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Comment by usernametaken29 | Hacker News Reader

I don’t know why this wasn’t mentioned before but why not use a Firewall. If you’re using a virtual box like Hetzner or Scaleway you can specify an ip or range at the router level. For all intents and purposes this removes public exposure. Scaleway also has a cheap VPN bridge. So you never need to connect via the public internet if you don’t want to… hardly gets more secure than that

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If you are connecting from a residence or a mobile device (like a laptop), your ip address isn't fixed, so a firewall won't help.

this

I use that strategy, as it's really simple, and I rarely have to change IP addresses. Many providers just hand out the same address every time, others as long as you keep your modem running. A colleague who regularly uses a mobile connection from abroad has a VPN with a fixed IP.

Password login is disabled. The only way to log in as root directly is via the terminal emulator on the coloc's admin page.

How this works in Hetzner web panel where you login you configure that firewall that is in front of your box.

In reality you should use that and then use host based firewall anyway.

And? Adding a new IP takes roughly 15 seconds in the admin panel. Can be automated away via an API… not sure I’d let the “my IP changes” argument slide in 2026

They could be hosting on their own homelab network (without tailscale etc magic)

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