Publish any service to the Internet

OwnServer allows you to publish any service that uses TCP/UDP to the Internet. Here is an example of how to publish a Netcat server to the Internet.

Prerequisite

Make sure you have the Netcat, nc command installed on your system. Also, ensure that the OwnServer Client is installed.

Publish your Netcat server to the Internet

Start OwnServer Client, select Custom and click Next.

Put any command to Server Startup Command. For example, if you set the command echo hello, the OwnServer Client will execute the command sh -c 'echo hello' on Linux/macOS or cmd /c 'echo hello' on Windows. Usually, you will enter a command or executable file that listens on some port of the local network, such as a script to start a web server.

Enter the Port number to which the commands and executables described in the Server Startup Command will listen. When a request comes in from the Internet to your public address, OwnServer will forward the request to the port number in the Port field.

Protocol is the protocol to be used by the Server Startup Command. You can choose either TCP or UDP.

We will run the command nc -kl 3010 to listen for Netcat connections on 3010/tcp on localhost. Specify 3010 for Port. Click Start to run the commands specified in the Server Startup Commands.

Wait a moment, make sure that the status of Start Game Server is Running and click Next.

Clicking Start will configure a tunnel between your OwnServer Client and the public address.

Verify that the status of Start OwnServer is Running and select Next.

You can see the public address of your Minecraft server. Share this with your friends!

Connect to the Netcat server

Connect to your Netcat server via the Internet with a Netcat client

Conclusion

You can publish any service like a web server as well. Have a try!