tailscale/cmd/lopower/README.md
Brad Fitzpatrick 2e70eef65c cmd/lopower: add Limitations to README
Change-Id: I6baaa7fa45eaa0c90482123acc51d0f402205e96
Signed-off-by: Brad Fitzpatrick <bradfitz@tailscale.com>
2024-11-03 16:55:02 -08:00

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# Tailscale LOPOWER
"Little Opionated Proxy Over Wireguard-encrypted Routes"
**STATUS**: in-development alpha (as of 2024-11-03)
## Background
Some small devices such as ESP32 microcontrollers [support WireGuard](https://github.com/ciniml/WireGuard-ESP32-Arduino) but are too small to run Tailscale.
Tailscale LOPOWER is a proxy that you run nearby that bridges a low-power WireGuard-speaking device on one side to Tailscale on the other side. That way network traffic from the low-powered device never hits the network unencrypted but is still able to communicate to/from other Tailscale devices on your Tailnet.
## Features
* Runs separate Wireguard server with separate keys (unknown to the Tailscale control plane) that proxy on to Tailscale
* Outputs WireGuard-standard configuration to enrolls devices, including in QR code form.
* embeds `tsnet`, with an identity on which the device(s) behind the proxy appear on your Tailnet
* optional IPv4 support. IPv6 is always enabled, as it never conflicts with anything. But IPv4 (or CGNAT) might already be in use on your client's network.
* includes a DNS server (at `fd7a:115c:a1e0:9909::1` by default and optionally also at `10.90.0.1`) to serve both MagicDNS names as well as forwarding non-Tailscale DNS names onwards
* if IPv4 is disabled, MagicDNS `A` records are filtered out, and only `AAAA` records are served.
## Limitations
* this runs in userspace using gVisor's netstack. That means it's portable (and doesn't require kernel/system configuration), but that does mean it doesn't operate at a packet level but rather it stitches together two separate TCP (or UDP) flows and doesn't support IP protocols such as SCTP or other things that aren't TCP or UDP.
* the standard WireGuard configuration doesn't support specifying DNS search domains, so resolving bare names like the `go` in `http://go/foo` won't work and you need