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The fast, reliable way to make localhost part of the Web

pagekite.net

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Re: The fast, reliable way to make localhost part of the Web

#22
post #21
post #2

Founder of PageKite here. I'm more than happy to answer any questions folks may have. :-)

why can't I pip install this? It's a Python package after all...

Honestly, because I haven't yet taken the time to figure out how. Mostly that is because I have the feeling pip is more intended towards libraries and things used while programming python. Pagekite is not really a library (yet), it is more of a system utility, so integrating with the OS (rpm/deb and such things) seemed far more important.

Re: The fast, reliable way to make localhost part of the Web

#23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Further to bensummer's link, packages allow a package manager to manage the software. Update, delete etc is all taken care of. It also concerns me that the author of security conscious software isn't concerned by this.

I take security quite seriously, but I disagree with how you have evaluated the risk from this particular technique. That said, I do consider this to be a temporary measure while the software is maturing to the point that I can get it accepted into the mainstream distros and build proper win/mac packages. That would be better for everyone, both from a usability and security standpoint. We are a very small team (usual…

Why wait on it to be accepted by the distros? What is stopping you from setting up a small Yum/Apt repo and publishing your GPG key?

Re: The fast, reliable way to make localhost part of the Web

#24
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I get that alot. But this is actually easier to audit than install.exe or the shell scripts embedded in a .deb or .rpm (which, incidentally, also run as root). It looks scary, but it really isn't. Or rather, it's no scarier than most of the other ways to add software to the common desktop operating systems. Edit: and for those who care, there are .rpm and .deb packages available, or you can grab the source from githu…

Obligatory link to "| sudo bash" HN comment: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2427492

I believe that in most common distributions, both curl and wget will be supplied with ca-certificates out of the box.

e.g

> $ dig +short ssl.example.com

> 123.456.789.012

> $ curl -I https://123.456.789.012/foo.bar

> curl: (51) SSL: certificate subject name 'ssl.example.com' > does not match target host name '123.456.789.012'

Besides that, he makes several good points which I think should speak for themselves.

Re: The fast, reliable way to make localhost part of the Web

#25
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I take security quite seriously, but I disagree with how you have evaluated the risk from this particular technique. That said, I do consider this to be a temporary measure while the software is maturing to the point that I can get it accepted into the mainstream distros and build proper win/mac packages. That would be better for everyone, both from a usability and security standpoint. We are a very small team (usual…

Why wait on it to be accepted by the distros? What is stopping you from setting up a small Yum/Apt repo and publishing your GPG key?

You mean like this? :-)

https://pagekite.net/wiki/Howto/GNULinux/DebianPackage/ https://pagekite.net/wiki/Howto/GNULinux/RpmPackage/

... this works and is the most conveninient way to use PageKite if you are treating it as part of the OS (so always on, exposing local servers).

However, in the context of security and trust, you really should think thrice before installing 3rd party repos like mine - once you have added my repo to your OS, I can upgrade any package on your computer with whatever malicious content I want. So folks who don't trust me and my curl-bash hack really shouldn't trust this sort of solution either.

This is why getting third parties to build, package and sign my software and getting into the public repos is the "correct" solution, but doing so didn't make sense while I was rapidly iterating. Things are starting to stabalize now, so I will probably be revisiting this very soon.

Re: The fast, reliable way to make localhost part of the Web

#26
Pretty much every developer got access to web server. Why not just use ssh tunnels? ssh -f -N -q -R 123:localhost:80 login@remote.example.com

The only difference is that your website will be on different port, e.g. remote.example.com:123

For me it is much easier to setup, cost 0$ vs. >= 4$ / month. I do not have to trust someone to run some random code with root privileges...

Am I missing something? The number of website which offer something that substitute ssh tunnel is astonishing.

Anyway, there is also free version by twilio: http://progrium.com/localtunnel/

Re: The fast, reliable way to make localhost part of the Web

#27

Pretty much every developer got access to web server. Why not just use ssh tunnels? ssh -f -N -q -R 123:localhost:80 login@remote.example.com The only difference is that your website will be on different port, e.g. remote.example.com:123 For me it is much easier to setup, cost 0$ vs. >= 4$ / month. I do not have to trust someone to run some random code with root privileges... Am I missing something? The number of web…

Yes, for a developer, there are many ways to do this.

PageKite aims to be more reliable, fast and convenient. It also provides niceties like preconfigured SSL certificates and automatic DNS subdomain provisioning and is smart about reconnecting and adapting to changes in the network environment.

The downside is, to reap those benefits you have to learn to use a new tool. :-)

Edit: Also, you've got our pricing wrong. We ask for $3/month, but you can go even lower if you are a hobbyist or buy a group subscription and get a bulk discount.

Re: The fast, reliable way to make localhost part of the Web

#28
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I get that alot. But this is actually easier to audit than install.exe or the shell scripts embedded in a .deb or .rpm (which, incidentally, also run as root). It looks scary, but it really isn't. Or rather, it's no scarier than most of the other ways to add software to the common desktop operating systems. Edit: and for those who care, there are .rpm and .deb packages available, or you can grab the source from githu…

Obligatory link to "| sudo bash" HN comment: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2427492

Sounds like most of those would be solved by putting it up on github so you'd git clone the bash repo then execute it.

Re: The fast, reliable way to make localhost part of the Web

#29
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

why can't I pip install this? It's a Python package after all...

Honestly, because I haven't yet taken the time to figure out how. Mostly that is because I have the feeling pip is more intended towards libraries and things used while programming python. Pagekite is not really a library (yet), it is more of a system utility, so integrating with the OS (rpm/deb and such things) seemed far more important.

Pip is by no means exclusive to libraries. See https://github.com/jkbr/httpie for an example of a CLI app that's distributed through both pip and easy_install.

This guide might be helpful for you: http://guide.python-distribute.org/creation.html

Also, nice work. I've used localtunnel up till now. You've definitely added more features than they have, so I'll be following this closely.

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