Accessing local network over the internet WITHOUT router support

Question

Despite some hours of Googling, I can't find a solution to this.

Scenario: I need to access my local network (i.e. all devices starting with 192.168.0.x) from the internet.

I have zero router control (ISP locked down).

But, what I do have is: 1) A linux box running inside the local network, connected via an ethernet port to the router.

2) A linux server in the cloud.

I "feel" like the answer is that the local box establishes a connection to the cloud server, and then I connect from my remote workstation to this cloud server, which forms a 'bridge' and lets me then ping/connect/do things to the home network IP's from wherever I am.

I looked at SSH reverse tunnels but that seems to only let me access the single local box - not all devices on the local network via IP.

I also looked at OpenVPN but it seems to only support point-to-point instead of this "bridge" configuration.

All ideas gratefully received - I'm sure it's just my weak google-fu!

Answer 1

Were it me, I would replace the ISP router.

If this is not an option, I would set up another router behind the ISP router, and connect all my devices to that. I would then set up OpenVPN (as a client) on this router, and connect it to a VPN server in the cloud. I would then connect other devices to the same VPN server.

I believe (but have not extensively used) OpenVPN in "TAP" mode. The more commonly used mechanism for it is "tun" mode, where it acts like a router. In TAP mode it can act as a bridge - and this sounds like the option you would need to bridge networks together without a router. It has, I believe, significant overheads.