homegate-p2p 1.0.0

Free, open-source P2P tunnel with TCP & UDP support. Self-hosted alternative to ngrok.

Homegate P2P

Free, open-source, peer-to-peer tunnel with full TCP & UDP support.

Connect two machines directly — encrypted, no account, no subscription, no intermediary server. Built on Reticulum encrypted transport.

A free, self-hosted alternative to ngrok — with UDP support for game servers and AI model sharing.

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How it actually works

Homegate P2P connects two machines directly using the Reticulum protocol. Each side gets a hash — a permanent cryptographic identity. You share your hash, the other side connects to it.

For the connection to work, at least one of the following must be true:

• You have a public IPv6 address — most modern ISPs provide one for free, no extra cost, just check if you have it
• Both sides connect to a common Reticulum relay node — free public nodes maintained by the Reticulum community

Neither requires buying a static IP or configuring your router. But this is peer-to-peer — there's no magic. Someone has to be reachable.

Want friends to connect using a simple URL like yourname.homegate.io without installing anything? That's what Homegate Pro is for — it uses a managed VPS as the relay and exposes your service to the web over HTTPS.

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Use cases

Share local AI models Run Ollama, LM Studio, Stable Diffusion, or ComfyUI on your GPU and share it directly with a colleague — encrypted, no cloud, no API costs.

Host game servers from home Self-host Minecraft, Valheim, Counter-Strike, or ARK. Full UDP support — something Cloudflare Tunnel doesn't offer.

Share a local web app or development server Expose any HTTP service instantly — no ngrok account needed.

Remote access between your own devices Connect to a home server, Raspberry Pi, or camera from anywhere — without a VPN or static IP.

Use case	Protocol	Port
Minecraft server	UDP	25565
Valheim server	UDP	2456
Counter-Strike	UDP	27015
Ollama (AI models)	TCP	11434
Stable Diffusion / ComfyUI	TCP	7860
LM Studio	TCP	8080
Open WebUI	TCP	3000
Any web app or API	TCP	any

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Platform support

Platform	Status
Linux	✅ Available
Windows	✅ Available
macOS	✅ Available

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Requirements

• Python 3.10+
• tkinter — for the optional GUI
  • Linux: sudo apt install python3-tk
  • macOS: brew install python-tk
  • Windows: included with the official Python installer (check "tcl/tk and IDLE" during setup)

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Installation

Option A — pip (recommended)

pip install homegate-p2p

That's it. The homegate-p2p command is now available globally.

GUI note: The GUI requires tkinter, which can't be installed via pip. If you want the GUI, install tkinter for your platform first (see requirements above), then homegate-p2p gui will work automatically.

Option B — installer scripts

Linux:

tar -xzf homegate-p2p-linux.tar.gz
cd homegate-p2p-linux
chmod +x install.sh
./install.sh

Windows:

1. Download and extract homegate-p2p-windows.zip
2. Double-click install.bat
3. Allow the UAC dialog — needed for the firewall rule
4. Restart PowerShell or Command Prompt

macOS:

tar -xzf homegate-p2p-mac.tar.gz
cd homegate-p2p-mac
chmod +x install.sh
./install.sh

If install.bat crashes on Windows, see Windows manual install below.

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Windows manual install

Open PowerShell as Administrator:

cd D:\path\to\homegate-p2p-windows

python -m venv venv
venv\Scripts\pip install -r requirements.txt

@"
@echo off
cd /d "$PWD"
"$PWD\venv\Scripts\python" "$PWD\homegate-p2p.py" %*
"@ | Out-File -FilePath "homegate-p2p.bat" -Encoding ascii

$current = [Environment]::GetEnvironmentVariable("PATH", "User")
[Environment]::SetEnvironmentVariable("PATH", "$PWD;$current", "User")
$env:PATH = "$PWD;$env:PATH"

netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="Homegate P2P" dir=in action=allow protocol=TCP localport=4242
netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="Homegate P2P" dir=in action=allow protocol=UDP localport=4242

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Quick start

# 1. Start the background engine (REQUIRED before anything else)
homegate-p2p daemon

# 2. Host side — expose a local service
homegate-p2p host --port 25565 --protocol UDP
# → prints your hash, share it with the other side

# 3. Client side — connect to the host
homegate-p2p daemon
homegate-p2p connect --hash <hash> --port 25565
# → connect your game/app to 127.0.0.1:25565

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Commands

homegate-p2p daemon              Start the background engine
homegate-p2p host                Expose a local service
homegate-p2p connect             Connect to a remote service
homegate-p2p status              Show current status
homegate-p2p logs                Stream live logs
homegate-p2p stop                Stop current session
homegate-p2p stop --daemon       Stop the engine entirely
homegate-p2p gui                 Launch the optional GUI
homegate-p2p help [command]      Show help for any command

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GUI (optional)

The daemon must be running before launching the GUI:

homegate-p2p daemon
homegate-p2p gui

The GUI does not manage the daemon — it only controls it. If you close the GUI, the daemon keeps running.

The Network tab shows your detected public IPv6 and generates the exact config block the other side needs to paste into their Reticulum config.

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Network modes

Option 1 — Public IPv6 (direct connection)

Check if you have a public IPv6:

# Linux / macOS
curl -6 https://api6.ipify.org

# Windows (PowerShell)
(Invoke-WebRequest -Uri "https://api6.ipify.org" -UseBasicParsing).Content

If it returns an address not starting with fc or fd, you have one.

The client must add a config block pointing to the host's IPv6, under [interfaces] in their Reticulum config:

[[Rafa]]
  type = TCPClientInterface
  enabled = yes
  target_host = [2800:2540:3110:265:235:2cb1:5b29:1c76]
  target_port = 4242

Important: Use square brackets around the IPv6 address.

Reticulum config file location:

• Linux / macOS: ~/.homegate-p2p/reticulum/config
• Windows: %APPDATA%\Homegate-P2P\reticulum\config

After editing the config, restart the daemon:

homegate-p2p stop --daemon
homegate-p2p daemon

Option 2 — Public Reticulum relay nodes

If neither side has a public IPv6, both add the same relay to their Reticulum config:

[[BetweenTheBorders]]
  type = TCPClientInterface
  enabled = yes
  target_host = reticulum.betweentheborders.com
  target_port = 4242

[[Sydney]]
  type = TCPClientInterface
  enabled = yes
  target_host = sydney.reticulum.au
  target_port = 4242

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Real-world examples

Sharing Ollama (local AI models)

Host side:

# Ollama must listen on all interfaces, not just localhost
OLLAMA_HOST=0.0.0.0 ollama serve

# Or permanently via systemd:
# sudo systemctl edit ollama
# [Service]
# Environment="OLLAMA_HOST=0.0.0.0"
# sudo systemctl restart ollama

homegate-p2p daemon
homegate-p2p host --port 11434 --protocol TCP

Client side:

homegate-p2p daemon
homegate-p2p connect --hash <hash> --port 11434 --protocol TCP

Then use the Ollama API at http://127.0.0.1:11434:

# List available models
(Invoke-WebRequest -Uri "http://127.0.0.1:11434/api/tags" -UseBasicParsing).Content

# Generate text
$body = '{"model":"mistral:latest","prompt":"hello","stream":false}'
(Invoke-WebRequest -Uri "http://127.0.0.1:11434/api/generate" -Method POST -Body $body -ContentType "application/json" -UseBasicParsing).Content

Or use Open WebUI locally pointing to http://127.0.0.1:11434.

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Sharing a local web page or app

Host side:

mkdir /tmp/mysite
cat > /tmp/mysite/index.html << 'EOF'
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
  <meta charset="UTF-8">
  <title>Homegate P2P Test</title>
</head>
<body>
  <h1>Hello from Homegate P2P!</h1>
</body>
</html>
EOF

cd /tmp/mysite
python3 -m http.server 8080

# In another terminal:
homegate-p2p daemon
homegate-p2p host --port 8080 --protocol TCP

Client side:

homegate-p2p connect --hash <hash> --port 8080 --protocol TCP

Open http://127.0.0.1:8080 in the browser.

Tip: Always add <meta charset="UTF-8"> to avoid garbled characters on the client side.

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Hosting a game server (Minecraft)

Host side:

homegate-p2p daemon
homegate-p2p host --port 25565 --protocol UDP

Client side:

homegate-p2p connect --hash <hash> --port 25565 --protocol UDP

Connect in Minecraft to 127.0.0.1:25565.

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Architecture

homegate-p2p <command>        ← CLI entry point
        │
        ▼
  DaemonClient                ← JSON over localhost:9877
        │
        ▼
    daemon.py                 ← Reticulum engine + local API
    ├── host.py               ← host mode (multiplexed TCP, multiple clients)
    └── connector.py          ← connect mode (multiplexed TCP, multiple connections)

  gui.py (optional)           ← talks to daemon via DaemonClient

TCP connections are multiplexed over a single Reticulum link — each connection has a unique ID so parallel requests (browser loading a page with CSS, JS and images) all work simultaneously.

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Troubleshooting

Full reset — when nothing else works

If things are in a broken state, kill everything and start clean:

# Linux / macOS
pkill -f daemon.py
pkill -f homegate-p2p
sleep 2
homegate-p2p daemon

# Windows
taskkill /F /IM python.exe /T
homegate-p2p daemon

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Daemon not starting

homegate-p2p daemon --foreground   # see all errors in real time
homegate-p2p logs                  # check log file

Port 9877 already in use — a previous daemon didn't close cleanly:

# Linux / macOS
pkill -f daemon.py
sleep 1
homegate-p2p daemon

# Windows
for /f "tokens=5" %p in ('netstat -ano ^| findstr ":9877"') do taskkill /F /PID %p
homegate-p2p daemon

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Host not found when connecting

1. Make sure the client's Reticulum config has the host's IPv6 under [interfaces]
2. After editing the config, restart the daemon — config is only read at startup
3. Wait up to 30 seconds — Reticulum needs time to propagate announcements
4. Test if the host's port is reachable:

# Linux / macOS
nc -zv HOST_IPV6 4242

# Windows
Test-NetConnection -ComputerName "HOST_IPV6" -Port 4242

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Reticulum config gets overwritten

The current version only generates the config if the file doesn't exist yet. If you're on an older version, reinstall.

On Windows — save your config before reinstalling:

copy "%APPDATA%\Homegate-P2P\reticulum\config" "%TEMP%\rns_backup.txt"
install.bat
copy "%TEMP%\rns_backup.txt" "%APPDATA%\Homegate-P2P\reticulum\config"

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Ollama: connection refused

Ollama only accepts connections from 127.0.0.1 by default. Set:

OLLAMA_HOST=0.0.0.0 ollama serve

Or permanently via systemd:

sudo systemctl edit ollama
# Add:
# [Service]
# Environment="OLLAMA_HOST=0.0.0.0"
sudo systemctl restart ollama

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Web pages show garbled characters

Add <meta charset="UTF-8"> inside <head> in your HTML.

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Logs show encoding errors on Windows

Update to the latest version — homegate-p2p logs now uses errors="replace".

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Port already in use

homegate-p2p stop
homegate-p2p host --port 8081

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GUI not available

# Linux
sudo apt install python3-tk

# macOS
brew install python-tk

# Windows — reinstall Python from https://www.python.org/downloads/
# Check "tcl/tk and IDLE" during installation

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Security & privacy

• End-to-end encrypted — Reticulum encrypts all traffic before it leaves your machine
• No account, no telemetry — nothing phoning home
• No Homegate servers involved — pure P2P
• Permanent identity — your hash is derived from a local key pair at ~/.homegate-p2p/identity
• Open source — MIT licensed, fully auditable

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Compared to alternatives

	Homegate P2P	ngrok free	Cloudflare Tunnel	Tailscale
Price	Free	Free (limited)	Free	Free (limited)
UDP support	✅	❌	❌	✅
No account required	✅	❌	❌	❌
No central server	✅	❌	❌	❌
Fully self-hostable	✅	❌	❌	Partial
Public URL	❌	✅	✅	❌
Both sides need install	Yes	No	No	Yes
Game server (UDP) support	✅	❌	❌	✅
Multiplexed TCP	✅	✅	✅	✅
Open source	✅	❌	❌	Partial

Homegate P2P is best when: Both sides are technical users. You want zero dependency on any external company. You need UDP. You don't want an account.

Homegate Pro ($5/mo) is better when: You want a permanent public URL (yourname.homegate.io) so the other side connects without installing anything — just a URL, with HTTPS included.

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File locations

Path	Description
~/.homegate-p2p/config.json	App configuration (Linux/macOS)
~/.homegate-p2p/identity	Your permanent cryptographic identity (Linux/macOS)
~/.homegate-p2p/daemon.log	Daemon logs (Linux/macOS)
~/.homegate-p2p/reticulum/	Reticulum config (Linux/macOS)
%APPDATA%\Homegate-P2P\	All app files (Windows)

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License

MIT

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Contact

Built by Rafael Matias Pinera — feel free to reach out on LinkedIn for questions, feedback, or collaboration.

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Related

• Homegate Pro — managed tunnel with permanent public URL, no install for the other side
• Reticulum Network Stack — the encrypted transport layer powering this project
• NomadNet — another app built on Reticulum