Before Github supported SSL encryption for github pages sites, many people were using CloudFlare (CF) as their DNS provider and CDN proxy. CF allowed users to enable SSL encryption from the CDN end points/proxies to the end user. This was great and it allowed visitors to your website to connect with a secure connection between their browser and the cloudflare CDN box that was serving your content. However, with this setup one (significant) link in the chain remained unencrypted and
HackerNews discussed this with many alternative solutions: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24893615
I already have my own domain name: mydomain.com
. I wanted to be able to run some webapps on my Raspberry Pi 4B running
perpetually at home in headless mode (just needs 5W power and wireless internet). I wanted to be able to access these apps from public Internet. Dynamic DNS wasn't an option because my ISP blocks all incoming traffic. ngrok
would work but the free plan is too restrictive.
I bought a cheap 2GB RAM, 20GB disk VM + a 25GB volume on Hetzner for about 4 EUR/month. Hetzner gave me a static IP for it. I haven't purchased a floating IP yet.