[Web Hooks] Localtunnel -- tool for making local web servers public

[Jeff Lindsay]

http://github.com/progrium/localtunnel

I figure this would be pretty useful in the context of webhooks because when you hand a service a webhook, you might need the quick iteratability of local development, but you can't give a URL of something running locally. Unless you set up a remote forward with SSH and all this stuff... it's a lot of work and is a bit complicated. So this program simplifies that and gives you a public URL that tunnels to a local port. 

$ localtunnel 8080

Port 8080 is now publicly accessible from http://8bv2.localtunnel.com ... 

--
Jeff Lindsay
http://progrium.com

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[Hedge Hog]

On Sun, May 9, 2010 at 6:24 PM, Jeff Lindsay <prog...@gmail.com> wrote:
> http://github.com/progrium/localtunnel
> I figure this would be pretty useful in the context of webhooks because when
> you hand a service a webhook, you might need the quick iteratability of
> local development, but you can't give a URL of something running locally.
> Unless you set up a remote forward with SSH and all this stuff... it's a lot
> of work and is a bit complicated. So this program simplifies that and gives
> you a public URL that tunnels to a local port.
> $ localtunnel 8080
> Port 8080 is now publicly accessible from http://8bv2.localtunnel.com ...
>

I'm not sure if the approach of these alternatives do/do not allow you
to do anything differently?:
42foo.com
http://www.jorgebernal.info/technology/open-source-technology/42foo-virtual-hosts-web-development

and smackaho.st
http://tbaggery.com/2010/03/04/smack-a-ho-st.html

Best wishes

> --
> Jeff Lindsay
> http://progrium.com
>
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--
πόλλ' οἶδ ἀλώπηξ, ἀλλ' ἐχῖνος ἓν μέγα
[The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.]
Archilochus, Greek poet (c. 680 BC – c. 645 BC)
http://wiki.hedgehogshiatus.com

[Jeff Lindsay]

I wouldn't call them alternatives since they do something completely different...

[Hedge Hog]

On Mon, May 10, 2010 at 4:50 PM, Jeff Lindsay <prog...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I wouldn't call them alternatives since they do something completely
> different...

Exposing my ignorance: could you point just what use case one permits
and not the other?
Much appreciated.

[Jeff Lindsay]

You suggested DNS level tools. One is a public domain name that always points to localhost. From my machine it points to my machine. From your machine the same domain points to your machine. The other you suggested looks like a tool for managing your local DNS. If I wanted to make webhooks.org point to 127.0.0.1 for some reason without affecting everybody else, I could do that (although I would use ghost, my preferred tool for that). 

Localtunnel is a remote port forwarding tool coupled with a public virtual host server that makes it so, while running, anybody on the Internet can access a local port (with a web server listening on it) on your system via a generated hostname (as opposed to some port on a remote host with manual SSH remote forwarding). 

[Hedge Hog]

On Mon, May 10, 2010 at 5:06 PM, Jeff Lindsay <prog...@gmail.com> wrote:
> You suggested DNS level tools. One is a public domain name that always
> points to localhost. From my machine it points to my machine. From your
> machine the same domain points to your machine. The other you suggested
> looks like a tool for managing your local DNS. If I wanted to make
> webhooks.org point to 127.0.0.1 for some reason without affecting everybody
> else, I could do that (although I would use ghost, my preferred tool for
> that).
> Localtunnel is a remote port forwarding tool coupled with a public virtual
> host server that makes it so, while running, anybody on the Internet can
> access a local port (with a web server listening on it) on your system via a
> generated hostname (as opposed to some port on a remote host with manual SSH
> remote forwarding).

Thanks Jeff.
I had thought you had meant 'quick iteratability of local development'
to mean/imply local testing, or access by you.
Instead you'd meant to give some /true public/ access rather than just
make your local dev server /seem/ to be public :)

Best wishes

[Jeff Lindsay]

Right. With webhooks you can't test it without it being public.

[Charl van Niekerk]

Hi Jeff,

I managed to get localtunnel installed on Debian [1] but unfortunately
am getting the following at the moment:

[Error] Unable to register tunnel. Perhaps service is down?

Is there perhaps something wrong on my side or is it on the remote
server?

Thanks,
Charl

[1] http://blog.charlvn.com/2010/05/localtunnel-on-debian-lenny.html

[Jeff Lindsay]

Strangely no, the service is running. Unfortunately the error message is not helpful enough to suggest what might be wrong for you. That's my fault. If you want we can work it out and I can send you some debug versions to get a better idea whats wrong. Just email me directly.

--
Jeff Lindsay
http://progrium.com

[Scott]

nevermind. I re-tried using the relative path marker (~) and it now
works.

Awesome!

Thanks,
Scott

On May 22, 10:37 pm, Jeff Lindsay <progr...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Strangely no, the service is running. Unfortunately the error message is not
> helpful enough to suggest what might be wrong for you. That's my fault. If
> you want we can work it out and I can send you some debug versions to get a
> better idea whats wrong. Just email me directly.
>

> On Sat, May 22, 2010 at 4:49 PM, Charl van Niekerk <char...@charlvn.com>wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
> > Hi Jeff,
>
> > I managed to get localtunnel installed on Debian [1] but unfortunately
> > am getting the following at the moment:
>
> > [Error] Unable to register tunnel. Perhaps service is down?
>
> > Is there perhaps something wrong on my side or is it on the remote
> > server?
>
> > Thanks,
> > Charl
>
> > [1]http://blog.charlvn.com/2010/05/localtunnel-on-debian-lenny.html
>
> > --
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> > "WebHooks" group.
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> > .
> > For more options, visit this group at
> >http://groups.google.com/group/webhooks?hl=en.
>
> --

> Jeff Lindsayhttp://progrium.com

[Scott]

Hmmm.... I'm very excited about this possibility, but I'm getting an
'invalid key' error. I've tried id_rsa.pub, like the first error
message suggested, but no joy. Perhaps I'll recreate a DSA key....

-- Scott

On May 22, 10:37 pm, Jeff Lindsay <progr...@gmail.com> wrote:

> Strangely no, the service is running. Unfortunately the error message is not
> helpful enough to suggest what might be wrong for you. That's my fault. If
> you want we can work it out and I can send you some debug versions to get a
> better idea whats wrong. Just email me directly.
>

> On Sat, May 22, 2010 at 4:49 PM, Charl van Niekerk <char...@charlvn.com>wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
> > Hi Jeff,
>
> > I managed to get localtunnel installed on Debian [1] but unfortunately
> > am getting the following at the moment:
>
> > [Error] Unable to register tunnel. Perhaps service is down?
>
> > Is there perhaps something wrong on my side or is it on the remote
> > server?
>
> > Thanks,
> > Charl
>
> > [1]http://blog.charlvn.com/2010/05/localtunnel-on-debian-lenny.html
>
> > --
> > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
> > "WebHooks" group.
> > To post to this group, send email to webh...@googlegroups.com.
> > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to

> > webhooks+u...@googlegroups.com<webhooks%2Bunsubscribe@googlegroups.c om>

> > .
> > For more options, visit this group at
> >http://groups.google.com/group/webhooks?hl=en.
>
> --

> Jeff Lindsayhttp://progrium.com

[Charl van Niekerk]

Hi All,

I got it running on Fedora 13 and posted instructions on my blog [1].
It was probably my version of Ruby (1.9) that messed me up earlier on
Debian; am using Ruby 1.8.6 now and having no hassles whatsoever.

Thanks Jeff for another great utility!

Best Regards,
Charl

[1] http://blog.charlvn.com/2010/05/localtunnel-on-fedora-13.html