Connect to my computer at work

nmansour · 01-28-2008, 09:30 PM

Hi All,

My problem is so simple I guess, yet I searched and could not get solution. I want to be to connect to my box at work. I want to be able to have a console so I can work as "if I am in front of my computer at work". The connection should be secured, preferably through "ssh"

My work computer is in my Department, I am a graduate student, and the IP address is a dhcp.

I apologize, in advance, if this is a repeat of another thread.

Thanks a lot,

Noha

gilead · 01-28-2008, 09:56 PM

Are you connecting through a (work) firewall? Does it translate the addresses (ie is the address of the work PC a "real" address or a private address)? Do the administrators where you work allow this sort of thing?

The easiest way to approach it is to diagram all of the important points between the 2 ends (your home PC and your work PC) and determine what you need to do to successfully get traffic through. For example:

Code:

+---------+        +---------------+
| Home PC |--------+ Home firewall +----------------+
+---------+        +---------------+                |
  No problem         Outbound                       |
  here, ssh          connections                    |
  client             to ssh allowed          "The Internet"
  connections OK                                    |
                                                    |
+---------+        +---------------+                |
| Work PC +--------+ Work firewall +----------------+
+---------+        +---------------+
  Running ssh        Admins do allow
  daemon and         incoming ssh
  accepting          connections and
  connections        internal IP
  on port 22         addresses are
                     public

I'm oversimplifying just to illustrate this...

nmansour · 01-28-2008, 10:01 PM

Thanks for the reply,

1- I think the Univ have a firewall (so let's assume that)
2- My PC at work has an address that is assigned automatically, and it is not a real IP address.
3- I am the admin of my computer at work! (weak admin)

Noha

PS.

How to run the ssh daemon and make it accept connections through port 22?

juergen · 01-28-2008, 10:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nmansour

[...]
How to run the ssh daemon and make it accept connections through port 22?

This is not your most fundamental problem; the real problem is that if your work machine sits on a LAN and gets its address via DHCP, this is probably not a routable address, i.e., it is only useful to connect to from inside the LAN. but not from the outside world. Is it something like 192.168.x.x or 10.x.x.x? If so, you can't connect to it from the Internet without help from your network administrator.

As for your initial question: Your profile indicates that you use Fedora. Is that the machine that you are trying to connect to? If so,

Code:

yum install openssh-server

ought to do the trick, if I remember correctly. You may have to adjust Fedora's firewall to let the connection through (should be under Main Menu > System Settings > Security Level), but again, if your internal IP address isn't routable, all that won't do much for you.

nmansour · 01-30-2008, 06:15 PM

Hi again,

I checked with the IT department and they said that I use the university network at home too (to connect to the internet) so now this means that I use the university network both at home and at work.

How may I now configure ssh so I can connect from my home computer to my work one?

Noha

gilead · 01-30-2008, 06:30 PM

To get from the internet to your work PC requires one of 2 things. Either the IP address of your work PC has to be publicly routable or the firewall at work has to forward the connection to your PC.

If neither of those are possible, it may be possible to set up a tunnel from work to home and use it in reverse. google returns some pages that I can't access here at work and the info at http://www.openssh.org/faq.html#2.11 may be useful.

framp · 01-31-2008, 04:54 PM

Will work with tunneling. But make sure you don't violate security rules !