What is the difference between Local and Remote port forwarding?

Local port forwarding (-L) opens a port on your local machine and forwards all incoming connections to a remote server (e.g. connecting your local DBeaver to an internal RDS database). Remote port forwarding (-R) opens a port on the remote server and forwards incoming connections back to your local machine (e.g. sharing your local localhost:3000 webhook server with the public internet).

Does SSH Desktop automatically reconnect tunnels if my WiFi drops?

Yes! SSH Desktop includes an intelligent background heartbeat supervisor. If your network changes or disconnects, it automatically re-establishes the SSH session and rebinds all forwarded listening ports without manual intervention.

🔄 Visual Tunneling & Dynamic SOCKS5 Engine

Visual SSH Port Forwarding & Tunnel Manager

Stop struggling with command-line `-L`, `-R`, and `-D` parameters. Configure encrypted tunnels with interactive network diagrams, automatic health monitoring, and one-click reconnects.

Download Tunnel Manager Free Read Tunneling Guide

Visual SSH Port Forwarding and Tunnel Manager Screenshot

Figure 1: SSH Desktop Visual Port Forwarding & Tunnels — Interactive Local (-L), Remote Reverse (-R), and Dynamic SOCKS5 (-D) proxy manager with active connection telemetry.

Local Forwarding (-L)

Access Private Databases

Forward a local port (e.g. localhost:5432) through your SSH bastion to access private PostgreSQL, Redis, or Elasticsearch clusters securely.

Remote Reverse (-R)

Expose Local Services

Forward remote cloud server ports directly back to your local development machine. Perfect for Stripe webhooks and OAuth callback testing without Ngrok.

Dynamic SOCKS5 (-D)

Encrypted Browser Proxy

Turn any remote SSH server into an encrypted SOCKS5 proxy server. Route web browser or IDE traffic through secure remote nodes to access private internal portals.