1.1. 
    ssh user@100.x.y.z

Twingate (Zero Trust Access)​

Twingate is a Zero Trust solution that doesn't require a virtual network interface on the host, making it very "invisible" to the system.

Setup​

  1. Create a free account at twingate.com.
  2. Add a Remote Network: Create a "Home" or "Office" network in the dashboard.
  3. Deploy a Connector:
    • Install the Twingate Connector on your Work PC (Docker is the easiest way).
    • Copy the provisioning tokens from the dashboard.
  4. Add a Resource:
    • Add your Work PC's local IP (e.g., 192.168.1.50) or hostname as a resource.
    • Enable the SSH protocol for this resource.

Client Access​

  1. Install the Twingate Client on your laptop/home PC.
  2. Authenticate with your Twingate account.
  3. Once connected, you can SSH to your work PC using its Local IP as if you were in the same room.

Which one should I choose?​

FeatureTailscaleTwingate
ModelMesh VPN (Virtual Interface)Zero Trust (Identity-based)
VisibilityDevices see each other's 100.x.y.z IPsDevices use original local IPs
Ease of UseVery High (Install & Go)High (Requires Connector setup)
Best ForDirect device-to-device SSHGranular access to local network resources
Security Note

Always use SSH keys for authentication. Even with Zero Trust/VPN layers, password-based SSH is a security risk.