Here's my desired end state:
From a WAN connection (my phone, a PC that I happen to be using outside my home, etc.), I want to be able to enter an URL (https://example/myapp) that my web server (nginx) serves up from my LAN. I'm currently trying to do this through an Amazon ec2 OpenVPN AS instance (because I'm out of other ideas). I believe I'm close to success (keep reading), but something is preventing it from happening.
DETAILS:
I’ve been able to access my LAN server online for years from the WAN via its domain name and connecting via SSL (using Let’s Encrypt certificates).
However, I recently changed to a new Internet provider, and the gateway has ZERO (as in NONE) configuration options.
As a result, I can no longer reach my LAN server from the WAN.
A friend said he thought I could use an Amazon ec2 server to create a VPN tunnel to my LAN server.
So, I have created an Amazon ec2 OpenVPN AS instance, and assigned my domain name to it. I am able to access the Amazon ec2 OpenVPN AS instance using my domain name.
I set up OpenVPN on my LAN server box (Arch Linux) and established a connection with the Amazon ec2 OpenVPN AS instance. So far, so good!
However, I am unable to reach my nginx web server on my LAN server box.
When I type the URL to my domain, I get served the Amazon ec2 OpenVPN AS server login page.
How do I reach my nginx web server (at the other end of the VPN tunnel I created)?
I’m probably making this more difficult that it needs to be, but I’ve tried a few different configuration changes and just can’t get it to work.
I have watched countless videos (and read as many web pages) as I could find on this topic, but they seem to be focusing on things like just getting a domain associated with their ec2 instance or creating a SSL certificate or creating a web server on the ec2 instance, etc. Non of which are my issue.
I have no firewall installed on my LAN server. I also have no special routing configurations. Further, I do not see how to configure NAT/routing from the Amazon ec2 OpenVPN AS configuration UI.
Thank you for any help you may provide!
sb