Need help with Namecheap -> Router -> Caddy

[staralfur12]

Hi SNBforums,

I've been getting into home server and honestly I'm in over my head. I'm such a noob to this - there's so many things I don't know, especially about networking so it's kind of in the deep in and scrounging around tutorials.

I'm trying to point my NameCheap domain (lets say, mydomain.com) into my local network. Let's say for example my Asus router has WAN of 12.23.345.567. I currently have an A record in namecheap pointing to that WAN. I honestly have no idea how to set up all of this. I opened up OpenVPN on my Asus router settings and it's a jumble of random words which I don't know.

I have this current server setup:

Any help would be so greatly appreciated.

 

[ColinTaylor]

What happened with your printer in your other thread?

 

[staralfur12]

What happened with your printer in your other thread?

Honestly in over my head on that one too but I’m planning to revisit it. At least with my ubuntu server as the host for cups server

 

[Justinh]

I'm glad you are honest about everything ... this post is a big ask. Have you read up on this from the hundreds of tutorials/articles online?
What does this have to do with Merlin firmware?
What does OpenVPN have to do with this?

In the router's firewall, open the external port you need and point it to the internal box with the port it needs. Make sure the internal box has it's firewall set to accept the incoming traffic.

 

[bennor]

I'm trying to point my NameCheap domain (lets say, mydomain.com) into my local network.

Why? What are you trying to achieve with your diagram? Some sort of remote access? If so what kind? You mention OpenVPN. What are your intentions with that? To connect your network to someone else's network? Or access your network from a remote location? Perhaps explaining what you are trying to achieve may help others provide pointers.

 

[staralfur12]

honest about everything ... this post is a big ask. Have you read up on this from the hundreds of tutorials/articles online?
What does this have to do with Merlin firmware?
What does OpenVPN have to do with this?

Why? What are you trying to achieve with your diagram? Some sort of remote access? If so what kind? You mention OpenVPN. What are your intentions with that? To connect your network to someone else's network? Or access your network from a remote location? Perhaps explaining what you are trying to achieve may help others provide pointers.

After posting I think I just really need to learn more about networking from the ground up. My apologies I guess deliberating on it, this is too big of an ask for this forum considering it's specialized in one piece of software. Want to learn networking and read up on it more so I don't sound like a fool lol

I'm trying to get remote access to my ubuntu server working to my domain. Let's say I go to jellyfin.mydomain.com while across the world, I would like that to bring me to my Ubuntu server's jellyfin port for example. My ASUS AX58U happens to be what's between my server and the internet and I figured that I should be using OpenVPN to set up that "linkage" if you will.

 

[eibgrad]

Forget about this issue w/ Namecheap and DNS for the time being. That is NOT an essential or even an important factor in gaining remote access. You can simply refer to your public IP for the time being. In fact, configuring your own domain name assumes you have a static public IP, which is NOT the norm for consumer accounts w/ most ISPs.

Remote access over the router is NOT all that complicated. The OpenVPN server already provides default keys and certs, and will auto generate the client config file for you. Using the default settings will probably be sufficient for the time being.

The only thing I would probably change from the default is Username/Password Authentication from Yes to No, just to simplify the configuration. Depending solely on the auto-generated private key is sufficient to make the connection secure. Once it's working, you can always add username/password support too if you want it.

Now all you need to do w/ the OpenVPN client (e.g., the OpenVPN Connect app) is import the generated client config file from the server to connect back to your OpenVPN server. If you have a static public IP, that should already be in the config file as a remote directive.

Don't become overwhelmed by it all. Anything new is going to look to be a bit challenging upon first exposure. But a lot of this stuff is purposely designed so that the defaults are highly likely to work, even if you don't know what all the settings do.

 

[bennor]

I'm trying to get remote access to my ubuntu server working to my domain. Let's say I go to jellyfin.mydomain.com while across the world, I would like that to bring me to my Ubuntu server's jellyfin port for example. My ASUS AX58U happens to be what's between my server and the internet and I figured that I should be using OpenVPN to set up that "linkage" if you will.

How to Access Jellyfin Remotely in 2024 - WunderTech

This step-by-step guide walks through the whole process on how to access Jellyfin remotely! Learn about port forwarding, reverse proxies, and VPNs!

www.wundertech.net

Networking | Jellyfin

This section describes how to get basic connectivity to a Jellyfin server, and also some more advanced networking scenarios.

jellyfin.org

Setting up a OpenVPN server on the Asus router is fairly straight forwared. Asus has the following Asus Support article giving a general direction on how to do so.

[VPN] How to set up a VPN server on ASUS router – OpenVPN | Official Support | ASUS Global

How to connect to OpenVPN Server with my device?(For Windows) | Official Support | ASUS Global

www.asus.com

Other guides:

Setting Up And Using OpenVPN On ASUS Routers - SmallNetBuilder

http://forums.smallnetbuilder.com/showthread.php?t=20295

www.smallnetbuilder.com

 

[staralfur12]

Forget about this issue w/ Namecheap and DNS for the time being. That is NOT an essential or even an important factor in gaining remote access. You can simply refer to your public IP for the time being. In fact, configuring your own domain name assumes you have a static public IP, which is NOT the norm for consumer accounts w/ most ISPs.

Remote access over the router is NOT all that complicated. The OpenVPN server already provides default keys and certs, and will auto generate the client config file for you. Using the default settings will probably be sufficient for the time being.

The only thing I would probably change from the default is Username/Password Authentication from Yes to No, just to simplify the configuration. Depending solely on the auto-generated private key is sufficient to make the connection secure. Once it's working, you can always add username/password support too if you want it.

Now all you need to do w/ the OpenVPN client (e.g., the OpenVPN Connect app) is import the generated client config file from the server to connect back to your OpenVPN server. If you have a static public IP, that should already be in the config file as a remote directive.

Don't become overwhelmed by it all. Anything new is going to look to be a bit challenging upon first exposure. But a lot of this stuff is purposely designed so that the defaults are highly likely to work, even if you don't know what all the settings do.

How to Access Jellyfin Remotely in 2024 - WunderTech

This step-by-step guide walks through the whole process on how to access Jellyfin remotely! Learn about port forwarding, reverse proxies, and VPNs!

www.wundertech.net

Networking | Jellyfin

This section describes how to get basic connectivity to a Jellyfin server, and also some more advanced networking scenarios.

jellyfin.org

Setting up a OpenVPN server on the Asus router is fairly straight forwared. Asus has the following Asus Support article giving a general direction on how to do so.

[VPN] How to set up a VPN server on ASUS router – OpenVPN | Official Support | ASUS Global

How to connect to OpenVPN Server with my device?(For Windows) | Official Support | ASUS Global

www.asus.com

Other guides:

Setting Up And Using OpenVPN On ASUS Routers - SmallNetBuilder

http://forums.smallnetbuilder.com/showthread.php?t=20295

www.smallnetbuilder.com

Thanks to both of you, I will definitely look at the youtube videos and apply what is being said here. I didn't even know how to google for the answers I was looking for. Much appreciated

 

[staralfur12]

Ok gonna be documenting what I'm doing for those who is googling this. This might be the simplest up and running (and probably not "safe"?) solution so far:

1. Give your Ubuntu server a Static IP address on your router. Here I gave it 192.168.50.7 (LAN -> DHCP Server -> Manually assign)

2. Install Caddy on Ubuntu server and have it listen to port 80. Going to 192.168.50.7 (ubuntu server IP). should show Caddy default.

3. Asus Router -> WAN -> Virtual Server/Port Forwarding -> External port 80 -> Internal Port 80 and ip address of 192.168.50.7

4. In Namecheap account: Domain List -> Advanced -> Add New Record -> A Record '@' 'public IP address'. You can find your router's public IP address through various means (Network Map in your router being one of them).

5. Going to mydomain.com should now show up the default Caddy html

 

[staralfur12]

Found an even easier solution by following this YouTube guide https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ey4u7OUAF3c