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Ngrok: Secure tunnels to localhost

ngrok.com

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Re: Ngrok: Secure tunnels to localhost

#121

Post by wgyn »

avh02 wrote: post #88
nevi-me wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you don't have a static IP that's internet-accessible, and that which you can arbitrarily point your domain to, how would you go about doing this? Some, if not most, services won't allow you to redirect cold to an IP address, they want some domain of sorts. There are alternatives, but I think "setup a proper dev environment" alone misses the point of what ngrok does. The 'easiest' alternative I've tried before was…

i tend to fire up reverse port forwarding with ssh + special subdomain + ask nginx to proxy to the reverse-forwarded port on that special subdomain to resolve this, obviously you'd still need a static and public ip somewhere, but any ssh-accessible host will now do. it's a bit of setup, but works quite well once set. does _not_ provide the features ngrok does of replay, etc, but at least it's 100% your own infrastruc…

> but at least it's 100% your own infrastructure

This is probably a good thing for security. But for the use case of development against third party services, it seems like an unnecessary constraint.

Re: Ngrok: Secure tunnels to localhost

#122

Post by [deleted] »

avh02 wrote: post #88
nevi-me wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you don't have a static IP that's internet-accessible, and that which you can arbitrarily point your domain to, how would you go about doing this? Some, if not most, services won't allow you to redirect cold to an IP address, they want some domain of sorts. There are alternatives, but I think "setup a proper dev environment" alone misses the point of what ngrok does. The 'easiest' alternative I've tried before was…

i tend to fire up reverse port forwarding with ssh + special subdomain + ask nginx to proxy to the reverse-forwarded port on that special subdomain to resolve this, obviously you'd still need a static and public ip somewhere, but any ssh-accessible host will now do. it's a bit of setup, but works quite well once set. does _not_ provide the features ngrok does of replay, etc, but at least it's 100% your own infrastruc…

[deleted]

Re: Ngrok: Secure tunnels to localhost

#123

Post by hueving »

ayb wrote: post #96
jeremejevs wrote: post #45

Nice tool, but without committing for annual billing (which I don't intend to do, not for the first year of usage) it's $10 a month. My internet connection, my mobile plan, my Photoshop & Lightroom subscription, a huge collection of music (Spotify), 3K~5K movies and TV shows (Netflix), etc., all cost approximately the same. I mean, sure, $120 a year is pocket change for somebody using Ngrok professionally, but that's…

Not sure it's fair for you to compare a small SaaS business to Netflix in terms of pricing. People have bills to pay. I used the free plan for a while but having a reserved subdomain is pretty sweet. And the cost for a whole year of it is fairly small in my opinion.

People having bills is irrelevant to consumers. If your product pricing relies on pitching a sob story about how you're a small indy developer, you've failed.

Re: Ngrok: Secure tunnels to localhost

#124

Post by jdeb »

inconshreveable wrote: post #24
ghayes wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can IPv6 address help address this issue in some circumstances?

Certainly, although even with complete adoption of ipv6, i suspect we'll still see most networks locked down to prevent incoming connections

It will definitely be interesting to see how public internet providers (airports, coffee shops, etc) handle IPv6 in the future. Will they leave their LAN_IN firewall open and leave filtering to the client, or will we keep the status quo and filter at the router?

Re: Ngrok: Secure tunnels to localhost

#125

Post by hueving »

shimo5037 wrote: post #89
bigbugbag wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is the point of ngrok besides being a paid for third party single point of failure and security liability ? The website says it is for exposing a local server behind nat or firewall to the internet. 1. local server is by definition supposed not to be exposed to the internet 2. to expose a server behind a NAT there's this thing called port forwarding 3. to expose a server behind a firewall there's this thing call…

I don't think you're the target audience. Think of a front end developer working on a mobile site. Now, in an ideal world everyone would know how to set up an SSH tunnel, but let's be real here, even you probably have to look up the exact flags you're supposed to use every time you want to set up one. Combine this with the need for a publicly accessible server somewhere, and it should become somewhat clear that many…

Is the justification really "ssh flags are hard to remember"?

Re: Ngrok: Secure tunnels to localhost

#127

Post by mgkimsal »

untog wrote: post #116
tjoff wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Um, just signing up for ngrok - 10 times more effort than port forwarding. Then you have to learn how to ngrok. And thats that's before actually figuring out what ngrok really is, how sensible it is to route data through a third party etc. etc. etc. For people without public IPs - why not just learn how to setup an SSH tunnel instead? Similar effort , save it as a script. Boom, you actually learned something useful t…

"learn how to ngrok" "figuring out what ngrok really is" ...really? You're trying very, very hard to dislike this tool and it's kind of funny. What is the objection to it, exactly? It makes a task easier. You don't have to use it, but others can. If you're proposing SSH tunnels as an alternative, where am I SSHing to? I need a publicly accessible remote box. So I'll need to set that up, then set up an SSH tunnel. Or,…

Apparently, the gp simply believes that "port forwarding" is the be-all/end-all, and anything else is inferior.

I've used ngrok because it was something that I could generally count on other people being able to install. I can't always be sure they understand how to do some of the more advanced stuff being suggested in this thread (they may not have permissions, or time, or technical knowhow).

Re: Ngrok: Secure tunnels to localhost

#128

Post by tjoff »

untog wrote: post #116
tjoff wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Um, just signing up for ngrok - 10 times more effort than port forwarding. Then you have to learn how to ngrok. And thats that's before actually figuring out what ngrok really is, how sensible it is to route data through a third party etc. etc. etc. For people without public IPs - why not just learn how to setup an SSH tunnel instead? Similar effort , save it as a script. Boom, you actually learned something useful t…

"learn how to ngrok" "figuring out what ngrok really is" ...really? You're trying very, very hard to dislike this tool and it's kind of funny. What is the objection to it, exactly? It makes a task easier. You don't have to use it, but others can. If you're proposing SSH tunnels as an alternative, where am I SSHing to? I need a publicly accessible remote box. So I'll need to set that up, then set up an SSH tunnel. Or,…

I don't dislike it, at all. People seem to like it and I have no reason to distrust that. And if you really don't have any box to SSH to and can't see any use of a VPS other than an SSH tunnel then fine - ngrok is probably great.

But... If the only reason you do this is because you haven't got a clue about what dynamic DNS is, as many here seems to do, or you feel that setting up a SSH tunnel is complicated then I'm going to assume that you have no clue about the security implications of using something such as ngrok (or an SSH tunnel) to your local machine - and should probably not under any circumstances be allowed to set one up at your office.

That assumption might be wrong, but the discussions here only reinforce my belief that the niche for this (perhaps excellent) tool should be extremely small even within the HN audience. And that it isn't (currently at the top of the front page) is quite concerning. It solves a very small problem that I can solve with tools I (and most people on HN) already have installed - without going through someone else's cloud. Without registering for yet another service (bad or good, doesn't matter).

I'm questioning that there is a need for this among the HN audience. And I'm questioning that most people that have a need for it should be allowed to use it. Whether the tool is awesome or not is besides the point.

Re: Ngrok: Secure tunnels to localhost

#129

Post by ausjke »

Never used it, what's the difference between ngrok and using DMZ with port-forwarding? are they the same thing? What's the technical advantage other than it is easy to use? I can port-forwarding easily on my router to expose whatever port to the public, why do I need ngrok?

With a DDNS + Port-forwarding you can easily have what Ngrok provides? or am I missing something?

Re: Ngrok: Secure tunnels to localhost

#130

Post by sb8244 »

amjd wrote: post #117
greg5green wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can use ngrok without paying, you just get weird domains like n56897as.ngrok.com (this is off the top of my head, idk how close I got to a real one). This works fine most of the time.

Custom subdomains are available for non-paying users too. You just need to create a free account.

That isn't true for ngrok2. Ngrok 1 allowed for this but has been sunset.
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