Running Home Assistant remotely with a dynamic ISP IP address requires maintaining a fragile chain of DuckDNS, port forwarding, and SSL certificates. Switching to Tailscale, a WireGuard-based mesh VPN, eliminates all of that. Tailscale assigns a stable MagicDNS hostname to the Home Assistant instance, making it accessible from anywhere without exposing the router or managing certificates. Setup involves installing the Tailscale add-on from HACS, authenticating it, enabling MagicDNS and HTTPS, and updating the Companion app's server URL. The result is a closed firewall, no port forwarding, and seamless remote access on any network.
Table of contents
Maintaining the chain for remotely accessing Home AssistantHow Tailscale works differently to provide remote accessTailscale add-on for Home Assistant does the heavy liftingHome Assistant’s Companion App just connects every timeSort: