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Remote Tunneling to a Server

The concept is the same as local tunneling, but in reverse — the remote server gains access to your local machine’s services.
Remote tunneling (remote port forwarding) opens a port on the remote server that forwards traffic back to your local machine. Use the -R flag and provide:
  • A remote port to listen on
  • The local host IP or hostname to forward to
  • The local port to forward to
# General syntax
ssh -f -N -R <remote-port>:<local-host-ip-address/name>:<local-port> <username>@<remote-host-ip-address/name/gateway>

# Example: expose localhost:8080 on the remote server at port 8080
ssh -R 8080:localhost:8080 user@remote-host-ip-address
After running this command, visiting localhost:8080 from a browser or curl on the remote server will serve content hosted on your local machine at port 8080.

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Parameters

ParameterDescription
-REstablish a remote tunnel to the remote server

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Remote Tunneling — Local Network

You can expose a local network service to the remote host. 
# Forward your localhost:8080 to port 8080 on the remote host
ssh -R 8080:localhost:8080 user@remote-host-ip-address

# Bind to all interfaces on the remote host (0.0.0.0)
ssh -R 0.0.0.0:8080:localhost:8080 user@remote-host-ip-address
Using 0.0.0.0 as the bind address makes the remote port accessible from any interface on the remote server, not just localhost. This requires GatewayPorts yes to be set in the server’s sshd_config.

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Remote Tunneling — Private Network

You can also expose a service on your local private network to the remote host. 
# Forward a local private network server to the remote host
ssh -R 8080:<local-server-ip-address>:8080 user@remote-host-ip-address

# Bind to all remote interfaces
ssh -R 0.0.0.0:8080:<local-server-ip-address>:8080 user@remote-host-ip-address
Remote tunneling is commonly used to temporarily expose a local development server to the internet for testing, demos, or webhook integrations.

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