If you're looking to access your home internet from anywhere in the world, installing WireGuard VPN on your NAS is an excellent solution. Whether you're abroad and need to access geo-blocked services back home or simply want the convenience of browsing the internet as if you were at home, WireGuard has you covered. With WireGuard, you can connect to your NAS remotely, ensuring seamless and secure access to your home network no matter where you are.

Additionally, WireGuard provides a robust way to encrypt all your internet traffic, especially when using public Wi-Fi connections. While most online connections use HTTPS, DNS over TLS is not yet universally adopted. WireGuard offers the peace of mind that even background tasks from various applications are encrypted through a secure tunnel to your NAS. This ensures that all your data remains protected from potential threats on unsecured networks.

For these reasons, my NAS has proven invaluable, primarily because of WireGuard. Not only does it allow me to enjoy the full benefits of my NAS from anywhere, but it also stands out as a user-friendly and reliable VPN solution. While other options like Tailscale or reverse proxies like Nginx can achieve similar results, I prefer WireGuard for its simplicity and familiarity.

How to install WireGuard on a NAS

Using TrueNAS or anything that supports Docker, it's easy

WireGuard is quick and easy to set up. On a TrueNAS setup, I used wg-easy from the TrueCharts catalog, and it truly took only five minutes. Of course, you'll need to add the TrueCharts Catalog to your NAS first. To do this, go to Apps> Manage Catalogs > Add Catalog and enter the following information:

• Name: TrueCharts
• Repository: https://github.com/truecharts/catalog
• Trains: Enterprise, Stable, Operators (commas separate each option you should select)
• Branch: Main

Once you've done this, you can browse the catalog to install wg-easy and set up WireGuard. What this does is turn your NAS into a VPN that you can connect to from anywhere so long as you port forward the WireGuard port on your router, and it works very well. Make sure to change the PUID to 0 when installing the container. Otherwise, it won't work.

If you want to install WireGuard on another type of NAS, you can also pull a Docker container of wg-easy that will get the same job done. It will host a web UI that you can use to create and manage your profiles. Finally, if you have a dynamic IP address, you can use a Dynamic DNS service like DuckDNS to ensure that you can always connect to your VPN from anywhere.

In WireGuard's web interface, you can easily create new profiles and export them as .conf files, which can then be imported into any WireGuard client, either via file or QR code. I set up profiles for my laptop, my phone, and even one for my dad so he can access Irish Netflix while traveling. With these profiles, I can access all the services on my home network as if I were physically present. To create a new configuration, simply name it and click "Create."

If you want to connect to your NAS from anywhere, and WireGuard is my favorite by far. For instance, configuring a reverse proxy on TrueNAS will likely be quite different from setting it up on OpenMediaVault. Similarly, the steps to set up WireGuard can vary between machines. On my TrueNAS setup, I used wg-easy, a Docker image that simplifies the process significantly. While wg-easy can be used on any machine that supports Docker and WireGuard, your particular setup might require a different approach.