Networking & smart home · mesh vpn
Tela
Free userspace tool linking machines over WebDAV without TUN adapters, root or admin rights, plus hole punching for P2P speed.
Summarized from 14 comments.
Free userspace tool linking machines over WebDAV without TUN adapters, root or admin rights, plus hole punching for P2P speed.
- recommend
- 10
- criticize
- 0
- months recommended
- 2 of 13
Why people love it
No TUN, root, or admin required · 3
I went with WebDAV because it works on all three platforms without a kernel module or extra driver.
Apr 2026 · commentyour userspace approach is really interesting btw, especially the no tun / no root part
Apr 2026 · commentrequires no TUN adapter, no root access, and no admin privileges on either end
Apr 2026 · commentUserspace approach praised as interesting · 2
your userspace approach is really interesting btw, especially the no tun / no root part
Apr 2026 · commentIt looks essentially like userspace NAT, only active for particular ports.
Apr 2026 · commentBuilt better than alternatives · 2
built something with more depth and honestly better than most alternatives out there
Mar 2026 · commentExactly what I was going to build for myself, no need now, very cool
Apr 2026 · comment
What hackers pick instead
- TailscaleRecommended for reaching home servers and devices from anywhere without opening ports, thanks to WireGuard-based NAT traversal and easy setup; critics question trusting a third party and its ACL defaults.809recommend
- HeadscaleFree open source self-hosted control server compatible with Tailscale clients, giving full control over your network, though it is not a complete drop-in replacement and can be finicky to set up.79recommend
- ZeroTierPeople recommend it as a free-tier mesh network that links devices across the internet without exposing them publicly. Critics report slow performance and occasional instability.19recommend
- Tailscale Peer RelaysLets Tailscale devices relay traffic for peers behind difficult NAT, improving speed and reliability without running separate DERP servers.15recommend
- OpenZitiOpen-source, identity-based overlay network that lets you host services without open listening ports and set granular access per client; critics cite hard-to-use UX and incomplete desktop and mobile clients.10recommend
Every quote
The 9 most detailed of 14 comments. Each links to the original.
I went with WebDAV because it works on all three platforms without a kernel module or extra driver.
Recommends · Apr 2026 · in “Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (April 2026)”
your userspace approach is really interesting btw, especially the no tun / no root part
Recommends · Apr 2026 · in “Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (April 2026)”
built something with more depth and honestly better than most alternatives out there
Recommends · Mar 2026 · in “Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (March 2026)”
requires no TUN adapter, no root access, and no admin privileges on either end
Recommends · Apr 2026 · in “Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (April 2026)”
It looks essentially like userspace NAT, only active for particular ports.
Recommends · Apr 2026 · in “Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (April 2026)”
Exactly what I was going to build for myself, no need now, very cool
Recommends · Apr 2026 · in “Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (April 2026)”
probably performance is the first trade-off, weighing kernel against user-space
Mixed · Apr 2026 · in “Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (April 2026)”
The hub only ever sees encrypted data (apart from a small header).
Recommends · Apr 2026 · in “Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (April 2026)”
The hole-punching feature gives me the P2P speed
Recommends · Apr 2026 · in “Ask HN: What are you building that's not AI related?”
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