# NPS — Lightweight NAT Traversal and Reverse Proxy Server

> A high-performance intranet penetration proxy server written in Go with a web management dashboard, supporting TCP/UDP tunneling, HTTP/HTTPS proxying, SOCKS5, and P2P connections.

## Install

Save as a script file and run:

# NPS — Lightweight NAT Traversal and Reverse Proxy Server

## Quick Use
```bash
# Server side (public IP machine)
./nps install
./nps start

# Client side (behind NAT)
./npc -server=YOUR_SERVER_IP:8024 -vkey=YOUR_KEY -type=tcp
```

## Introduction
NPS is a lightweight, high-performance reverse proxy and NAT traversal tool written in Go. It enables developers and teams to expose services running behind firewalls or NAT networks to the public internet, with a web-based management interface for configuring tunnels and monitoring traffic.

## What NPS Does
- Creates TCP and UDP tunnels to expose internal services through a public server
- Provides HTTP and HTTPS reverse proxying with custom domain binding
- Supports SOCKS5 proxy mode for general-purpose traffic forwarding
- Offers a web management dashboard for creating clients, tunnels, and access controls
- Enables P2P connections between clients to reduce server bandwidth consumption

## Architecture Overview
NPS follows a server-client model. The server runs on a machine with a public IP and manages all tunnel configurations. Clients connect to the server using a unique verification key over a persistent multiplexed connection. Traffic is forwarded through the server or directly via P2P when both endpoints support it. The server stores configuration in a file-based database and exposes a web UI on a configurable port.

## Self-Hosting & Configuration
- Download prebuilt binaries for Linux, macOS, Windows, or FreeBSD from the releases page
- Run the server with `./nps install && ./nps start` to launch the web dashboard on port 8080
- Create clients and tunnels through the web UI or via the configuration file
- Configure bandwidth limits, connection limits, and access control lists per client
- TLS encryption is supported for both the management interface and tunnel traffic

## Key Features
- Single binary deployment with no external dependencies for both server and client
- Web dashboard with real-time traffic monitoring, client status, and tunnel management
- Bandwidth and connection limiting per client for multi-tenant usage
- Compressed transmission reduces bandwidth usage on slow or metered connections
- Multi-user support with API tokens for programmatic tunnel management

## Comparison with Similar Tools
- **frp** — Similar feature set; NPS adds a built-in web dashboard and multi-user management
- **ngrok** — Managed SaaS with free tier limits; NPS is fully self-hosted with no restrictions
- **Cloudflare Tunnel** — Requires Cloudflare; NPS works with any server and domain
- **Tailscale/Headscale** — Mesh VPN approach; NPS focuses on per-service tunnel exposure
- **rathole** — Rust-based and lighter; NPS provides a richer management UI and more protocols

## FAQ
**Q: What protocols does NPS support for tunneling?**
A: TCP, UDP, HTTP, HTTPS, and SOCKS5. Each tunnel type is configured independently per client.

**Q: Can I use NPS to expose a web application with a custom domain?**
A: Yes. Configure an HTTP tunnel with a custom host header, then point your domain DNS to the NPS server.

**Q: Is traffic between client and server encrypted?**
A: NPS supports TLS encryption for the control channel. For tunnel traffic, you can enable compression and encryption in the configuration.

**Q: How does P2P mode work?**
A: When enabled, NPS attempts to establish a direct connection between two clients using hole punching. If P2P fails, traffic falls back to routing through the server.

## Sources
- https://github.com/ehang-io/nps
- https://ehang-io.github.io/nps/

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Source: https://tokrepo.com/en/workflows/asset-241ffd37
Author: Script Depot