Using Syncthing from a remote server.

[WinnerWind]

Hi!
I have a instance of syncthing running at lets say {MYDOMAIN}/syncthing/. I cannot access its IP address directly. Only port 443 is open to the outside world. It's also guarded using HTTP Basic Auth & Syncthing's username and password but I can disable it if needed.

I tried to set the Syncthing URL to both https://{MYDOMAIN}/syncthing/ and also https://{MYDOMAIN}/syncthing:443/, set the correct API key and I even downloaded the HTTPS certificate using openssl from my laptop. However, even after supplying HTTP basic auth credentials in the Advanced tab and even by trying to disable it, it simply shows disconnected.

How can I connect to a remote web server from a URL?

EDIT:
Here's my NGINX configuration. SSL is handled by Cloudflare in my case.

                location /syncthing/ {
                  proxy_set_header        Host $host;
                  proxy_set_header        X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
                  proxy_set_header        X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
                  proxy_set_header        X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;

                  proxy_pass              http://localhost:8384/;

                  proxy_read_timeout      600s;
                  proxy_send_timeout      600s;
                }

[Martchus]

That use case is supported and works for me with a very similar setup. What error are you getting? If you disabled notifications for errors you can still access them from the right-click menu on the tray icon.

What platform are you running Syncthing Tray on? Maybe it makes sense to file a bug report filling out all the fields in the issue template.

[WinnerWind]

I don't get any error actually, because I'm using the disconnect button in the configuration tab.

I'm running it on Arch Linux. I installed the package aur/syncthingtray-qt6.

[Martchus]

It doesn't matter whether you use the "Re-connect" button in the configurations tab. You should see a clear error message.

I've just tested this again with my server setup (after not having it tested for a while) and everything worked. When I mistyped the password or API key I got a clear error message. With the correct password (in accordance with what's configured in NGINX) and the correct API key (in accordance with what's configured in Syncthing) everything worked.

[Martchus]

The 2nd URL has the port number in the wrong place but you shouldn't need to specify it anyway as it is standard.

[WinnerWind]

Oop, i ended up finding the solution myself. Turns out that my NGINX configuration was borked. The correct configuration to use is:

         location /syncthing/ {
                  auth_basic off;
                  proxy_set_header        Host $host;
                  proxy_set_header        X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
                  proxy_set_header        X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
                  proxy_set_header        X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
                  proxy_http_version 1.1;
                  proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
                  proxy_set_header Connection "upgrade";
                  proxy_buffering off;

                  proxy_pass              http://localhost:8384/;

                  proxy_read_timeout      600s;
                  proxy_send_timeout      600s;
                }

Otherwise some headers get garbled and sockets wont connect. I didnt need to specify a username and password and a port was optional too. Just API key and URL

[WinnerWind]

Hi!
I put in my Username and Password for my HTTP basic auth, enabled http basic auth from nginx and it now complains that the host requires authentication. I have made sure to apply and reconnect.

EDIT: Could this be about invalid characters? My password contains MANY non ascii characters.

[Martchus]

I would expect it to work with non-ASCII characters but I've never tested it. You could easily test this hypothesis yourself by temporarily configuring an ASCII-only password. If it then still doesn't work I don't know as it works for me. Note that the Syncthing API key is required in any case - even if Syncthing itself is not configured to require a user/password.

[WinnerWind]

I tested the hypothesis you mentioned. I made a basic HTPasswd user with a completely ASCII compliant password and indeed, the HTTP Basic Auth failed too. It isnt an issue with the password itself.

Odd that it still doesn't connect.

Could this be a bug?
and yes, NGINX has basic auth on. I tested this from my browser. Sometimes I get a error stating that the host requires authentication but most times I dont eevn get an error.

[Martchus]

It probably is a bug. I cannot reproduce it so there's also probably not much I can do about it, though.

That you only sometimes get an error is also probably a bug but again, I cannot reproduce it. (In my tests with misconfigurations I always got an error.)

[WinnerWind]

Probably an issue with syncthingtray-qt6. Can't reproduce anything reliably lol.

Thanks!