Hello, I am using a new workstation which I have total control over, and is connected to a university network. I would like to be able to SSH into this workstation from home. I know that my university has a VPN which I can connect to.

I don't know much about how VPN or SSH work, so I'm looking for a bit of guidance to get everything set up. Firstly, I know I need to install the SSH daemon on the workstation, and make any necessary configurations. This I think I can find enough resources on my own to get running.

Once that's done, however, I'm a bit unclear how to actually find and connect to the server - do I simply log into the school VPN, then access the computer through its internal IP address, as if I was connected from inside the network? If not, then how should I know the correct IP address to use?

Also, I'm unsure if my school dynamically assigns IP addresses or not - is there a way to configure things so the IP address of the server won't change over time?

Thanks for any help.

Does your workstation currently have a public IP or a private IP address (private IPs defined by RFC 1918 are 192.168.x.x or 10.x.x.x or 172.[16-31].x.x). If you currently have a private IP, you would need to connect to your school's VPN and then ssh to that address. if you have a public IP, you may be able to SSH to it directly, however your school's netadmins may have blocked this.

If your school uses DHCP then you're really stuck with it in most cases. However, you could ask your netadmins to create a static lease for you so your workstation always gets the same IP. If you have a compelling educational case for doing so, they might just help you here.

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Ha, well it appears the workstation does have a public IP, so I was able to SSH into it no problem...

that was far easier than I expected. Thanks anyway!