7 ms·

Localtunnel exposes your localhost to the world for easy testing and sharing

28 points by cond289123 9y ago

neeksHN 9y ago
I must have overlooked this when I unhappily settled for ngrok -- thank you for sharing a FOSS alternative.
- juancampa 9y ago
  I'm curious, what don't you like about ngrok? Is it just that it's a paid service? You do need a server somewhere to forward connections and that normally costs money to run
  - shubb 9y ago
    Well indeed - I wonder how these folks are gonna pay for hosting once someone starts testing a video streaming site...
    - burntrelish1273 9y ago
      It would be nice if there were flattr, Patreon, Venmo, BTC/LTC donation links all over it to pay for VPS/AWS charges. (Not PayPal, F them.) It's good to ensure survival and utility of cool things such that Tragedy of the Commons doesn't spoil them.
  - neeksHN 9y ago
    Ideological reasons. I'm no Richard Stallman, but try to exclusively use FOSS software. I have made concessions for requirements at work (G Suite, Slack, Ngrok for conference calls/webhooks, etc). The source for the backend portion is also available, https://github.com/localtunnel/server https://github.com/localtunnel/server. Going to set it up shortly on my own personal box, and if it works smoothly I'll be able to present it as a self-hosted alternative to my employer.
notliketherest 9y ago
Just want to point out how easy it is to do this using SSH tunnels. ssh -nNT -R :<server port>:localhost:<local port> user@domain
- nuggien 9y ago
  that requires you to have a server to ssh to, and doesn't give you free https.
  - tomc1985 9y ago
    "Free HTTPS"? SSH encryption is your "Free HTTPS"
    - pcthrowaway 9y ago
      There's still no client-server encryption over the http leg. Someone snooping on packets can see the traffic of the person using the web-service in plaintext. HTTPS would mitigate this.
      - tomc1985 9y ago
        That's why you route your plaintext traffic it through the tunnel. ssh -L 8080:localhost:80 then go to http://localhost:8080 http://localhost:8080
        nuggien 9y ago
        How does that help you access your app from some other machine? And how does ssh help you get secure access from a remote browser to the tunneled port? The ssh security is only from the tunneled port to your local port.
        pdkl95 9y ago
        There commands above are suggesting two tunnels, appropriate for when both parties have private IP addresses behind NATing routers. This requires a rendezvous server with a publicly visible IP address, The first (with -R) forwards the listening port of the local private server to the rendezvous server: ssh -nNT -R 8080:localhost:80 rendezvous.example.com This allows connections to the private local server from processes on rendezvous.example.com which connect to their localhost:8080. This requires configuring "GatewayPorts yes" on the rendezvous server, which is disabled by default. The person you are sharing with then sets up their tunnel to using the forwarded port: ssh -L 8081:localhost:80 rendezvous.example.com (port number changed to distinguish between the endpoints) This creates a tunnel from their localhost:8081 to rendezvous.example.com:8080, which is then forwarded to port 80 on your server that you wanted to share. Both tunnels are encrypted. While traffic analysis is still possible, the tunnels also obscure the details of each request; eavesdroppers only see the tunnels as a stream of encrypted data regardless of how many GET/POST requests actually happen. If one side has a public address that can be directly accessed, the rendezvous server is not needed; just use one tunnel. The fact that we ever need a rendezvous server is part of the incredible damage IP Masquerading (private IPv4 addresses behind NAT) has done to the internet. Working around "party lines" is incredibly frustrating. If you're setting up many forwarded ports, it may be easier to use a SOCKS proxy server (ssh option -D <local_proxy_port) instead of many "ssh -L" tunnels. The other side (-R) will be the same.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
burntrelish1273 9y ago
LT is probably the best free tunnel out there. I've tried most of them free and non-free. thumbs up!

28 points by cond289123 9y ago

neeksHN 9y ago

I must have overlooked this when I unhappily settled for ngrok -- thank you for sharing a FOSS alternative.

juancampa 9y ago
I'm curious, what don't you like about ngrok? Is it just that it's a paid service? You do need a server somewhere to forward connections and that normally costs money to run
- shubb 9y ago
  Well indeed - I wonder how these folks are gonna pay for hosting once someone starts testing a video streaming site...
  - burntrelish1273 9y ago
    It would be nice if there were flattr, Patreon, Venmo, BTC/LTC donation links all over it to pay for VPS/AWS charges. (Not PayPal, F them.) It's good to ensure survival and utility of cool things such that Tragedy of the Commons doesn't spoil them.
- neeksHN 9y ago
  Ideological reasons. I'm no Richard Stallman, but try to exclusively use FOSS software. I have made concessions for requirements at work (G Suite, Slack, Ngrok for conference calls/webhooks, etc). The source for the backend portion is also available, https://github.com/localtunnel/server https://github.com/localtunnel/server. Going to set it up shortly on my own personal box, and if it works smoothly I'll be able to present it as a self-hosted alternative to my employer.

notliketherest 9y ago

Just want to point out how easy it is to do this using SSH tunnels. ssh -nNT -R :<server port>:localhost:<local port> user@domain

nuggien 9y ago
that requires you to have a server to ssh to, and doesn't give you free https.
- tomc1985 9y ago
  "Free HTTPS"? SSH encryption is your "Free HTTPS"
  - pcthrowaway 9y ago
    There's still no client-server encryption over the http leg. Someone snooping on packets can see the traffic of the person using the web-service in plaintext. HTTPS would mitigate this.
    - tomc1985 9y ago
      That's why you route your plaintext traffic it through the tunnel. ssh -L 8080:localhost:80 then go to http://localhost:8080 http://localhost:8080
      - nuggien 9y ago
        How does that help you access your app from some other machine? And how does ssh help you get secure access from a remote browser to the tunneled port? The ssh security is only from the tunneled port to your local port.
        pdkl95 9y ago
        There commands above are suggesting two tunnels, appropriate for when both parties have private IP addresses behind NATing routers. This requires a rendezvous server with a publicly visible IP address, The first (with -R) forwards the listening port of the local private server to the rendezvous server: ssh -nNT -R 8080:localhost:80 rendezvous.example.com This allows connections to the private local server from processes on rendezvous.example.com which connect to their localhost:8080. This requires configuring "GatewayPorts yes" on the rendezvous server, which is disabled by default. The person you are sharing with then sets up their tunnel to using the forwarded port: ssh -L 8081:localhost:80 rendezvous.example.com (port number changed to distinguish between the endpoints) This creates a tunnel from their localhost:8081 to rendezvous.example.com:8080, which is then forwarded to port 80 on your server that you wanted to share. Both tunnels are encrypted. While traffic analysis is still possible, the tunnels also obscure the details of each request; eavesdroppers only see the tunnels as a stream of encrypted data regardless of how many GET/POST requests actually happen. If one side has a public address that can be directly accessed, the rendezvous server is not needed; just use one tunnel. The fact that we ever need a rendezvous server is part of the incredible damage IP Masquerading (private IPv4 addresses behind NAT) has done to the internet. Working around "party lines" is incredibly frustrating. If you're setting up many forwarded ports, it may be easier to use a SOCKS proxy server (ssh option -D <local_proxy_port) instead of many "ssh -L" tunnels. The other side (-R) will be the same.

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

burntrelish1273 9y ago

LT is probably the best free tunnel out there. I've tried most of them free and non-free. thumbs up!