Just wondering about the options to hide IP when connecting to a node from ouside the local network.
Firstly what are the use cases of wanting to acces the node from remote? Are mobile options like Zeus exposing the IP by default? If I only do transactions from my local network I woud never het to set up remote acces I guess.
Looking into option there are:
Tor: many advise to avoid it because it is slow and not always stable but is the most secure way
VPN; possible from a host system with 'start OS 'on top and from some routers not from the ‘start OS’ as a app as far as I can see.
What would you go for and why or why bother anyway?
When connecting to services on your server from outside you will only be able to do so via the Tor network so no IP will be exposed. This stands for connecting wallets like Zeus to lightning nodes.
You can do everything via .local if you like, it’ll just be faster than Tor and similarly will expose nothing.
A VPN is a solution we’ll have soon which will allow the faster access of your LAN without the issues of Tor’s slow speed.
Nothing happening on our servers exposes your IP address except your bitcoin and lightning nodes which can connect to other nodes in the network via IP. If you’d like to disable that you can in the config for those services.
Hi Mechanic,
Thanks for the respons.
Exposing my public dynamic IP address via the BTC and LND services seems to be the default. The current solution to hide is is Tor. How much slower woud this make transactions etc. and waht risks am I covering if I do? I guess I am asking for the trade-offs here.
This is a personal choice that you will have to make for yourself. Tor is much more private, but you may experience slow-downs or unreliability at times. I personally use Tor for everything and rarely experience issues, but your mileage will vary. You may also want to consider the existing network you have - if it is not the best, then you may want to avoid using Tor. Later this year we will be adding more connectivity options, and your choice will likely become much simpler.