FRP - an open source alternative to ngrok
If you want to expose a service from your LAN to the internet and you can’t open ports, you can use ngrok, or its open source alternative FRP.
Server
The server will be the middle man between your service and the person visiting.
Install FRP server (called frps).
I installed my instance on Docker using Ansible and the cloverzrg/frps-docker image:
---
- name: frps tunnel server side
hosts: vps
gather_facts: false
become: true
tasks:
- name: frps
docker_container:
name: tunnel
image: cloverzrg/frps-docker
networks:
- name: UserDefinedBridge
purge_networks: yes
restart_policy: "always"
volumes:
- /opt/docker/tunnel.example.org/conf:/conf
ports:
- "7700:7700"
- "28443:28443"
- "28080:28080"
labels:
traefik.enable: "true"
ansible: "true"
traefik.http.routers.tunneladmin.entrypoints: "https"
traefik.http.routers.tunneladmin.service: "tunneladmin"
traefik.http.routers.tunneladmin.rule: "Host(`tunnel.example.org`)"
traefik.http.routers.tunneladmin.tls: "true"
traefik.http.routers.tunneladmin.tls.certresolver: "letsencrypt"
traefik.http.services.tunneladmin.loadbalancer.server.port: "7500"
FRP comes with a web interface running on port 7500 which I secure behind Traefik.
The server will listen for connections on TCP/7700. Services will be exposed either on port 28080 (http) or 28443 (https).
/opt/docker/tunnel.example.org/conf/frps.ini
[common]
bind_port = 7700
token = xxx
vhost_http_port = 28080
vhost_https_port = 28443
dashboard_port = 7500
dashboard_user = ricky
dashboard_pwd = zzz
tcp_mux = true
max_pool_count = 10
Client
Let’s assume your client runs an HTTP server locally on port 443.
Download the client https://github.com/fatedier/frp/releases/download/v0.36.0/frp_0.36.0_linux_amd64.tar.gz
Unzip.
Create frpc.ini
[common]
server_addr = server.example.org
server_port = 7700
token = xxx
tcp_mux = true
tls_enable = true
[web]
type = https # this is the service that will define which port will be used publicly (see server config)
local_port = 443 # this is the port of the service you want to expose
custom_domains = your-custom-domain.example.org
Run frpc -c frpc.ini
Your service should be available at https://your-custom-domain.example.org:28443
For any custom domain to work, you need a wildcard DNS for *.example.org pointing to your server.
Otherwise you need to create the appropriate A records you want to use.