[tomschlick]

Yeah iPhone user here so thats probably a no go.

I've considered just creating a VPN back to my gigabit connection at home (running R715 in a homelab rack) but not super keen about the data making a round trip back home first, especially when travelling.

[nawtacawp]

R715 might be a bit overkill. I use a RPI with docker. One container with vpn server and one container with pi hole. The pi hole container is not accessible outside the local LAN. The VPN server is configured to use it as a DNS server. I use iOS devices and just use the on demand function for cellular/WiFi VPN (always on). I have an iPhone X and I don’t notice a degraded user experience in regards to the battery.

   13:20:52 up 10:57,  1 user,  load average: 0.00, 0.03, 0.00

I just restarted it 11 hours ago, but the load is never high for the two containers. Currently free -m is reporting 114/927 used

[tomschlick]

It's not bare metal, I have Xen Server running with quite a few VMs so PiHole is just a small chunk.

[voltagex_]

Heh, if you're using global roaming on your SIM, the data is making a round trip anyway.

[oarsinsync]

Definitely not. Simple services like ipchicken.com will show you're using an IP address local to the roaming provider that you're using. If you're travelling far enough, you can try accessing local services vs home-country-services and compare loading times. Or better still, just ping various services that are local or in your home and compare the actual latencies.

[voltagex_]

That doesn't match my experience - while I was using Vodafone Germany in France, my IP was German. Someone else on EE had a UK IP.

[oarsinsync]

I guess then that it depends on the local carrier, roaming carrier, and the carrier agreements in place. Probably not safe to say one or the other always happens definitively.