Implementing Zero Trust Security at Home—Part 1: Introduction to Zero Trust Networking and NetBird Link to heading

In recent years, many technology enthusiasts, privacy advocates, and everyday home users have turned towards self-hosting their online services—such as email, photo storage, file-sharing, and even media streaming. Hosting your own services at home gives you more privacy and total control over your data—advantages that cloud solutions often can’t match.

However, hosting your own services comes with security challenges and privacy risks. Most home internet connections aren’t designed initially for secure remote access, so many people default to methods such as exposing ports directly or using outdated VPN setups. These approaches can unintentionally open doors for attackers, placing your personal data potentially at risk.

Does that mean you should give up self-hosting? Absolutely not.

There’s a better way—a modern security practice called Zero Trust Networking. In this series, I’ll introduce you to an open-source tool I’ve started using at home called NetBird, and I’ll guide you step-by-step through enhancing the safety of your home network and hosted services.

Why Traditional Home Networks Aren’t Secure Enough Link to heading

Typically, people hosting their own services at home use one of these methods for remote access:

  • Exposing services using router-based port-forwarding.
  • Setting up simple, traditional VPNs.

Both methods can leave your home network vulnerable. Openly exposed ports increase the risk of being targeted by attackers via automated scans or exploits. Traditional VPN setups, while better than exposed ports, sometimes have outdated security protocols, overly broad access (i.e., once someone connects, they can access too much), or tedious configuration hurdles that discourage regular updates and audits.

The Zero Trust Networking Philosophy Link to heading

“Never Trust, Always Verify” is the cornerstone of Zero Trust Networking. Instead of automatically trusting devices and users once they enter a network (like traditional VPNs), Zero Trust Networking ensures continuous rigorous authentication and authorization for every single connection.

Zero Trust Networking operates on key principles:

  • Continuous authentication: Every access attempt is regularly authenticated, regardless of being “inside” or “outside” the network.
  • Least-privilege principle: Users and devices receive the absolute minimum level of access they need to function—no more risk of overly broad access.
  • Contextual access control: Policies are applied based on identity, device risk, location, and time, ensuring access to sensitive services is controlled carefully.

Meet NetBird—Easy, Secure, Zero Trust Networking at Home Link to heading

My tool of choice for bringing Zero Trust Networking into the home environment is an open-source project named NetBird.

NetBird combines the security advantages of the WireGuard VPN protocol with a user-friendly experience, making it simple to securely manage a home-based network. Here’s why NetBird stands out:

  • WireGuard-based: Offers modern VPN features including strong encryption, high performance, and low overhead.
  • Simple NAT traversal: Devices remain reachable even behind home routers with minimal configuration.
  • Centralized policy management: Easily enforce security policies like who can access particular services and under what conditions.
  • Peer-to-peer: Devices connect directly when possible, reducing latency and improving reliability.
  • Open-source & transparent: NetBird is publicly auditable, trusted, freely available, and actively maintained.

About This Blog Series Link to heading

Over the next few blog posts, I’ll guide you through each step to build your own secure, robust, and simple-to-manage home network using NetBird:

  • Part 2: “Setting Up Your Own NetBird Network at Home” walks you step-by-step from installation to basic connectivity.
  • Part 3: “Implementing Zero Trust Policies with NetBird” will take you through creating effective, fine-grained access rules for each service on your network.
  • Part 4: “Secure Remote Access to Services” shows you practically how easily and securely your services can be accessed on-the-go.
  • Part 5: “Monitoring & Maintenance with NetBird” covers maintenance tasks, updating, keeping track of who accesses your network, and troubleshooting common problems.
  • Part 6: “Real-World Improvements & Lessons Learned” wraps up the series with reflections, improvements, and tips from my personal setup and usage.

Getting Started—What’s Next? Link to heading

In the next post, we’ll begin the practical journey of Zero Trust networking, starting with setting up NetBird in your home environment. Together, we’ll go step-by-step, enabling your home-hosted services to benefit from NetBird’s simplicity and rigorous security.

Stay tuned, bookmark this blog, and make sure to follow along as we secure your home network with NetBird!