Unlock Seamless Remote Access: The Power of Split DNS with Tailscale

 As a remote worker or someone who frequently collaborates with others on different networks, you're likely familiar with the challenges of maintaining seamless communication and connectivity across various environments. One innovative solution to this problem is split DNS combined with Tailscale, a powerful tool for creating secure, managed tunnels between devices.

What is Split DNS?

Split DNS refers to a configuration approach where your device uses different DNS servers depending on whether you're connected to your local network or an external network (such as the internet). This allows your device to resolve names and access resources locally without relying on the DNS servers associated with the external network, which can be slower and less secure.

How Tailscale Works

Tailscale is a popular tool for creating managed VPN tunnels between devices. It provides a simple and secure way to connect to remote networks while ensuring your data remains encrypted and private. When you install Tailscale on multiple devices, it creates a network of encrypted connections that allow you to access each other's computers as if they were directly connected to the same local network.

Empowering Family Legacy: How I Transitioned to Self-Hosting with Gramps Web

For several years now, I've been maintaining a genealogy website containing information from both my and my wife's family history. One of my main objectives has been to ensure this wealth of information is readily accessible not just for our extended family, but also for our children whenever they want to look into their roots.

 Initially, I hosted this website through a paid hosting service, utilizing TNG. While this setup served its purpose adequately, my recent acquisition of a Proxmox server prompted me to explore the possibility of self-hosting. Given this shift, I decided to transition to open-source software, as it would grant me greater flexibility in making adjustments as needed.

In my search for suitable open-source genealogy software, I came across Gramps Web. Its user-friendly interface and compatibility with the Gramps genealogy desktop software caught my attention.

Mastering Home Network Security: A Step-by-Step Guide to Fortify Your DNS with Pi-Hole and Raspberry Pi Across Multiple VLANs

Recently, I delved into the realm of setting up secure DNS for our home network, aiming to encrypt DNS requests en route to the name server. Unfortunately, Unifi lacks support for secure DNS (neither DoH nor DoT). To address this, I decided to explore the installation of Pi-hole on a Raspberry Pi at home.

However, the standard Pi-Hole install for Raspberry Pi required additional setup steps on my network. Firstly, Pi-hole lacks built-in support for secure DNS, necessitating an additional configuration. Secondly, the default Raspberry Pi lacked VLAN support, prompting me to configure it to function seamlessly within our network.

Raspberry Pi and Pi-hole Setup

I began by installing the Raspberry Pi OS Lite 64-bit on the Raspberry Pi, intending to use it as a headless device on the network. Once the operating system was installed and updated, I proceeded to install Pi-hole. This was a straightforward process, thanks to Pi-hole's automated installation script.

curl -sSL https://install.pi-hole.net | bash

Setting up DNS over HTTPS for Pi-hole

To ensure secure DNS, I followed the instructions on the Pi-hole site to configure cloudflared, allowing DNS requests to be made over HTTPS. Once configured, Pi-hole forwards requests to cloudflared, which handles DNS requests securely.

Enabling Support for Multiple VLANs

While Pi-hole successfully handled requests for the native network, extending its support to other VLANs posed a challenge. Instead of opting for solutions involving firewall rule modifications to permit VLAN requests to the native network, I chose to ensure the Raspberry Pi could seamlessly join the VLAN networks I intended to use Pi-hole on.

Following the instructions on this page for enabling VLAN support on the Raspberry Pi, I configured an interface for each VLAN I wanted the Pi-hole to respond on.

The Evolution of Car Infotainment: How TeslAA is Changing the Game for Accessing Android Auto on Any Car

The state of car infotainment has changed significantly over the years.  It used to be that you got what was included in the are from the auto manufacturer, and what was included when the car was built.   This usually meant that if you wanted to add capabilities, (e.g. play back 8-track) you needed to want until you purchased a new vehicle.

During the 1980s high quality audio head units became quite common, and it because easy and common for car owners to replace their audio system to add capabilities.  So if you wanted to add audio CD or mp3 file playback or Bluetooth support, this could be be done fairly easy just by replacing the head unit.  This continued into the 2000s, when it was possible to add in-dash navigation by replacing the head unit (often where the screen extended out of the head unit itself when needed.

More recently, the ability to extend the capabilities of the car infotainment system has gotten more complicated.  Auto manufacturers have been deeply integrating functionality that is required for functionality of the car into the screens.  The common case is that control of the HVAC system is done as part of the infotainment screen, which would likely mean that if the system was replaced, this functionality would be disabled.  An extreme case is seen with the latest Tesla Model S & Model X cars, where the driver needs to use the screen to put cars in drive & reverse.

This trend is coming at a time where the types of media and applications are changing rapidly.  With so much streaming, new services are starting up that have new capabilities.  Often these services are accessed with applications on mobile phones.  This is great as it allows users to customize their experience to meet their exact needs, and to enable the services that they use.

As it is unsafe to use a mobile phone, while driving, Android Auto offers a great experience.  It can leverage the fact that users have installed the applications of the services that they actually use on their phone, Android Auto displays a car friendly experience on the head unit touch display. This allows the driver to play the media that they want in a safe manor.  On my last trip, I rented a car that had built-in Android Auto support.  I was able to easily connect my phone to the car, with a USB cable, and access the applications from my phone.