Secure Your Home Assistant Installation With a Free SSL Certificate
Available for Windows, macOS, and Linux systems (including Raspberry Pi), the open-source Home Assistant software acts as a central hub for controlling all your smart devices for all your home automation needs.
If you want to access your Home Assistant server remotely, whether using DDNS or Cloudflare Tunnel, you must encrypt the source with an SSL/TLS certificate. Fortunately, you can use the free Lets Encrypt add-on to generate and configure the SSL/TLS certificate on Home Assistant and add it to your server.
Methods to Install SSL/TLS Certificate on Home Assistant
Let’s Encrypt is a popular way of setting up free SSL/TLS on websites. We can also use Let’s Encrypt to secure our Home Assistant server by following either of the following methods:
- HTTP Challenge: In this method, you use the free DDNS service and set up port forwarding (port 80) on your router.
- DNS Challenge: In this method, you register a free or paid domain and use a secure Cloudflare Tunnel. You don’t need to open any ports on your router and thus, it’s more secure.
Besides, the HTTP challenge method is much lengthier and more complex. The DNS challenge method with a secure Cloudflare Tunnel is easier to follow and deploy.
Thus, for this guide we will use Cloudflare and Let’s Encrypt to secure our Home Assistant instance and access it remotely over an HTTPS connection. However, if you still want to go with the DDNS method, follow the official Home Assistant guide.
Read More: Secure Your Home Assistant Installation With a Free SSL Certificate – MakeUseOf
