I truly love what Unraid did with VPN some time ago by embedding Wireguard into it.  It has made getting back to Unraid and other local home network items so much easier.  However, I've only ever used it when I need to get back to those local items.  I've switched it off otherwise.  I know for most VPN products they say you should stay logged into it all the time.  I guess it basically protects the network traffic from "prying eyes."  But it seems to me Wireguard with Unraid is a little different since it is sitting on our server.  So, what makes the most sense here?  Do most people stay logged in to Wireguard?  Is there any downside for doing so?  In my specific case I have a personal mobile device the I use for work and work has put all kinds of policies on it.  Not that I would ever give them a reason to do so, but they could wipe the device clean remotely if they wanted to.  

The local VPN is for local access, the only 'prying eyes' would be yours. If you want general online privacy, you'll need an external provider to shield internet traffic.

7 hours ago, Michael_P said:

The local VPN is for local access, the only 'prying eyes' would be yours. If you want general online privacy, you'll need an external provider to shield internet traffic.

Sorry, but this response only furthers my confusion.  I thought at first you were saying that the Wireguard VPN simply provides a tunnel back to your local network resources, like the Unraid page, but I noticed that it seems to provide more than that.  For example, my work blocks GMAIL on mobile devices (while on their network) and on their computers.  However, with Wireguard enabled on my mobile device I can access GMAIL just fine.  I know I must be missing something because this feels like it is accomplishing the same thing an external VPN provider would.

14 hours ago, JP said:

I thought at first you were saying that the Wireguard VPN simply provides a tunnel back to your local network

 

That's precisely what it's doing

 

15 hours ago, JP said:

However, with Wireguard enabled on my mobile device I can access GMAIL just fine.

 

Because all of your traffic while the VPN is connected is going through the VPN and back out to the internet at large through your home connection. If you are trying to keep your mobile traffic obscured from your mobile ISP, or your work's network in the case you've described above, then job done - but your home ISP will still see the traffic. You'll need an external provider to mask it.

Thank you.  I think I follow now.  "Think" being the operative word.   So, the tunnel back to Unraid masks all the data to it, but from there it is pretty much no different than if I was connected to my home network, in my home, because anything I call on from there is essentially unmasked out to the internet.

 

If that does seem accurate, I guess I'm still curious about my original question.  That is, is there any downside to simply using Unraid's Wireguard VPN all the time?  Do some people do this?  And if some do not, is there any reason why?  

21 hours ago, JP said:

That is, is there any downside to simply using Unraid's Wireguard VPN all the time?

 

Nope, use it as much as you like. I use pfsense and openvpn but it's same concept, so I can block ads on my mobile while out and about

21 hours ago, JP said:

And if some do not, is there any reason why?  

 

I should mention, if you're using it at work, on a work device, to bypass their internal restrictions - it would be frowned upon