Pro: 1Gb upload and download speeds on free Internet provided by the HOA. Con: As a self hoster, I have zero control over it. No port forwarding, no DMZ, no bridge mode. It’s Starbucks free WiFi with a wired connection.
Option A: Buy Google Fiber and don’t use free Internet. Option B: Create some elaborate tunnel through a VPS.
My public self hosted activities are fairly low bandwidth (password manager, SSH). I have a vague idea that I could point my domain to a low cost VPS that has a VPN tunnel into my home network for any incoming connection needs. That may require me to fill in port forwards on both systems but whatever. Tailscale is serving most of my remote needs but I still need a few ports. This does not fix the issue of online gaming port forwards (Nintendo Switch online requires a huge forwarded range for best performance) but oh well for now.
UPDATE: I think they’re using this system. https://www.cambiumnetworks.com/markets/multi-family-living/ The personal Wi-Fi overview makes it clear each AP is given it’s own VLAN which sounds a whole lot like the whole building is sharing one IP and there’s no way I’m going to get my own Internet access. They even detail how you can roam the building and maintain your WiFi connection across your neighbor’s and the common areas APs. This is the IPV4 future.
why get a low cost vps to route the traffic through when you can just run the app on the vps?
It depends on the app. Yes, I could run my password manager on the VPS since that takes up virtually no space or bandwidth. The odd IP camera needs to be local, the Minecraft server with mods needs local CPU power and RAM (presumably).
Storage size, privacy, security, operating cost…I can think of several reasons. I use a cheap vps to help me route traffic to my ebook server, and I don’t have to pay for extra storage on the vps to hold all my comic books, which can be quite large when scanned in HD.