So I was looking into getting port forwarding set up and I realized just how closed-off the internet has gotten since the early days. It's concerning. It used to be you would buy your own router and connect it to the internet, and that router would control port-forwarding and what-have-you.
Now, your ISP provides your router, which runs their firmware, which (in my case) doesn't even have the option to enable port forwarding.
It gets worse - because ISPs are choosing NATs over IPv6, so even if you install a custom firmware on your router without it getting blacklisted by your ISP, you still can't expose your server to the internet because the NAT refuses to forward traffic your way. They even devise special NAT schemes like symmetric NAT to thwart hole punching.
Basically this all means that I have to purchase my web hosting separately. Or relay all the traffic through an unnecessary third party, introducing a point of failure.
It's frustrating.
I like to control my stuff. I don't like to depend on other people or be in a position where I have to trust someone not to fuck with my shit. Like, if the only thing outside my apartment that mattered to my website was a DNS record, I'd be really happy with that.
Edit: TIL ISPs in the US don't have NATs
Edit 2: OMG so much advice. My knowledge about computers is SO clearly outdated, I have a lot of things to read up on.
Edit 3: There's definitely a CGNAT involved since the WAN ip in the router config is not the same as the one I get when I use a website that echos my IP address. Far as I can tell ~~my devices don't get unique IPv6 addresses either~~. (funnily enough, if I check my IP address on my phone using roaming data, there's no IPv6 address at all). It's a router/modem combo, at least I think since there's only one device in my apartment (maybe there's a modem managing the whole complex or something?). And it doesn't have a bridge mode, except for OTT. Might try plugging my own router into it, but it feels like a waste of time and money from what I'm seeing. Probably best to just host services over a VPN or smth.
Edit 4: Devices do get unique IPv6 addresses, but it's moot since I can't do anything but ping them. I guess it wouldn't be port forwarding but something else that I would have to do that my router doesn't support
They can learn that all without exposing their IP. You don't really get it, huh.... good luck.
But it doesn't matter if you expose your IP.
It does matters if you expose your IP.
That's why tunnels like Cloudflare and AWS exists to serve your home services to the public without exposing your IP. https://www.kali.org/tools/routersploit/ is a tool for example to target routers, if bad hackers can make botnet to brute force your servers 24/7, they can implement other exploits and you better don't take any mistake any day.
The only safe device is the one isolated from internet and others connections. If you really want to learn to have your own home lab, then learn it → https://tailscale.com/ and stop being lazy, there is no need to expose your IP, there is absolute no reason unless you are that lazy, but even you said you prefer paying a cheap VPS than messing with it.
Say it again, let's keep this loop going, but work a bit more on your responses.
Please learn at least something about network security before commenting again.
Thanks.
I already know about network security.