Introduction
Remote work has taken off since the COVID-19 pandemic and further spawned what some refer to as “digital nomads”. Many have begun to realize that for some positions, coming into the office is actually not necessary at all and perhaps even less productive than working from home. Moreover, it’s becoming apparent to people that they don’t necessarily need to stay at home every single day of the year. For some, that 12 days (or even 24 days) of PTO is not enough.
So, why not switch it up and work from somewhere new, whether that be another state in the U.S. or a whole new country?
Why a self-hosted VPN?
Most companies have I.T. departments that monitor things like IP addresses and thus your location(s). One of the reasons for this monitoring is to ensure foreign intruders are detected and thwarted appropriately. Obviously it’s no one’s business where you’re working from, and all that really matters (and what your boss cares about) is that the work gets done. And so, the way we can appear somewhere that we truly aren’t is by using a VPN (virtual private network). But not just any VPN… you need to self-host your own VPN at your home. Developed I.T. departments will have software to detect commercial VPN providers by referencing a large list of pre-known IP addresses from companies like NordVPN. It's also good to tunnel your traffic to avoid malicious snooping. You may also choose to host the server (or even a backup) at a nearby family member's house, wherever you can achieve the fastest internet speeds.
Which method for me?
In general, WireGuard is the preferred method however you may want a backup that uses TCP such as Tailscale or AstroWarp. Moreover, for some, WireGuard isn't possible due to their home network being behind CGNAT (carrier-grade NAT), in which case Tailscale, AstroWarp, or Comet is required. For a full explanation on WireGuard versus Tailscale/AstroWarp see the VPN Comparison page.
Lastly, if you want to get a better idea of what kind of internet speeds to expect when using your VPN in a far away country (high ping/latency), read this article I wrote: https://www.gl-inet.com/blog/why-wireguard-vpn-speeds-drop-with-high-latency/