Hmm I've been using the following: https://gist.github.com/932137 for some time now - it's just a bash function which lets me type:

$ show 3000 test

and get http://test.tekacs.com/ -> port 3000 on my computer using just SSH, assuming you have root access to the server (which you would need to set up forwarding on port 80 anyway...)

$ ssh -tR 1080:127.0.0.1:$1 vps "sudo ssh -Nl \$USER -L $REMOTE:80:127.0.0.1:1080 localhost"

being the functional line...

Thanks for this!

Yup, this is basically what showoff is doing. Showoff is nice because it gives you:

* HTTPS * Works without access to public-facing server. * Pretty URL * Eventually will support more stuff besides just port-forwarding :)

Ah, that last bit sounds good - look forward to it... :)

It's a bit like saying: if you have a private server you can use: git push blah instead of using DropBox. (This doesn not invalidate your point; far from it, I'm just saying that because it's somewhat trivial for us geek doesn't mean it's not something that other folks would pay for.

What non-technical person runs a server on their laptop?

Ever heard of Skype? Bittorrent?

Servers are awesome. :-)

Neither of those are technically servers, and both do NAT traversal on their own.

I came in here to start a sentence like " I dont want to be a dick, but..." and you've answered. Thanks.

Showoff is a great idea though, best of luck!!

And there's still that ugly port number in the URL. Vast majority of clients would neither like nor understand this -- most of them don't even know what a port number is.

EDIT: Also, Showoff isn't suggesting it's doing something you couldn't do before. It just does it in a simpler & pain-free way.

Set up an Apache mod_proxy from port 8080 on your server's localhost to a vhost at showoff.yourdomain.com.

You'll have to make sure to build your app to not make any assumptions about where it's running (ex: links to "http://localhost:3000/path), but you should be doing that anyway.

Yep, that's definitely possible. And yet, again, you have to "setup" something. It's totally okay to do things that way. Two thoughts:

You have to have Apache setup (which, when developing a new project, you may likely not have even reached that point).

You can also save your current file by going to File > Save. But Ctrl/Cmd+S is easier (and probably what you use every day).

With just the most minuscule bit of initial setup a simple bash function using just SSH can replicate all of the functionality (and more) of showoff.io, with just as much ease ('show 3000 subdomain') but hopefully the upcoming features will make it a more viable proposition... :)

Then again, I'm quite happy with a VPS setup since I get all of the extra benefits of having the server around...

> You have to have Apache setup (which, when developing a new project, you may likely not have even reached that point).

Showoff project is definitely cool, but instead of apache, nginx installs in one command and can easily proxy like this with about 10 lines of easily googled config using 1/10 of the resources on a simple prgmr account or the like.

Absolutely. The win here is that you get to stop at "installs in one command". No googling. No configuration. Job is done; share your URL.

Do you accept upvotes as currency? I was thinking that ssh should be able to do this.

There's this bit about the 'show' command on your computer. I'm wondering if that's a bash script, or a standalone bit of software to forward data to their servers?

`show` is just the command that sets up the ssh tunnel. Doesn't forward data or anything like that.

EDIT: It's not a bash script. It's a Ruby wrapper.

And if you need a public facing server, teensy VPNs can be had for $5/mo.