Show HN: Check Your Network's Ability to Host a VPN Server

Show HN: Check Your Network's Ability to Host a VPN Server(icanhazvpn.com)

4 points by idoescompooters 1 year ago | 7 comments

Got bored today so I created this little companion site for my main VPN setup blog page to help people who are not tech-savvy quickly know whether their network can support hosting a VPN server (ex. WireGuard).

It basically checks if it's public/private and if it's from a cellular network. Also tries to distinguish between Verizon 5G Home or AT&T Fiber which are not the same as cellular and should still work for hosting a VPN.

KomoD 1 year ago |

So it doesn't check if you can actually host it (because it can't check, there is no other way than checking on your actual network)

Literally all it does:

if org belonging to ip contains wireless, mobile, cellular, verizon, at&t, t-mobile, sprint: IP is cellular (really bad way to determine if an IP is cellular or not by the way)

if IP belongs to asns 701, 6167, 22394, 21928, 23402: IP is cellular

if IP belongs to asns 7018, 20001: IP is not cellular

if none of above if statements match: IP is not cellular

if IP is cellular: no you can't

if IP isn't cellular: yes you can

That's it, that's the entire site.

And saying "Public-looking IP" doesn't make sense, you'll never get anything other than a public IP from icanhazip (or any other ip fetching service). Also having a cellular IP doesn't automatically mean you are unable to receive inbound traffic, some providers sell "mobile broadband" that allow you to open ports, etc.

idoescompooters 1 year ago | |

It's an educational page.

toomuchtodo 1 year ago |

This is clever and cool, thank you for building and sharing it. Any chance it supports JSON for machine detection? Similar to jsonip.com

idoescompooters 1 year ago | |

Not at the moment. I understand that is the beauty of icanhazip.com, but I didn't realize my version would be desirable to have this "feature". https://ifconfig.co/json exists though!

idoescompooters 1 year ago |

Unfortunately it's not possible to check for CGNAT via web browser. The only way to is to check the WAN IP directly on your router.

toomuchtodo 1 year ago | |

https://ip.bieringer.net/cgn-test.html

idoescompooters 1 year ago | | |

Yes, I'm aware of this page and it does not work. I tested using my iPhone hotspot as the internet source and it did not show evidence of CGNAT. Only green dots on the port squares.