reply on: Install, Run, Publish & Connect 𝚙𝚑𝚘𝚎𝚗𝚒𝚡𝚍 to SEND/RECEIVE sats to/from SN \ stacker news ~meta

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52 sats \ 4 replies \ @supertestnet 22 Sep \ on: Install, Run, Publish & Connect 𝚙𝚑𝚘𝚎𝚗𝚒𝚡𝚍 to SEND/RECEIVE sats to/from SN meta

There is another way to make phoenixd publicly accessible without ngrok: Alby Hub. If you download/install Alby Hub and connect that to phoenixd, Alby Hub will give you a nostr wallet connect string, and you can then connect that to stacker news. I think this is neat because it eliminates the need to create an ngrok account, and it gets you lots of cool Alby Hub features, like a self custodial lightning address. (Though stacker news sort of becomes that anyway even if you connect it to your wallet via ngrok.)

0 sats \ 3 replies \ @supratic OP 22 Sep

Yes, but why connect to SN via NWC via AH when you can connect to SN directly the phoenixd instance? I agree the NWC is useful for other apps too... or is Alby Hub resolving the port forwarding too?

20 sats \ 2 replies \ @supertestnet 22 Sep

because you can't connect SN directly to phoenixd without running a web server to expose it publicly. Connecting it via ngrok isn't a direct connection, it relies on a middleman (ngrok) who you need an account with, who may change their terms of service, cut you off, or go bankrupt. And if that happens, there aren't many ngrok replacements to jump to. Doing it via NWC (included in Alby Hub) still involves a middleman (the nostr relay), but you don't need an account with them and there are so many of them, they are easy to replace whenever necessary.

or is Alby Hub resolving the port forwarding too?

Yes, NWC (nostr wallet connect) resolves the need to do port forwarding and it is included in Alby Hub

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @supratic OP 22 Sep

there aren't many ngrok replacements to jump to.

really? https://github.com/anderspitman/awesome-tunneling?tab=readme-ov-file#open-source-at-least-with-a-reasonably-permissive-license

Anyway, make sense and I agree about ngrok playing as middleman, but we are talking about different things here.

There's no doubt NWC is much easier, but is another type of attached wallet that isn't nearly connected with phoenixd. I'll talk about NCW and AlbyHub in another tutorial.

The issue ngrok solve is the port forwarding and providing a publicly accessible url for a Lightning node installed locally. There are probably few options to do it without third parties involved. But for newbies that just want to connect phoenixd to SN, I'll probably skip that technical mess and reach the goal.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @ek 23 Sep

I’m not sure how ngrok behaves for long persistent connections. I think it’s meant for development so it might be the case they close the tunnel if you don’t use it for a while or pay.