Expose Apache/Nginx web server
This tutorial will explain how to expose a localhost Apache/Nginx web server and give it a shareable link that is accessible from the internet.
There are multiple ways to reach our locahost web server depends on your requirements.
We will run Apache or Nginx web server through docker:
docker run -p 3000:80 httpd
docker run -p 3000:80 nginx
This will run Apache/Nginx web server in localhost:3000
Run HTTP tunnel and point it to Apache/Nginx web server
loclx tunnel http --subdomain apache --to localhost:3000
After creating the tunnel and getting a shareable link to our website, we can access the website through
https://apache.loclx.io or http://apache.loclx.io.
We will run Apache/Nginx web server through docker as we did with HTTP tunnel above:
docker run -p 3000:80 httpd
docker run -p 3000:80 nginx
This will run Apache/Nginx web server in localhost:3000
You either can:
- Let LocalXpose client to terminate the TLS traffic by providing the TLS certificate , so in this case you don't need to configure your Apache/Nginx web server TLS settings for example:
loclx tunnel tls --to localhost:3000 --crt /path/to/crt.pem --key /path/to/key.pem
- Or configure your Apache or Nginx web server to deal with TLS termination by using
mod_sslmodule for Apache and for Nginx you can follow this tutorial https://nginx.org/en/docs/http/configuring_https_servers.html, then you don't need to pass the TLS certificate to LocalXpose client for example:
loclx tunnel tls --to localhost:443
Now the TLS tunnel will be accessible from the internet through
https://your-domain.com.Note that TLS tunnel will only accept connection from the internet on port
443.Since you are using TLS tunnel to access your localhost webserver, you will not be able to use HTTP middlewares.
Since HTTP works on top of TCP, then a TCP tunnel will also works.
loclx tunnel tcp --port 8888 --to 3000
This will create a TCP tunnel us.loclx.io:8888, you can access your Apache/Nginx webserver from the internet through
http://us.loclx.io:8888Since you are using TCP tunnel to access your localhost webserver, you will not be able to use HTTP middlewares.