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Abayomi Ogunnusi

Posted on Sep 29, 2021

ngrok: Expose a local web server to the internet

#codenewbie #webdev #codepen #beginners

Hello devs, I got introduced to a tool that allows you to expose a web server running on your local machine to the internet. Its ngrok

Setup

Go to Ngrok Link to signup and download the ngrok for your operating system

Let's say for example you are working on a node app running on http://localhost:3000 and you want to expose/share your server to a colleague without using ipconfig.

🎯 Launch the ngrok

Then type the following command

ngrok http <your port number>

In my case ngrok http 3000

You should get something like this

🎯 Copy the forwarding link highlighted in red and test on any browser. (Okay, the moment of truth, what did you get? 😁)

Password protect your tunnel

ngrok http -auth="username:password" 8080

In my case, it will be
ngrok http -auth="drsimple:ngrokpassword" 3000

Open the ngrok terminal and paste the above command.
copy the forwarding link and paste it into your browser.

This time you get:

🎯 Lastly, let us look at how we can run ngrok in our command prompt in few steps
Copy the path where you downloaded ngrok

🎯 Go to the environment variable

Click on the path, Click Edit, New, and Paste the path copied earlier.

Repeat the above step for the system variable.