Re-route traffic from cloud server to demo server on laptop

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Duan

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I have a demo server (software) that sits on my laptop.

This has some challenges when external users on the internet needs to connect to this server because it is never on the same network.

I have 3 different SIM cards (for best signal) and sometimes have to use the customer's wifi to connect to the internet. This means that Dynamic DNS will not solve the problem.

I was thinking of using a cloud server with a fixed real IP as a relay. When my laptop connects (probably via VPN) to the cloud server, then the cloud server will in turn forward all traffic on a certain port to my laptop.

This sounds easy enough, but I have not quite managed to configure this.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Option 1:
1) Use a OpenVPN cloud server like the one at https://www.cloudsigma.com/virtual-appliances/openvpn-access-server/
2) Install OpenVPN on your computer. Most Linux Distributions have openvpn packages available (openvpn is also available for Windows).
3) Setup a port on the cloud server's public IP address to redirect all traffic to the listening port on your laptop.

Option 2:
1) Setup the WiFi card on you laptop as an Access Point.
2) Maybe setup a simple DNS server dnsmasq or similar if you want to use hostnames instead of IP addresses for the demo.
3) Have external users connect to your laptop's AP.
4) They can now connect to the server application on your laptop for the demo.
 
If a demo server is required at any point in time to be accessed by clients when there isn't a local network server capable of this. then you need to put it somewhere online for people to access. not host it on your laptop
 
If I did that, I would not be able to demo it at a client site when the cell networks fall back to gprs or worse no signal. I already carry 3 SIM cards to minimize the impact of this, but it happens all to often.
 
halfmoonforever said:
If a demo server is required at any point in time to be accessed by clients when there isn't a local network server capable of this. then you need to put it somewhere online for people to access. not host it on your laptop
Click to expand...

It is currently running in the cloud... and that IS a problem in a demo setup because many companies do not allow connections to their internal WiFi networks and their guest networks are restricted as hell and slows down to the speed of gprs so not a great way to demo. The cell networks also have very spotty and unpredictable coverage.

The easiest and best is to run the software on my laptop. That way it is responsive and should there be internet coverage I can show external connections.

Hope this makes sense?
 
The cloud server with VPN would be easy, but if your connection get to gprs speeds, even the VPN would suffer.

Get yourself a BGAN

How much data would you transfer for these demos?
 
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Duan said:
It is currently running in the cloud... and that IS a problem in a demo setup because many companies do not allow connections to their internal WiFi networks and their guest networks are restricted as hell and slows down to the speed of gprs so not a great way to demo. The cell networks also have very spotty and unpredictable coverage.

The easiest and best is to run the software on my laptop. That way it is responsive and should there be internet coverage I can show external connections.

Hope this makes sense?
Click to expand...

Responsive to who? You? or the client?
 
Duan said:
The easiest and best is to run the software on my laptop. That way it is responsive and should there be internet coverage I can show external connections.

Hope this makes sense?
Click to expand...

The Internet access is the problem, then a VPN to a cloud server is also not going to work.

As this is a Linux group, what Distro are you using?

If you have Network Manager, you should be able to configure your laptop as an AP and your sorted.
 
WireFree said:
The Internet access is the problem, then a VPN to a cloud server is also not going to work.

As this is a Linux group, what Distro are you using?

If you have Network Manager, you should be able to configure your laptop as an AP and your sorted.
Click to expand...

Running Ubuntu server 14.04LTS

Not everything is at the same physical site.
 
so to summarize your problem:

1. External Users need to access the demo server running on your laptop.
2. You cannot host the demo server in the cloud, in the event that you do not have internet access at client office.

The way I see it, you run git to manage and push your code base to both a cloud server and the server on your laptop.. Maybe run a cloud branch and a laptop branch to avoid pushing broken code to both the cloud server and the server on your laptop..

You now have a cloud server on the internet that everyone on the internet that needs to, can access at all times.. You still have the demo server on your laptop to demo to your clients if there is no internet access..
 
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