ip-bridge

A TCP proxy that gives serverless apps (Vercel, Netlify, etc.) a static outgoing IP for MongoDB Atlas.

Serverless platforms use dynamic IPs, making it impossible to whitelist your app in MongoDB Atlas. ip-bridge runs on a VM with a static IP and transparently forwards your MongoDB connections — no code changes needed.

Next.js on Vercel (dynamic IP) → ip-bridge on Oracle VM (static IP) → MongoDB Atlas

Install

npm install -g ip-bridge

Setup on your VM (Oracle Cloud / AWS)

# 1. Create .env config
ip-bridge init

# 2. Edit .env — set MONGODB_TARGET to your Atlas cluster host
nano .env

# 3. Start the proxy
ip-bridge start

Configuration

.env on your VM:

# Port to listen on (MongoDB default is 27017)
PORT=27017

# Your MongoDB Atlas cluster host and port
# Find this in Atlas: Connect → Drivers → copy the host from the URI
# Format: your-cluster.mongodb.net:27017
MONGODB_TARGET=your-cluster.mongodb.net:27017

To find MONGODB_TARGET: go to MongoDB Atlas → Connect → Drivers → copy the hostname from the connection string.

Usage in your Next.js / Vercel app

No code changes needed. Just update your environment variable:

# .env.local (Vercel environment variables)
# Before:
MONGODB_URI=mongodb+srv://user:[email protected]/dbname

# After:
MONGODB_URI=mongodb://user:pass@vm-ip:27017/dbname

Your connectDB, Mongoose models, and all queries stay exactly the same.

Deployment

Oracle Cloud (recommended — always free)

1. Sign up at oracle.com/cloud/free
2. Create an Always Free VM instance (Ampere A1 or AMD E2)
3. Note the public IP — this is your static IP
4. Open port 27017 in the Oracle Cloud security list
5. SSH into the VM and run the setup above
6. Whitelist the VM's public IP in MongoDB Atlas → Network Access

Keep it running with PM2

npm install -g pm2
pm2 start "ip-bridge start" --name ip-bridge
pm2 save && pm2 startup

Other providers

• AWS EC2 (free tier, 12 months)
• Any VPS with a static IP (DigitalOcean, Hetzner, etc.)

How it works

ip-bridge is a TCP proxy using Node.js built-in net and tls modules. It listens on port 27017, accepts raw MongoDB connections, and forwards them to Atlas over TLS. From Atlas's perspective, all traffic comes from one IP — your VM.

Security

• Atlas only accepts connections from your VM's whitelisted IP
• MongoDB credentials are still required — anyone connecting through the VM still needs a valid username and password
• Only one dependency: dotenv

License

MIT