Guide
Set a password on a tunnel
Require a password before anyone can open a tunnel's address.
- Applies to
- Starter and higher; durable tunnels
- Time
- About 3 minutes
- What it changes
- Visitors need the password, and your app is disconnected for a moment while the tunnel reconnects.
- Last reviewed
- , by Product documentation
Before you begin
What to know before you start
- Setting a password ends the tunnel's live connection. Your connector reconnects on its own in a moment, and the address does not answer until it does.
- The password protects the address from visitors. It is not a login for your app: the edge removes the Authorization header before it forwards a request, so your app never receives the password.
Steps
Step 1. Open the tunnel in the dashboard and choose Add password.
When you create a tunnel you can instead choose Only people with a password under Who can open it. To change an existing password choose Change password.
You should see: A dialog asks for a password.
Step 2. Enter a password of 8 to 128 characters and save it.
The password cannot contain control characters. Use a password you do not use anywhere else.
You should see: The dashboard says the password is saved and that your app reconnects on its own in a moment.
Step 3. Wait for the tunnel to show Live, then open the address in a private window.
The browser asks for a user name and a password. Enter anything as the user name. Only the password is checked.
You should see: The browser shows a sign-in prompt. After the correct password it shows your app.
To check: Try a wrong password. The browser asks again.
You are done when
- Opening the address in a private window asks for a password.
- A wrong password is refused and the correct one shows your app.
What to do next
If something goes wrong
- The tunnel answers 429.
- Too many wrong passwords came from one visitor. The edge limits failures to 10 a minute for each address and visitor, then answers 429 until the minute passes. Wait a minute and try again.
- The option to add a password is missing.
- Password protection is not included in the Free plan. Upgrade under Usage and billing, or use a public tunnel for non-sensitive demos.
- Tunnel Doctor says unverified.
- Tunnel Doctor cannot use the password, so it reports the state as unverified. That is expected for a protected tunnel: the request stopped at the password prompt.
Undo or clean up
- To make the tunnel public again, choose Remove password on the tunnel.
Related
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