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Tor/onion hidden services are under-appreciated here and a good fit for potentially replacing ngrok: https://community.torproject.org/onion-services/setup/ http

Tor/onion hidden services are under-appreciated here and a good fit for potentially replacing ngrok: https://community.torproject.org/onion-services/setup/ https://community.torproject.org/onion-services/setup/ You need to run a tor daemon on the server side and then a tor browser or tor on the client side, but other than that there is no other setup or intermediary service/server necessary. This solves a lot of pain that many ngrok alternatives still require you to run (or pay for using) some central hub server, have a public IP & DNS, etc.

anderspitman 5y ago
I've been meaning to add Tor to the list. PRs welcome.
- madacol 5y ago
  I made a little write up on how to setup onion services for ssh https://github.com/madacol/knowledge/blob/master/Ssh%20server%20as%20a%20Tor%20onion%20service.md https://github.com/madacol/knowledge/blob/master/Ssh%20serve... Just follow the first part, and change the port to whatever you are using You always need a compatible client on the other side
judge2020 5y ago
The client part is exactly why people might use ngrok to get a public hostname - the number 1 priority is access to an internal resource from anywhere in the world with minimal setup, and that ngrok/other mediator means nobody needs any inbound ports open besides via loopback on the host.
- qbasic_forever 5y ago
  Yeah it depends--I use ngrok (or similar services) for access to internal stuff I run. I don't want to pay money to run a VPS in the cloud when I have a NAS, etc. running it at home. But I also don't want to pay a premium for a public IP at home, and deal with the immense security headache of securing such an entrypoint from the public internet. So a tor hidden service works great as a no cost VPN-like alternative. But yeah if your goal is "expose this thing with a public IP/DNS" then there is no way around using your own server, or buying/leeching off a service like ngrok. You don't need any incoming ports open for a tor hidden service either though. Both the server and client side connect out to tor, and then get routed to each other over it.
cmars 5y ago
I made a little utility for tunneling with the Tor daemon. Check out https://github.com/cmars/onionpipe https://github.com/cmars/onionpipe. onionpipe forwards ports on the local host to remote Onion addresses as Tor hidden services and vice-versa.
controversial97 5y ago
If things that require client side software other than a standard browser count, then there is the Yagdrasil network and Hamachi.

anderspitman 5y ago

I've been meaning to add Tor to the list. PRs welcome.

madacol 5y ago
I made a little write up on how to setup onion services for ssh https://github.com/madacol/knowledge/blob/master/Ssh%20server%20as%20a%20Tor%20onion%20service.md https://github.com/madacol/knowledge/blob/master/Ssh%20serve... Just follow the first part, and change the port to whatever you are using You always need a compatible client on the other side

judge2020 5y ago

The client part is exactly why people might use ngrok to get a public hostname - the number 1 priority is access to an internal resource from anywhere in the world with minimal setup, and that ngrok/other mediator means nobody needs any inbound ports open besides via loopback on the host.

qbasic_forever 5y ago
Yeah it depends--I use ngrok (or similar services) for access to internal stuff I run. I don't want to pay money to run a VPS in the cloud when I have a NAS, etc. running it at home. But I also don't want to pay a premium for a public IP at home, and deal with the immense security headache of securing such an entrypoint from the public internet. So a tor hidden service works great as a no cost VPN-like alternative. But yeah if your goal is "expose this thing with a public IP/DNS" then there is no way around using your own server, or buying/leeching off a service like ngrok. You don't need any incoming ports open for a tor hidden service either though. Both the server and client side connect out to tor, and then get routed to each other over it.

cmars 5y ago

I made a little utility for tunneling with the Tor daemon. Check out https://github.com/cmars/onionpipe https://github.com/cmars/onionpipe. onionpipe forwards ports on the local host to remote Onion addresses as Tor hidden services and vice-versa.

controversial97 5y ago

If things that require client side software other than a standard browser count, then there is the Yagdrasil network and Hamachi.