System and method for tunneling network requests to a device via a persistent connection

A method of establishing a persistent connection between a client and a device, wherein the client is connected to the Internet and wherein the device is connected to a private network, wherein the private network comprises at least one server, comprising:

• a. turning on a device;
• b. connecting the device to a first server instance;
• c. using the first server instance to listen on a port accessible from the private network, wherein the port is not accessible from the outside;
• d. recording in memory an association between the device, the first server instance, and the port;
• e. if a network request to access the device is received from the client, performing the following actions:
• i. routing the network request to a second server instance, wherein the second server instance is one of the following:
• a server instance distinct from the first server instance, the first server instance;
• ii. using the second server instance to check whether the client is authorized to access the device;
• iii. using the second server instance to look up the first server instance and port associated with the device;
• iv. using the second server instance to establish a connection to the first server instance and the port;
• v. using the first server instance to proxy the network request to the connection between the second server instance and the first server instance;
• vi. on the device, routing the network connection to an application or service running on the device.