SSH Tunnel - need some help on this
 

Here's the situation. I have recently ditched Windows and gone to using Linux full time at home (Suse 9.3 Pro). However, I get calls every now and then at home that will require me to log onto the network at work to run an application to fix a problem. In Windows, I was using the Nokia Secure Connector to VPN in to my network at work. However, I can't find anything that I could use in Linux to get that accomplished. I have gotten the application setup and running under Wine. But, the obvious problem is that I cannot connect to work.

SSH isn't being blocked by the corporate firewall, so I'm needing to setup a SSH Tunnel on a machine I have here at work (Mandriva 10.1).

My question is can anyone point me to a document that breaks down what I need to do is very basic steps, or has the time to explain it to me on here?

I'm assuming I would need to forward all SSH requests on the router here to the Mandriva machine? Once that happens, what would I need to do on the Mandriva machine, and what would I need to setup on my Suse machine at home to allow me to "log onto" the network?

I can use Putty to connect to that Mandriva machine while I'm in the office, so I know some form of SSH is running on it. I just need someone to help me get this started.

Thanks.

well firstly there appears to be a linux ssl client more than readily available from Nokia, how this works and where you actually get it from i wouldn't know, back to your vendor or such. Additionally an existing SSL client may well work with the VPN concentrator or firewall on the server side. So primarily i'd encourage you to explore a formal solution but....

SSH tunnels are normally created client side and so you'd want to be able to point your ssh client on linux at a port on a remote firewall that will either forward you to the box itself or another suitable box. in terms of actually setting it up, the puTTY docs give a nice friendly guide on what tunneling is, just ignore the puTTY / Windows specific stuff: http://people.hmdc.harvard.edu/~mathpre/vnc/putty/ and also a number of other docs help you understand what tunneling is all about: http://www.openoffice.org/scdocs/ddSSHGuide.html

Seems that it is also possible to set up a server initiated tunnel though, which means that you should preumably have much less problems with firewalling as such, as you say you can already reach your home machine from work. have a look here, may be all you need to know... http://www.brandonhutchinson.com/ssh_tunnelling.html It ends up being a little cryptic, but the benefits are huge for a minute overhead.

Thanks for your reply man. I certainly appreciate it.