Can you explain like I'm five how to get this up and running?

[kendofriendo]

I have an Ubuntu 22.04 VPS hosted on Oracle Cloud. I opened ports 80, 443, and 2333.

On the server, I created the server.toml following the instructions:

# server.toml
[server]
bind_addr = "0.0.0.0:2333" # `2333` specifies the port that rathole listens for clients

[server.services.http]
token = "token" # Must be the same with the server to pass the validation
bind_addr = "0.0.0.0:80" # The address of the service that needs to be forwarded

[server.services.https]
token = "token" # Must be the same with the server to pass the validation
bind_addr = "0.0.0.0:443" # The address of the service that needs to be forwarded

I ran the binary as instructed:
rathole server.toml

2023-12-17T17:54:07.524969Z  INFO rathole::server: Listening at 0.0.0.0:2333
2023-12-17T17:54:07.525017Z  INFO config_watcher{path="server.toml"}: rathole::config_watcher: Start watching the config

I have an Arch laptop I use as a server connected to my home network via ethernet.

On the laptop, I created the client.toml:

[client]
remote_addr = "ip address of the server:2333" # The address of the server. The port must be the same with the port in `server.bind_addr`

[client.services.http]
token = "token" # Must be the same with the server to pass the validation
local_addr = "0.0.0.0:80" # The address of the service that needs to be forwarded

[client.services.https]
token = "token" # Must be the same with the server to pass the validation
local_addr = "0.0.0.0:443" # The address of the service that needs to be forwarded

Ran the binary:
rathole client.toml

2023-12-17T18:02:12.792960Z  INFO handle{service=http}: rathole::client: Starting 5eb04b82d9bb1e9febad1b7ad806d769bc424e3fd81f8a4cfe479e27bb0299b5
2023-12-17T18:02:12.793040Z  INFO handle{service=https}: rathole::client: Starting 966a15c6feeb8cc2014a177a3782c3e789ce4de66b1145ebc7f8701e205d2778
2023-12-17T18:02:12.793479Z  INFO config_watcher{path="client.toml"}: rathole::config_watcher: Start watching the config
2023-12-17T18:02:12.835116Z ERROR handle{service=http}: rathole::client: Failed to run the control channel: Failed to connect to ip address of the server:2333: No route to host (os error 113). Retry in 483.319679ms...
2023-12-17T18:02:12.835181Z ERROR handle{service=https}: rathole::client: Failed to run the control channel: Failed to connect to ip address of the server:2333: No route to host (os error 113). Retry in 400.237734ms...

The error repeats ad infinitum.

What am I doing wrong? How can I fix it?

Thanks.

[mmnvb]

I'm not an expert, but did you manage to establish a simple ssh connection like it's written in the readme file? If it's not working as well then most likely you set a wrong ip or maybe have some issues with security settings or smth. At least you know where to search. Try to copy paste the exact code first.

[Drei109]

@kendofriendo did you find a solution for this?

[kendofriendo]

The only way I was able to get it working was to set up wireguard on the host and connect to to wireguard as a peer on the client. Then you can use the local IP addresses from wireguard and the tunnels work then. It's a bit redundant to use both wireguard and a tunnel proxy though.

[kzshantonu]

@kendofriendo funny, I just wrote a guide about this today https://blog.mni.li/posts/caddy-rathole-zero-knowledge/

[kendofriendo]

Nice! I really like the design of your blog, too.