HF PanelTunnels on your own server
Run HF Tunnel on your own HF Panel server: pick a tunnel domain, add one DNS record, open port 7000 and offer tunnels to customers and the desktop app.
Any HF Panel server can run its own HF Tunnel service. Your customers' sites then appear at
https://<name>.port.yourdomain.com, through your server, and HF Server desktop users can get free links from it.
Where: Server Admin › Hosting › Tunnels
Before you start
- Pick the tunnel domain tunnels live under.
port.yourdomain.com(links likeshop.port.yourdomain.com) is suggested;yourdomain.comitself also works (links likeshop.yourdomain.com). Your own addresses and websites can never be taken as a tunnel name. - Add one DNS record at the company that runs the domain's DNS: an A record for
*.<tunnel domain>pointing to the server's IP address. Records you already have, likewwworpanel, keep working. - Make sure port 7000 is open in your server provider's firewall, if it has one. HF Panel opens it in the server's own firewall.
Switch it on
- Open Tunnels in Server Admin.
- Type the Tunnel domain and click Switch on.
HF Panel downloads the tunnel server (checksum verified), starts it and opens port 7000. Each tunnel gets its own HTTPS certificate from Let's Encrypt as soon as the DNS record points to the server.
Step-by-step details, and every setting on the screen, are on Tunnels (Server Admin).
What clients connect to
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Tunnel server | the panel's host name, port 7000 (TLS) |
| Public addresses | https://<name>.<tunnel domain> |
| Tunnel names | 1–32 lowercase letters, numbers and -, not at the start or end |
The connection is encrypted with the server's own certificate authority, which can sign nothing but the tunnel server's certificate. Clients are given this certificate and check it.
Customers' tunnels
Hosting customers make tunnels on their account through the API or the HF Server desktop app; see Customer tunnels. On the Tunnels screen you set Tunnels per account (0 = no limit, up to 100; 3 by default) and see All tunnels, with each link's account, local port, status and creation date.
Free links for the desktop app
The HF Server desktop app card lets people using HF Server get free links from your server, with no account or API token. Each computer has its own private key and sees only its own links.
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Free links for the desktop app | turns the free links on or off |
| Links per computer | 1–20 (3 by default) |
| Links in total | 0–5,000 (200 by default; 0 = no limit) |
| Remove unused links after (days) | 1–365 (60 by default) |
| Endpoint address | the address the desktop app connects to on port 7000; empty = this server's own name |
Important: the endpoint address must point at this server. The desktop app connects to it directly on port 7000, not through a website address or a proxy service. HF Panel refuses an address that doesn't resolve to the server.
Every link gets its own HTTPS certificate. Let's Encrypt issues up to 50 new certificates a week per domain, so keep the total sensible.
Switch it off
Click Switch off and confirm. Every tunnel stops; tunnels and their keys are kept for when you switch it back on. To change the tunnel domain, switch HF Tunnel off and on again.
Refresh certificates re-sends the list of tunnels to the tunnel server and requests any missing certificates.