Access localhost from the internet

Question

I need to forward my localhost for a short period of time for testing purposes. It has to be accessed from the public internet.

How can I achieve this?

You cannot forward your localhost any more than you as a person can "forward" your self identity to someone else. Please explain what actual functionality you are trying to accomplish. — Chris Stratton, Feb 24 '11 at 18:13
@STATUS_ACCESS_DENIED If you think a question is off topic, flag it and a moderator can move it to the right site — Dan Grossman, Feb 24 '11 at 21:39
if you don't want to use third-party software and have your own SSH server then you can use TCP tunneling with SSH for exposing the localhost. See here https://nspointers.com/programming/expose-localhost/ — Gopal Singh Sirvi, May 14 '20 at 07:13

score 288 · Answer 1 · edited May 06 '23 at 17:28

288

There are a couple of good free services that let you do the same. Ideal for showing something quickly during development/testing:

edited May 06 '23 at 17:28

double-beep

5,031
17
33
41

answered Jan 07 '14 at 17:14

Saurabh Kumar

5,576
4
21
30

4

+ https://serveo.net – Emre Jun 11 '19 at 20:45
7

Thanks! localhost.run worked for me, while localtunnel.me didn't but maybe there is an issue on my side or system. Saw the 'pricing' wording on the ngrok site so didn't try it. – Edwin Yip Jul 13 '19 at 08:31
1

Used localhost.run.. I'm able to expose port 3000 not just the specified 8080. Thanks – MadCoder May 12 '20 at 17:26
Recently learned about https://tunnelin.com which can be added to your list. Also, http://localtunnel.me/ not working anymore. – simon Jun 04 '20 at 22:05
I'm trying localhost.run but every time it generates a URL for me, I go to the URL, then in the CMD it shows closed by remote host. What am I doing wrong? – garek007 Apr 29 '21 at 16:10
don't use ngrok or similar tools https://blog.cyble.com/2021/02/15/ngrok-platform-abused-by-hackers-to-deliver-a-new-wave-of-phishing-attacks/ – sultanmyrza Apr 16 '22 at 05:57
2

Huge + for Cloudflare Tunnel option. – Amrut Prabhu May 15 '22 at 22:55
1

Hi, I wrote an article on setting a tunnel using Cloudflared. I hope it helps: https://blog.continium-labs.com/how-to-connect-to-local-development-server-from-internet/ – Brlja Jul 01 '22 at 09:23

score 35 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 24 '11 at 17:55

35

You go into your router configuration and forward port 80 to the LAN IP of the computer running the web server.

Then anyone outside your network (but not you inside the network) can access your site using your WAN IP address (whatismyipcom).

answered Feb 24 '11 at 17:55

Dan Grossman

51,866
10
112
101

3

>Then anyone outside your network (but not you inside the network) can access your site... Can you explain why please? I don't understand it, can't loopbacks be handled? – jim810 Jan 30 '12 at 14:15
6

Sorry, I'm not a network guy, I don't know why it doesn't work. – Dan Grossman Jan 31 '12 at 08:16
How can you also make it accessible inside network? – Vincent Nov 15 '13 at 22:00
1

Use the computer's LAN IP inside the network (http://192.168.x.x). – Dan Grossman Nov 15 '13 at 23:28
Setting up Port-Forwarding from my router worked for me. I thought I was going do some ssh kung-fu but it was actually quite simple from the web UI of my router. – Baron_Samedi Sep 29 '21 at 14:58
This will not be application if the user;s network is under CGNAT. – Jovylle Nov 16 '21 at 08:33
Can I do ip forward to port 80 without accessing the router configurations? – Budi Salah Nov 21 '21 at 21:11
I think this doesn't work all the time. Tunneling seems the better choice – muhammad tayyab Aug 19 '23 at 10:27

score 5 · Answer 3 · answered Feb 24 '11 at 17:52

Even though you didn't provide enough information to answer this question properly, your best shots are SSH tunnels (or reverse SSH tunnels).

You only need one SSH server on your internal or remote network to provide access to your local machine.

You can use PUTTY (it has a GUI) on Windows to create your tunnel.

score 2 · Answer 4 · edited Apr 12 '19 at 20:30

2

use your ip address or a service like noip.com if you need something more practical. Then eventually configure your router properly so incoming connection will be forwarded to the machine with the server running.

edited Apr 12 '19 at 20:30

Rabib

51
1
10

answered Feb 24 '11 at 17:59

EnricoOrs.

94
2

score -3 · Answer 5 · answered Feb 24 '11 at 17:54

-3

You are accesing localhost, meaning you have a web server running on your machine. To access it from Internet, you need to assign a public IP address to your machine. Then you can access http://<public_ip>:<port>/. Port number is normally 80.

answered Feb 24 '11 at 17:54

Barun

2,542
33
35

Yeah, but the telecoms always block port 80 for residential consumers – renanleandrof Feb 24 '11 at 17:56
Its much easier to use ngork but url is not fixed – Saqy G Feb 18 '21 at 14:40

score -13 · Answer 6 · answered Feb 24 '11 at 17:53

-13

Try with your IP Address , I think you can access it by internet.

answered Feb 24 '11 at 17:53

XMen

29,384
41
99
151

7

Most likely, his IP address will be a local network one, so behind a router and/or firewall, and not directly accessible by internet. He needs to expose his local server to the public internet over a tunnel. – Jochem Schulenklopper Apr 26 '18 at 12:43

Access localhost from the internet

6 Answers6

Linked

Related