PortForwarder is a robust TCP port forwarding utility designed for Windows, offering high performance and essential security features. It enables users to redirect TCP traffic from a local port to any specified remote host and port, making it versatile for various networking needs.
Key Features:
- Forwards TCP traffic from a local port to any remote host:port.
- Includes optional IP whitelisting for enhanced security, restricting connections to a single allowed IP address.
- Supports up to 100 concurrent connections, ensuring high availability.
- Provides bidirectional data forwarding with real-time statistics for monitoring.
- Offers a verbose mode for debugging rejected connections, aiding in troubleshooting.
- Utilizes aggressive TCP keepalive settings to detect and manage dead connections efficiently.
- Ensures low-latency forwarding by disabling Nagle's algorithm.
- Features graceful shutdown handling (Ctrl+C) and thread-safe connection management.
Use Cases:
- Local Development: Access services running in containers or VMs, forward ports from WSL2 to Windows host, and test webhook endpoints locally.
- Network Bridging: Bridge different network segments, bypass firewall restrictions (with authorization), and access internal services from a DMZ.
- Database Access: Secure database connections with IP whitelisting, tunnel database traffic through jump hosts, and expose local databases for remote development.
- Security Testing: Monitor and analyze TCP traffic patterns, test IP-based access controls, and audit connection attempts with verbose mode.
