3 posts tagged with "SSH"

When you build an app for people running many different network setups, the hardest part is not the features. It is the front door.

Some people use Larktun's managed network. They type in an account and password, and they are in. Some prefer auth keys — a string of characters is all the identity they need. And a significant portion of users run networks that are not on Larktun at all. They operate their own Tailscale network, or maintain a self-hosted Headscale instance on a VPS somewhere.

Letting everyone walk in their own way is something the Larktun iOS app has considered from day one.

Accessing a private network from iPad or iPhone has often meant turning on system VPN first, then switching between an SSH client, an SFTP client, a browser, or a remote desktop app. Each tool solves one part of the workflow, but in practice users keep jumping between apps while also checking whether the system VPN is still connected.

Larktun is taking a more direct path: put the network access workflow into one app.

The iPad/iOS version has been submitted for App Store review and is expected to meet everyone soon. It does not rely on system VPN permission. Instead, it joins the Larktun network inside the app, so users can view devices, test connectivity, SSH into hosts, manage files with SFTP, and open private Web services from one interface.

I recently provisioned a free Oracle Cloud server with 4 CPU cores and 24 GB of memory. For a development server, that is generous enough for test services, build jobs, database experiments, and the occasional production-support workload.

But as soon as I needed remote SSH access, the classic question appeared: should I expose port 22 to the public internet?

My answer is clear: no.