Expose Your Home Web Server to the Internet with frp – A Complete Step‑by‑Step Guide

Server‑Side Configuration (frps)

Based on a previous article, add the vhost_http_port parameter to the frps.ini file to receive HTTP requests. Open the required ports in the firewall or through a control panel such as Baota. In the example, Nginx listens on port 80 and forwards domain traffic to frps’s port 8080; you may also let frps use port 80 directly.

[common]
bind_addr=0.0.0.0
bind_port=7000
vhost_http_port=8080
token=12310086
dashboard_port=7500
dashboard_user=admin
dashboard_pwd=admin123

Start the server with:

./frps -c frps.ini

Client‑Side Configuration (frpc) on the Home Machine

Configure the client to expose the local web service (port 80) to the public server:

[common]
server_addr=YOUR_SERVER_IP
server_port=7000
token=12310086

[http] # connection name can be any descriptive label
type=http
local_ip=127.0.0.1
local_port=80
use_encryption=false
use_compression=true
custom_domains=frp.example.com  # replace with your domain

Start the client with:

./frpc -c frpc.ini

Explanation of Key Parameters

use_encryption

: set to false here; enable if you need encrypted traffic. use_compression: enables data compression, which can improve transfer speed. custom_domains: the domain name that will be bound to this service; it is mandatory for frpc to start.

Access Control (Optional)

To protect the exposed service, add http_user and http_pwd in the client’s [http] section:

http_user=admin
http_pwd=admin

Full Configuration with Sub‑domain Support

If you want to serve multiple services under different sub‑domains, add subdomain_host on the server and subdomain on the client:

# frps.ini
[common]
bind_addr=0.0.0.0
bind_port=7000
vhost_http_port=8080
token=12310086
subdomain_host=example.com

# frpc.ini
[common]
server_addr=103.255.61.100
server_port=7000
token=12310086

[http]
type=http
local_ip=127.0.0.1
local_port=80
use_encryption=false
use_compression=true
subdomain=frp

[tomcat]
type=http
local_ip=127.0.0.1
local_port=8080
use_encryption=false
use_compression=true
subdomain=tomcat

Execution Flow

The home machine runs a web server on port 80.

frpc reads its configuration and forwards the local port 80 to the server’s port 8080.

On the public server, Nginx listens on port 80 and proxies domain requests to frps’s port 8080.

frps then forwards those requests back to the home machine’s port 80.

The round‑trip enables external users to access the internal web service via the domain.

Important Notes

Directly accessing PUBLIC_IP:8080 will not work because frps only forwards traffic received from Nginx.

When binding multiple domains to the same internal service, separate them with commas in custom_domains.

HTTPS certificates should be installed on the Nginx side, though frp also offers a plugin for TLS termination on the client.

Common Errors

If frpc fails to start, you will see an error screen similar to the one shown in the original article (e.g., missing configuration or port conflict).

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