socket-tunnel

Tunnel HTTP connections via socket.io streams. Inspired by localtunnel.

Blog Post

Server Usage

Clone this repo and cd into it
Update the Docker file to add a password to the command line (see notes below)
docker build -t socket-tunnel .
docker run -d -p 80:3000 --restart=always --name st-server socket-tunnel
Get a domain name (i.e. YOURDOMAIN.com)
Point your domain name's root A record at your server's IP
Point a wildcard (*) A record at your server's IP

Note : if you are hosting on a subdomain, you will need to start the server with the --subdomain option. For instance if you are using tunnel.example.com the option will be --subdomain tunnel and the tunnels created will be sudomains of tunnel.example.com.

To do so, replace the following line in the Dockerfile:

CMD [ "node", "bin/server" ]

CMD [ "node", "bin/server", "--subdomain", "tunnel" ]

Even if you are not using a subdomain, you will need to modify the Dockerfile to add the option --password to protect your server instance :

CMD [ "node", "bin/server", "--password", "pony-excelsior-virtuoso"]

Client CLI Usage

Start your http server that you'd like to expose to the public web (in this example we'll assume it's listening on 127.0.0.1:8000)
Clone this repo and cd into it
npm i
node bin/client --server http://YOURDOMAIN.com --subdomain YOURSUBDOMAIN --hostname 127.0.0.1 --port 8000 --pwd pony-excelsior-virtuoso
Browse to http://YOURSUBDOMAIN.YOURDOMAIN.com to see your local service available on the public internet

Client API Usage

Assuming a web server running on 127.0.0.1:8000

Clone this repo into your project
npm i
In your project file, require the socket-tunnel api and call connect():

const socketTunnel = require('./socket-tunnel/lib/api');

socketTunnel.connect('http://YOURDOMAIN.com', 'YOURSUBDOMAIN', '8000')
  .then(console.log)
  .catch(console.log);

Browse to http://YOURSUBDOMAIN.YOURDOMAIN.com to see your local service available on the public internet

Client API Parameters

socketTunnel.connect(remoteServer, desiredSubdomain, localPort, localHostname) returns a promise which resolves to the requested URL/subdomain.

Property	Default	Description
remoteServer	n/a	IP address or hostname of the socket-tunnel server
desiredSubdomain	n/a	Subdomain to request for this client
localPort	n/a	Local port to tunnel to
localHostname	'127.0.0.1'	Local host to tunnel to

Credits

Created by Eric Barch. Additional code provided by these generous contributors.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details

Braincoke/socket-tunnel