Conveyor allows you to easily test local web applications from tablets and phones on your network and over the internet.

Conveyor can be installed directly from Visual Studio.
Watch the video or follow the steps below.

Step 1:

Download directly within Visual Studio by searching for 'Conveyor' in the Tools->Extensions and Updates dialog
(or download from the Visual Studio Marketplace).

Step 2:

After you restart Visual Studio, Conveyor will check your firewall ports and open a helper application if needed, or advise what changes need to be made (see below for manual instructions).

Allow the application to run and click "Apply Rules Automatically" if you agree to the changes (Visual Studio must not be blocked and ports 45455-45500 need to be open).

Step 3:

Conveyor is automatically enabled for web application projects, run (debug) a project and note the Remote URL, that is the URL you will use from your device or other computer. Please see troubleshooting below if you don't see the Conveyor window.


Step 4:

Use the Remote URL from your device (phone, tablet or other machine) to directly access your application. Note that you must be running the project in Visual Studio for the Remote URL and Internet URL to work.

TLS/SSL

The "Access over internet" tunnel service has it's own properly trusted certificate, so no setup is necessary. However, the Remote URL (for access over the LAN) runs with a self-signed certificate. To properly access the Remote URL from other machines/devices you just need to install Conveyor's CA certificate on your device, please click the certificate icon in the URL grid for instructions.

Manually configuring your firewall

Add an inbound firewall rule allowing access to the TCP port given in the Remote URL.
  1. Open Windows 'Start' and type WF.msc.
  2. Click 'Inbound Rules' on the left.
  3. Click 'New Rules' on the right.
  4. Choose 'Port' in the new dialog, then 'Next'.
  5. Select TCP, and enter the port from the Remote URL next to 'Specific local ports' (45455-45500), then 'Next'.
  6. Next, and next (you may want to disable 'Public'), give it a name like 'Conveyor: web dev server access enabled'.


Troubleshooting

  • Cannot enable: If you have installed Conveyor previously and it is now disabled, please see https://stackoverflow.com/questions/35203647/updating-visual-studio-2015-extensions-end-up-disabled you can get the tool mentioned, here https://github.com/remcoros/DuplicateExtensionFinder/releases/download/v1.2/DuplicateExtensionFinder.exe and run it with "DuplicateExtensionFinder.exe -delete"
  • Cannot enable (administrator usage): If running VS as administrator, and Conveyor isn't enabled (the Tools menu item is deactivated) you will need to go to "Tools | Options | Environment | Extensions and Updates" and check "Load per user extensions when running as administrator".
  • Invisible tool window: If the Conveyor window doesn't appear, please restart Visual Studio and try running the project again (if it still won't work, resetting your VS settings should fix it Tools->Import and Export Settings Wizard->Reset all settings->select “No, just reset settings, overwriting my current settings”->Choose a Default Collection of settings).
  • Closed the window: You can reopen the Conveyor window by going to Tools->Conveyor to disable it, and then repeat to re-enable it - the next time you run the project the Conveyor window should appear.
  • SSL: The first time you run a project using HTTPS you will be prompted to install our testing certificate, this is normal and you should allow it for more stream-lined experience (otherwise you'll be warned by the browser not to visit your web app).
  • IP address: If connections to the remote URL provided by Conveyor do not work (eg timeout), please try using a different IP address for your machine (use CMD and type ipconfig to see IP addresses). In addition please ensure you have opened the port on your local firewall and check that access to Visual Studio is not blocked by a firewall rule.
  • Android emulator: If you cannot connect to the remote URL from an Android emulator then please try using the IP 10.0.2.2 with the Conveyor provided port number, eg. https://10.0.2.2:45455/
  • Firewall: Check there are no BLOCK firewall rules that are overriding your ALLOW rule.  By default, BLOCK overrides.
  • If Conveyor cannot find any web projects (when you run the project), please send a screen shot of your solution structure to support@conveyor.cloud so we can investigate.
  • Windows 7: You need to enable TLS 1.2 please see https://help.runbox.com/enabling-tls-1-2-on-windows-7/

Technical support is available by emailing support@conveyor.cloud