In my area, ISPs don’t provide static IP addresses. So I’m looking for an alternative method to publicly host some software from my linux box. It occurred to me to try a VPN service with a dedicated IP, but I don’t think that commercial ones allow inbound traffic. So I’ve tried setting up a VPN on azure with a P2S gateway, load balancer and public IP, and using strongswan on the linux box, but the gateway just seems unreachable from the linux box. I’m wondering of anybody here could offer a (relatively cheap) solution?
So long as you’re not behind CGNAT, you don’t need a static IP to self-host services from your home. Just use a dynamic DNS service. I’ve been using dyndns.org for 15+ years now, but there are MANY to choose from. With these services, there is usually a software client on your router / PC that will update your domain name with your current IP address.
Many routers directly support these services, and if yours doesn’t, these services generally have a piece of software you can install onto one of your computing devices, which will keep your dynamic DNS hostname updated with your current WAN IP whenever it changes.
Thanks for the advice, that did sound good but I think my ISP has me behind a CGNAT (I had to look that up), they don’t allow any inbound traffic over my dynamically assigned IP. 