VPN-Tutorial-IPv4-IPv6

Tutorial on how to connect to a IPv6-Address from a IPv4-Address via WireGuard

• Situation

  • Home-Network

    • Public dynamic IPv6
    • No public IPv4
    • Fritz!Box, WireGuard compatible router
    • Local IPs of the home-network in this example: 192.168.178.0/24

  • Goal

    • Connect to the Home-Network via VPN from anywhere

  • Problem

    • Most networks still don't provide a IPv6 address for the client
    • Without an IPv6, the client can't connect to the home-network, which only has an IPv6
    • -> Connection only works from networks with public IPv6 addresses, which is not the case for most networks

• Solution

  • Idea

    • A middleman is needed, one that has both IPv4 and IPv6
    • This middleman acts as a relay, receiving a WireGuard connection from the client via IPv4 and forwarding the traffic through another WireGuard connection to the home-network via IPv6

  • Preparation

    • Rent a small vps

      • E.g. IONOS-server, 1€ per month
      • Has public static IPv4 and IPv6
      • Local IPs of the vps in this example: 10.0.0.0/8

    • Make sure your router is WireGuard-ready

      • If not, set up a seperate WireGuard server in your home-network (e.g. on a Raspberry Pi)

  • Set up Connection

    • Home-network - vps

      • Site to site tunnel wg1
      • Configure this tunnel in your router
        • Endpoint: [Public static IPv6 of vps]
          • -> The router connects to the vps, not the other way around
          • -> This way we don't need to worry about the dynamic IPv6 of our home-network
        • Allowed IPs: 10.0.0.0/8
        • See file wg1_router.conf
      • Config on vps
        • Set DNS to your router
        • Allowed IPs to 192.168.178.0/24
          • Or 0.0.0.0 if you want to rout all internet traffic through your home-network
        • See file wg1_vps.conf

    • Vps - client

      • Config on vps
        • End to site tunnel wg0
        • Set ListenPort to a different one than wg1
        • Add each client as a new peer in the wg0-config on your vps
        • See file wg0_vps.conf
      • Config on client
        • Set DNS to your router
        • Endpoint: [Public static IPv4 of your vps]
        • Allowed IPs to 0.0.0.0, ::/: to rout all internet traffic through the vpn
          • Or 192.168.178.0/24 if you only want to rout your local traffic to your home-network
        • See file wg0_client.conf

  • Result

    • This should enable you to connect to your home-network from your client from anywhere.
    • Note that this is not a perfect solution, just the best we could find.
    • For us, this solution required a lot of trial and error, and of course our best friend, the AI.