Tailscale
Reach your Aviato Server from anywhere over a private, end to end encrypted mesh network. Coming soon to Aviato Afterburner.
Tailscale is a zero configuration mesh VPN built on WireGuard. It connects your devices to your Aviato Server over a private, end to end encrypted network, without opening any ports on your router, without configuring port forwarding, and without your traffic ever touching the public internet.
For self hosters who don't want to expose their server to the open web at all, Tailscale is the cleanest answer. Your phone, your laptop, your TV, and your Aviato Server all join the same private network. Each device gets a stable address that only your other devices can reach. From your media player's point of view, your server is always on the local network, even when you're halfway around the world.
Coming soon to Aviato Afterburner
Integrated Tailscale support is in development and will ship as part of Aviato Afterburner, the paid tier of Aviato.
The goal is one click setup:
- Open Settings, then Network.
- Choose Tailscale as your network tier.
- Sign in with your Tailscale account.
- Your server joins your tailnet, and a real TLS certificate is issued for its private name.
- Share the link with anyone on your tailnet and you're done.
Until that ships, you can still run Aviato Server on a machine that has Tailscale installed at the operating system level. Aviato will happily run inside a tailnet today, you just have to manage the Tailscale client and certificates yourself outside of the Aviato UI. The work coming with Aviato Afterburner is the deep, in product integration: device authentication, certificate provisioning, MagicDNS aware links, and status surfaced inside the Aviato UI.
How Tailscale fits with the other network options
Aviato gives you several ways to make your server reachable. You can mix and match, but most users will pick one as their primary setup.
| Option | Best for | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Avia.to Dynamic DNS | A shareable, "just works" public link for friends and family | Free |
| Custom certificate / Let's Encrypt | You already own a domain and want to use it | Free |
| Tailscale (coming soon) | Private access only, no public exposure | Aviato Afterburner |
Tailscale is the right pick when you want to keep your server entirely off the public internet, and you're happy installing Tailscale on every device that needs to reach it. Avia.to Dynamic DNS is the right pick when you want a link you can text to a relative without asking them to install anything.
What you'll be able to do at launch
When the integration ships, you'll be able to:
- Enroll your Aviato Server in your tailnet without ever leaving the Aviato Settings UI.
- Get a TLS certificate for your server's tailnet name automatically, so browsers connect over HTTPS with no warnings.
- See the status of your tailnet connection in the Network settings pane: connected, offline, expired, and the list of devices that can currently reach the server.
- Optionally restrict sign in so that only devices in your tailnet can reach the server at all, layered on top of Aviato's normal authentication.
We'll update this page with full setup instructions when the integration is available. Aviato Afterburner subscribers will get the feature automatically.
In the meantime, if you'd like to learn more about Tailscale itself, visit tailscale.com.