How-To: Route internet traffic through an SSH Proxy

Say you’re out somewhere (a wi-fi hotspot) for example, and you either want to access a site that’s blocked or you want a little more security, you can create a SSH tunnel from your computer to a remote computer. If you don’t have a UNIX box at home that you can connect to, a web hosting account works great! Here’s how to do it the quick an easy way, with a GUI, and then a different, slightly more complicated way.

The Quick and Easy, Automated Way:

  • Download a free utility called SSHTunnel
  • Fill in your SSH account info in the ‘Servers’ tab (note: SSH usually connects over port 22)
  • Go back to sessions, and select either Ethernet or Airport proxy (depending on your connection), select your server, and click on.
  • That’s it! SSH will turn on, and all internet traffic will be routed through the remote SSH host via an encrypted tunnel. (Note: SSH internet tunnel usage will probably count against your monthly hosting bandwidth - so, be careful!)

The More Advanced GUI Way (A little complicated, and unnecessary):

  • Use SSH Tunnel Manager
  • Setup your server, and enable it (see below for more) – For this technique, you have to set up each and every port redirect (HTTP, for example, is usually over port 80)
  • Setup your SOCKS proxy (see below)
  • Browse away!

The Down and Dirty CLI Way:

  • Open up the Terminal, and type ’ssh -ND 9999 user@host.com’ (9999 is the local port to be forwarded – you can use whatever as long as its not already in use)
  • Enter your password when prompted (or set up SSH key exchange for password-less access)
  • It will look as if nothing has happened – the ‘-n’ flag cancels the SSH interactive prompt
  • Go into your browser, and enter the just setup SSH proxy info (Safari uses system proxies, FireFox has its own settings) – Select SOCKS proxy, and enter ‘localhost’ as the server and ‘9999′ as the port
  • Browse away!

For more, check out these posts:

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