Cloudflare

1. DNS Management

• Dynamic DNS (DDNS): Map your changing home IP to a domain/subdomain automatically.
• Fast global DNS: Their network resolves your domain quickly from anywhere.

2. Reverse Proxy & DDoS Protection

• Put your homelab services (e.g., Nextcloud, Jellyfin, Proxmox UI) behind Cloudflare.

• Benefits:

  • Hides your real home IP.
  • Filters malicious traffic before it reaches you.
  • Can block countries, bots, or suspicious requests.

3. Secure Remote Access

• Cloudflare Tunnel (a.k.a. Argo Tunnel):

  • Lets you expose internal apps to the internet without opening ports on your router.
  • Works through an outbound connection from your server to Cloudflare.
  • Great for avoiding ISP NAT issues.

4. SSL/TLS for Free

• Use Cloudflare’s free SSL certificates to get HTTPS for all your homelab web apps.

5. Access Control

• Cloudflare Access: SSO & 2FA for your services (login with Google, GitHub, etc.).

💡 Many homelabbers run something like: [Service in Docker/VM] → [Cloudflare Tunnel] → [Cloudflare DNS + Security] → [User's Browser]

If you want, I can make you a diagram showing Cloudflare in a homelab network so it’s easier to visualize. That would make it crystal clear how traffic flows.