Expose local web server to internet using ngrok

Posted By : Yasir Zuberi | 31-Dec-2015

ngrok

NgRok

Hi everyone, I came across this amazing tool called ngrok which allows to create secure tunnel to local host very conveniently.

ngrok allows you to create a tunnel from the public internet to your local host.

ngrok is tool which creates a secure tunnel to local host with public URL which you can use for browsing your local site. Basically it provides a publicly accessible IP address and domain name to your localhost server.

It's very simple to setup setup ngrok

Simply download zip from https://ngrok.com/download
Unzip it

How to use ngrok

Let's say your application is running at port 8080. In terminal you just need to type ngrok http 8080, it will enable ngrok listen on port 8080 and creates secure tunnel.

In above image you may find two forwarding URL's. http://2574a988.ngrok.io and https://2574a988.ngrok.io When you hit those URL's in your web browser it will point to your localhost:8080

if you opt to sign-up, you will be able to use custom subdomains. You may define custom subdomains like http://your-domain-name.ngrok.io

Hope this helps.

Thanks