Blog


    Scaling across Multiple Regions


    engineering update
    A user from South Korea brought to our attention that Pinggy works great for them, but it is slow. The answer to “why” was obvious to us. Pinggy was hosting its servers in the USA, specifically in Ohio. One key goal of Pinggy is to provide not only tunnels but fast and reliable tunnels. To improve the situation, we decided to host the tunnels in the region nearest to where the user is creating the tunnel from (as the default behavior).

    TLS Tunnel


    guide tls
    A TLS tunnel, also known as an SSL tunnel, is a secure channel that allows data to travel between two endpoints while being encrypted and protected from eavesdropping and tampering. This form of tunneling relies on the TLS protocol to establish an encrypted connection between a client and a server, ensuring that the data exchanged between them remains confidential and secure. TLS tunneling provides end-to-end encryption which is essential for maintaining the confidentiality and integrity of data transmitted over the internet.

    T-Mobile Port Forwarding


    guide tcp
    TLDR Open terminal or command prompt. Paste the following command in the terminal (replace 22 with the port you want to forward): ssh -p 443 -R0:localhost:22 tcp@a.pinggy.io After running the tunneling command, you will receive a public URL in the following format: tcp://tljocjkijs.a.pinggy.online:40527 You can use this address and port to connect to your local port from outside the local network. Sign in to https://dashboard.

    Ngrok - But without downloading anything


    Paste this command to get a tunnel to localhost, port 8000: ssh -p 443 -R0:localhost:8000 qr@a.pinggy.io Ngrok is an excellent tool loved by developers worldwide. If you need to expose your localhost server, Ngrok comes in handy. However, utilizing Ngrok requires downloading a platform-specific program (binary) for your operating system, be it Mac, Windows, or Linux. Subsequently, you must make the binary executable and launch it from the terminal. This process of obtaining Ngrok can often be cumbersome.

    Remote Desktop for Raspberry Pi and other IoT devices


    guide tcp
    You remotely access your Raspberry Pi desktop from anywhere using Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP). Even if your Pi is outside your local network, you can access it easily over the internet using Pinggy. TLDR Step 1. Run these commands on your Raspberry Pi: sudo apt update sudo apt install xrdp sudo systemctl start xrdp Step 2. Run this command to get a public URL to your Raspberry Pi:

    Access localhost from your phone!


    update guide
    Pinggy now supports QR codes within the terminal! TLDR Start a Pinggy tunnel and press u or c to see QR code. Press Esc to hide QR code. Or use qr or aqr as username to always show QR in the terminal: ssh -p443 -R0:localhost:8000 qr@a.pinggy.io ssh -p443 -R0:localhost:8000 aqr@a.pinggy.io You can pass your token along with qr by appending them with the + symbol: ssh -p443 -R0:localhost:8000 token+qr@a.

    Updates to counter deceptive content distribution


    update
    On July 14, distribution of deceptive and social engineering content was detected through some Pinggy tunnels. Our logs show that it has been done using the free tier through random subdomains ending with a.pinggy.io. As a result, while accessing your own tunnels you might have noticed a “Deceptive Website Warning”. However, we assure you that if you were accessing your own tunnel / tunnel that you trust, then there was no possible threat.

    Fast changing DNS records and AWS Route 53


    A user from South Korea brought to our notice that Pinggy works great for them, but it is slow. The answer to “why” was obvious to us. Pinggy hosts its servers in the USA, specifically in Ohio. One key goal of Pinggy is to not only provide tunnels, but fast and reliable tunnels. To improve the situation, we decided to host the tunnels in the nearest region from where the user is creating the tunnel (as the default behavior).