ngrok exposes local servers behind NATs and firewalls to the public internet over secure tunnels.

Start by downloading the exe file from this location: https://ngrok.com/download

Extract the application, open a console and go to the directory where ngrok was extracted.

Launch the ngrok.exe application and add the port to expose:

ngrok http 8081

In addition, if you use IIS Express with Visual Studio, you need some more configuration to reach your application.

  • Edit the file applicationhost.config (in the folder: [VSPROJECTFOLDER]/.vs/config/ ),
  • Find the line containing “:8081:localhost” and remove “:localhost” to keep only “:8081”.

  • Restart your Visual Studio.

  • Call ngrok with:
ngrok http 8081 -host-header="localhost:8081"

Once ngrok launches, you get access to your tunnel through a URL, i.e.: http://1cac6d41.ngrok.io