Two days ago, I bought a .cfd domain for ₹89 on impulse. I didn’t have a hosting plan. No VPS. No static IP. No plan, really.
But I did have one goal:
👉 "Can I host a secure, public-facing website straight from my local machine... without exposing my IP or touching router configs?"
Turns out, yes. Yes, I can. Here's how — and more importantly, why I did it this way.
🧠 The Problem Space
I wanted:
- To run a simple NGINX-powered static site
- No monthly hosting bills
- HTTPS (because insecure URLs scream "hobby project")
- And ideally, a solution that "just works" — no duct tape
But I didn’t have:
- A static IP
- Control over my ISP’s router for port forwarding
- Budget for VPS hosting
🧪 My First Thought: Ngrok?
Of course, I thought of Ngrok. It's the OG local tunnel tool. Dead simple. Plug and play.
But there were issues:
- Free version rotates URLs — not great for a custom domain
- Their custom domain support is behind a paid plan
- Limited concurrent tunnels
I needed more control. I wanted my domain to point to my machine — directly and reliably.
☁️ Enter: Cloudflare Tunnel
I was already using Cloudflare for DNS, so I dug deeper and found cloudflared.
This tool lets you:
- Expose your local server to the internet securely
- Use your own domain name
- Terminate HTTPS at the edge (no messing with certs)
- Skip firewall config, port forwarding, and NAT struggles
And it’s 100% free.
🛠️ The Stack I Used
| What | Tool Used | Why I Picked It | Alternatives Considered |
|---|---|---|---|
| Domain |
.cfd from Hostinger |
Cheap (₹89) + DNS manageable | Namecheap |
| Web Server | NGINX on Ubuntu | Lightweight, battle-tested | Apache, Caddy |
| Tunnel |
cloudflared (FIPS) |
Secure, free, native domain support | Ngrok, LocalTunnel |
| DNS Provider | Cloudflare | Fast, robust, full control | GoDaddy, Namecheap |
🔧 How I Did It (The Short Version)
- Bought the domain:
goobara.cfd(because why not?) - Pointed its NS records to Cloudflare
- Waited ~2 hours for DNS propagation (it will test your patience)
- Installed
cloudflared - Created and configured a tunnel
cloudflared tunnel create goobara
cloudflared tunnel route dns goobara goobara.cfd
cloudflared tunnel run goobara
6.Set up NGINX to serve localhost:80
7.Boom — goobara.cfd was live!
🧠 A Few "Aha!" Moments
-
curl -H "Host: goobara.cfd" http://localhostbecame my best friend. - My site didn’t work initially — turns out, I hadn’t removed Hostinger's default DNS records (rookie mistake).
- Even though cloudflared showed success, DNS propagation + caching can cause confusion. Always verify with:
dig goobara.cfd +short
💡 Why This Setup Rocks
- No need for public IP
- No Certbot / Let's Encrypt headaches
- Minimal attack surface (everything is proxied through Cloudflare)
- Zero cost hosting for hobby projects, dashboards, or even staging apps
Top comments (2)
Really clever solution! 👏
Love how you bypassed all the traditional hosting headaches. The
cloudflaredtunnel approach is so much cleaner than fighting with port forwarding and dynamic IPs.Quick thought - have you considered setting up any monitoring/alerting for when your local machine goes down? Or maybe a simple health check script?
This setup could be perfect for home lab dashboards and staging environments. Thanks for the detailed walkthrough!
One question though - how's the performance been with your home upload speeds as the bottleneck?
Hey, this was just a weekend experiment to test out cloudflared tunnels and see how cleanly I could expose local services without touching router configs. So I didn’t set up any monitoring/alerting — just a quick prototype for now.
As for performance — you're right, upload speed is the limiting factor, especially for anything media-heavy. For basic dashboards and dev UIs, it’s totally usable.