Access internal devices through the WireGuard tunnel¶
Enable IP forwarding on the server¶
Enable IP forwarding on your server by removing the comments in front of
net.ipv4.ip_forward = 1
net.ipv6.conf.all.forwarding = 1
in the file /etc/sysctl.d/99-sysctl.conf
Then apply the new option with the command below.
sudo sysctl -p
If you see the options repeated like
net.ipv4.ip_forward = 1
net.ipv6.conf.all.forwarding = 1
they were enabled successfully.
A properly configured firewall is highly recommended for any Internet-facing device. Configuring a firewall (iptables, ufw, etc.) is not part of this guide.
Enable NAT on the server¶
On your server, add the following to the [INTERFACE] section of your /etc/wireguard/wg0.conf:
PostUp = iptables -w -t nat -A POSTROUTING -o eth0 -j MASQUERADE; ip6tables -w -t nat -A POSTROUTING -o eth0 -j MASQUERADE
PostDown = iptables -w -t nat -D POSTROUTING -o eth0 -j MASQUERADE; ip6tables -w -t nat -D POSTROUTING -o eth0 -j MASQUERADE
Important: Substitute interface
Without the correct interface name, this will not work!
Substitute eth0 in the preceding lines to match the Internet-facing interface. This may be ens2p0 or similar on more recent Ubuntu versions (check, e.g., ip a for details about your local interfaces).
PostUp and PostDown defines steps to be run after the interface is turned on or off, respectively. In this case, iptables is used to set Linux IP masquerade rules to allow all the clients to share the server’s IPv4 and IPv6 address.
The rules will then be cleared once the tunnel is down.
Exemplary server config file with this change
[Interface]
PrivateKey = [your server's private key]
Address = [Wireguard-internal IPs of the server, e.g. 10.100.0.1/24, fd08:4711::1/64]
ListenPort = 47111
PostUp = iptables -A FORWARD -i %i -j ACCEPT; iptables -A FORWARD -o %i -j ACCEPT; iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -o enp2s0 -j MASQUERADE
PostDown = iptables -D FORWARD -i %i -j ACCEPT; iptables -D FORWARD -o %i -j ACCEPT; iptables -t nat -D POSTROUTING -o enp2s0 -j MASQUERADE
# Android phone
[Peer]
PublicKey = [public key of this client]
PresharedKey = [pre-shared key of this client]
AllowedIPs = [Wireguard-internal IP of this client, e.g., 10.100.0.2/32, fd08:4711::2/128]
# maybe more [Peer] sections for more clients
The important change is the extra PostUpandPostDownin the[Interface]` section.
Allow clients to access other devices¶
In our standard configuration, we have configured the clients in such a way that they can only speak to the server. Add the network range of your local network in CIDR notation (e.g., 192.168.2.1 - 192.168.2.254 -> 192.168.2.0/24) in the [Peers] section of all clients you want to have this feature:
[Peer]
AllowedIPs = 10.0.0.0/24, fd08:4711::/64, 192.168.2.0/24
It is possible to add this only for a few clients, leaving the others isolated to only the Pi-hole server itself.
Exemplary client config file with this change
[Interface]
PrivateKey = [your client's private key]
Address = [Wireguard-internal IPs of your client, e.g. 10.100.0.2/32, fd08:4711::2/128]
DNS = 10.100.0.1
[Peer]
AllowedIPs = 10.100.0.0/24, fd08::/64, 192.168.2.0/24
Endpoint = [your server's public IP or domain]:47111
PublicKey = [public key of the server]
PresharedKey = [pre-shared key of this client]
PersistentKeepalive = 25
The important change is the extra 192.168.2.0/24 at the end of the [Peer] -> AllowedIPs entry.