Question to GL.iNet staff.
When the Tailscale 'Exit Node' option will be implemented in GL.iNet Routers? Particularly interested in Brume2.
Thanks!
With GL iNet new focus on what looks like a competing product AstroWarp which it looks like they will start charging for next year, and probably use as a product lock-in for their routers, I wondering if they will even care about future support of Tailscale.
Imho it's fine that they will focus on own technologies. Right now there are to much built-in features without updates - so a good set of preconfigured stuff directly from GL should be better.
And, like always: You can modify the whole OS by yourself, if you like to.
AstroWarp is Router-to-Router solution, so can't use it on mobile device while not at home. Tailscale can be installed on any device, and with 'Exit Node' option on the router side it would be perfect for my purpose.
Afaik a client solution is planned for next year.
I managed to enable the 'Exit Node' option on my GL.iNet router. It actually turned out to be very simple, just had to send the following command via SSH, and that was it. No additional tweaks, firewall rules, etc.
tailscale up --accept-routes --advertise-exit-node --advertise-routes=192.168.15.0/24,192.168.8.0/24 --accept-dns=false
192.168.15.0/24 - WAN Subnet
192.168.8.0/24 - LAN Subnet
Router details
Model: Brume2
Firmware: 4.7.0 (beta)
Tailscale version: 1.66.4.-1 (default on this firmware)
Rebooting or powering off the router doesn’t terminate the 'Exit Node' option.
However, if Tailscale is manually stopped in the web interface and started again, the 'Exit Node' option disappears, and the SSH command needs to be sent again.
If anyone knows how to automate this - sending the SSH command every time Tailscale is started - it would be very helpful.
Answering my own question.
To automate enabling the Exit Node, the following command can be scheduled in Luci. It will check the 'Tailscale status' every minute and apply the Exit Node command only if Tailscale is running but the Exit Node is inactive on this router.
100.xxx.xxx.xxx - To be changed to actual Tailscale Router's IP address
192.168.1.0/24 - WLAN Subnet
192.168.8.0/24 - LAN Subnet
* * * * * /etc/init.d/tailscale status | grep -q "running" && ! tailscale status | grep -q "100.xxx.xxx.xxx.*offers exit node" && tailscale up --accept-routes --advertise-exit-node --advertise-routes=192.168.1.0/24,192.168.8.0/24 --accept-dns=false