Unable to surf net over work/college ? Want to surf net invisibly ? Well,we have a solution for that,SSH Tunneling.An SSH tunnel is an encrypted tunnel created through an SSH protocol connection. SSH tunnels may be used to tunnel unencrypted traffic over a network through an encrypted channel.In easy language,you can surf net without being monitored and even surf blocked sites too.SSH Is pretty awesome.
Without leaving your seat,you have a way to control a computer which ay be located anywhere on this planet.
And if you have access to a PC with an SSHd installed, you can channelize your traffic through that computer,which is particularly is useful in situations when -
- The site is normally inaccessible from your current location (School/Work)
- You do not want your connection monitored (You’re using a WiFi hotspot/You’re in a country that monitors/censors your internet usage)
In this
tutorial,I will be using Firefox on Gentoo Linux , but it its applicable to all distributions of
linux.Step One: Setting Up the TunnelAll common Linux distributions come with openssh packages. To check whether you have ssh installed already type the command "
which ssh". Gentoo has opensh package preinstalled,so no tension :)
First we need to SSH to the server that we want to tunnel through, open up terminal and type the following command
ssh -ND @
Replace with a port number of your choice; This will be the LOCAL port which
Firefox will use to tunnel the traffic later on…Try to choose a high and random port number so as nobody scans or sneaks them in (system admin and firewalls)
Practical Example:
ssh -ND 2945 rishabh.cs07@sviet.ac.in
Now enter your password as usual, and it will hang after authentication, which is perfectly normal as it isn’t an interactive session- Now minimize the terminal and open Firefox.
Step Two: Configuring FirefoxIn
Firefox, Go to (Depending upon which version you are using)
preferences -> advanced -> Network -> connection settings
or
Tools –> options –> Advanced –> Network –> settings
A new window should appear,select the “
Manual Proxy Configuration” option, you’ll need to type some information in the ‘SOCKS Host’ section.
Host: localhost
Port: Port you used in the SSH command earlier.
Save your changes..Just to make sure it worked, check your IP with an online IP checker :)
Happy Surfing