this post was submitted on 10 Aug 2026

-47 points (15.9% liked)

Selfhosted

61409 readers

376 users here now

A place to share alternatives to popular online services that can be self-hosted without giving up privacy or locking you into a service you don't control.

Rules:

Detailed Rules Post

Be civil.
No spam.
Posts are to be related to self-hosting.
Don't duplicate the full text of your blog or readme if you're providing a link.
Submission headline should match the article title.
No trolling.
Promotion posts require active participation, with an account that is at least 30 days old. F/LOSS without a paywall has exceptions, with requirements. See the rules link for details. Tags [CBH] or [AIP] are required, see the links in Rule 8 for details.
AI-related discussions and AI-involved promotional posts have additional requirements for tagging, as noted in Rule 7 and the AI & Promotional Post Expanded Rules post, and find example disclosures here.

Resources:

selfh.st Newsletter and index of selfhosted software and apps
awesome-selfhosted software
awesome-sysadmin resources
Self-Hosted Podcast from Jupiter Broadcasting

Any issues on the community? Report it using the report flag.

Questions? DM the mods!

founded 3 years ago

MODERATORS

curbstickle@anarchist.nexus

curbstickle_lw@lemmy.world

-47

Rayfish is working on my phone! (lemmy.nz)

submitted 4 days ago by altphoto@lemmy.today to c/selfhosted@lemmy.world

19 comments fedilink hide all child comments

A few weeks ago Rayfish was released and only worked on PCs. But today I checked and noticed V2 was out. I updated my V1 on my PC and then installed it on my phone.

I had to restart the network on my PC to refresh the VPN networks I had already created. I setup a searcXNG on my PC just to try some sort of server. Next I created a firewall rule for that port on the rayfish network and another rule for the network on my Linux firewall. On rayfish I created a network and an invite code for my phone. On the phone I entered the invite code and was immediately connected. I could then ping from my phone to my PC and viseversa.

Finally I searched for the PCs rayfish IP and just connected to it on my browser on the phone. That worked and I was happy. But then I turned off my WiFi on my phone and clicked refresh... A few seconds later the phone re-connected and I got to my searcXNG!

My outside IP is not fixed and I rely on Cloudflare. But none of my services are actually public and are not planned to be public. So now with rayfish I get a permanent IP for free regardless of what my actual IP is. The possibilities are endless.... Big big!

This is very cool! Yeah it's AI developed, but this is AI for us. It's clear and well defined for me, AI working for us is small potatoes vs AI the evil resource sucker spy tool. So let's take advantage. Specifically this project is great and solves my privacy issues with Cloudflare.

Bug Maybe I'm putting it too simply. Any thoughts on this?

top 19 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old

[–] ExcessShiv@lemmy.dbzer0.com 27 points 4 days ago (1 children)

So what, this is just yet another app that makes a VPN connection to your home network, but AI-coded instead? Why not use one of the non-AI made solutions?

[+] altphoto@lemmy.today -12 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Because this one has no central server.

[–] ExcessShiv@lemmy.dbzer0.com 15 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Neither has a wireguard tunnel into your home network, you host the WG server on your own computer (or router even, that's what I do) and just point your clients to that using either static IP if you have it or a DDNS service like the cloudflare you're using if you have a dynamic IP.

[+] altphoto@lemmy.today -20 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (3 children)

I guess I'm wrong. Wireguard can be p2p and that's exactly how most users use it so it's super easy to setup that way.

Anyway, this ray fish thing is just impressive that's all.

[–] ExcessShiv@lemmy.dbzer0.com 20 points 4 days ago

WireGuard still needs a central server that you don't control.

No, it really doesn't

[–] goldman60@lemmy.world 9 points 4 days ago

This is flatly incorrect

[–] Natanox@discuss.tchncs.de 7 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Lolwhat, no it doesn't…? Did an AI tell you that?

You spin up a Wireguard server yourself (or use the one in many routers), point clients to that and be happy. The only "other" server in that chain might be a (Dyn)DNS resolver, and you could even self-host that one (and therefore also omit Cloudflare).

[+] altphoto@lemmy.today -7 points 4 days ago (2 children)

Oh so it doesn't do dynamic changes in IP like rayfish does within a few seconds?

[–] Natanox@discuss.tchncs.de 8 points 4 days ago

That's the resolver's job, Wireguard absolutely reconnects asap if the connection's heartbeat goes out. You in your case got Cloudflare to make sure it can connect somewhere.

The only way to truely serverless'ly find each other when both parties got dynamic IPs would be IPv6 multicast (such as via Librecast). Not just is that still not supported by the network itself a lot of times (sadly) but I doubt any LLM on this planet would implement it correctly, way too niche. Any other way leads through some DNS resolver or third-party service (like Cloudflare) or a network such as Magic Wormhole.

It's fine if the Slopware works for you, but your arguments make no sense whatsoever. The only thing you're currently doing is making enemies in the selfhosting community, not connections.

[–] ExcessShiv@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

That's not rayfish handling that but the cloudflare DDNS you're using that handles that. So yes, self hosted WG server handles that just as fast.

If you're talking client-side, it will reconnect as fast as whatever internet connection you're switching between allows it. For me it's something like 3-5 seconds from disconnect to reconnect.

[+] altphoto@lemmy.today -11 points 4 days ago (2 children)

No, actually rayfish creates a tunnel network such that cloudflare is not needed for self-hosted things like immich or navidrome. You can connect to those by the IP overlay from rayfish or its hostname also created by rayfish. If your phone or home IP change, the actual overlay IPs stay the same. The two devices reconnect otheir own. So truly Cloudflare can go pound sand and report the 30,000 hits it protected me from AI. Ofcourse I guess I could use their DNS to keep a searchable FQN AA record.

[–] scott@lem.free.as 12 points 4 days ago

Dude, give it up. This is exactly how VPNs work. There's nothing special about Rayfish.

I think you need to study on how TCP/IP (and UDP) works and you'll have a better appreciation of what's actually going on.

[–] ExcessShiv@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 points 4 days ago

Dude, a self hosted WG server creates a tunnel network without relying on central servers. Rayfish is probably just an AI-coded WG server and client combo. It's "solving" a problem with AI that was already solved without AI.

[–] Archer@lemmy.world 4 points 3 days ago

You don’t understand what you are doing with your own setup, unfortunately. I would recommend you read up on how VPNs and Wireguard work

[–] KairuByte@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 3 days ago (1 children)

My dude, look into tailscale. Same concept, just as easy to set up, and likely more features. And it’s human made, human tested, and used by a large number of different type of end users.

[–] altphoto@lemmy.today -1 points 3 days ago

I did. I looked into all the various VPN options. Tailscale and headscale are good options. I tried and failed to make them work for me. This one just worked very easily in comparison.

[–] irmadlad@lemmy.world 0 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Do what works for you OP. Don't let 'em give you shit about your pony tail.

[–] altphoto@lemmy.today 1 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Thanks! I like my free ponytail!

[–] irmadlad@lemmy.world 1 points 4 days ago

Me too.