How to use Hoposhell with External Tools
Ngrok and Hoposhell can work hand-to-hand
Hoposhell is for quick discovery and assessment; switch to ngrok when you need more focused service.
When it comes to managing remote computers, having quick access to a terminal is essential: either you want to check the logs of your backend, restart your web server, monitor the CPU usage or make a configuration change. This is where Hoposhell comes in. With Hoposhell, users can connect to their remote terminals in a matter of seconds, without the need for any complicated setup. Hoposhell does one thing, but it does it well: one command to setup your shell, one command to run it, and you can access your terminal on .
In this article, we will see what Hoposhell is for, what it is not, and how it can be used with other tools such as Ngrok.
A Scenario: Johnny & Mary
Johnny is a support engineer for a specialized hardware product deployed in several remote locations in the country.
- t=0 Johnny receives a call from a customer: the hardware is not working, and the status LED is blinking red. That can't be good.
- t=30s Johnny opens the Hoposhell UI and opens the corresponding shell within seconds.
- t=1m Johnny confirms an important process is down and restarts it.
- t=1m30s The LED is back to green. The customer is happy. End of incident.
- t=5m Johnny makes some coffee, then creates a support ticket to make sure the incident will not occur again.
- t=3h Mary, an engineer in the company, opens the ticket. She uses Hoposhell to connect to the hardware, then starts a Ngrok session to allow direct access.
- t=10d Mary uses coffee, remote desktop and ssh via Ngrok, and digs out a sneaky bug in the main software. She downloads all the required logs to describe the issue, and creates a bug ticket for the team to fix in the next release.
Hoposhell Shines where you Need Quick Access
Hoposhell does only one thing: it allows you to connect in seconds to a terminal on a remote computer. All you need to remember is the URL of Hoposhell's website. The remote machine does not need a global IP: only access to hoposhell.com. This is possible because Hoposhell uses reverse-shell technology to communicate from the remote computer to the cloud.
One of the main advantages of Hoposhell is its simplicity. All you need to remember is the URL of the Hoposhell website; from there you will have access to the list of your computers that you can click in order to access a terminal on steroids. From there you can not only execute any command line interface application but also copy files between shells, display images inline, and even access remote APIs. This is especially useful in case of crisis: you can assess and act swiftly to keep downtime as low as possible.
Another advantage of Hoposhell is that it works on any device, including smartphones. There is no need to bring your computer everywhere: you can quickly assess situations from the beach on in the subway.
Hoposhell Remains a Simple Tool
However, Hoposhell is no more than a terminal. If you need a remote desktop, you would rather use an RDP client. If you need to access a computer without open Internet access you might need a VPN. If you need direct SSH access you might need Ngrok. If you are managing a large fleet of containers, you might better go with a container orchestration tool such as Kubernetes. If you need to quickly transfer large files you might better use a dedicated infrastructure.
Still, these tools can often be used together with Hoposhell. For example, remote desktop servers are often a safety concern and it is usually not wise to turn them on by default. This is why one of our customers uses Hopohsell to run an RDP server only when needed, then uses Ngrok to forward the relevant ports for remote access.
In fact, we are now adding extra features to Hoposhell such as port forwarding so that in the future you will need to rely on fewer tools for your daily maintenance tasks. Stay tuned!