how to setup a windows home machine so that I can ssh into it?

I've been wanting to have the ability to ssh into my Win 7 home machine from my laptop, from anywhere and I'm not sure how to do this. Can someone give me some advice or point me to an article that could show me how to do this? Also, would this affect the security of my home machine (sometimes I do banking there)?

The home machine has windows 7 Home X64 bit OS under a Linksys router. The laptop is running Ubuntu Lucid.

Thanks!

Damian Young

Posted 2010-07-13T02:57:16.993

Reputation: 23

Please excuse me for being nosy, but what do you want to reach your pc for via SSH? I'm just curious. – DerMike – 2011-10-28T14:22:33.697

Answers

I'd recommend installing OpenSSH server with Cygwin (the method is the same as Vista). In your router you'll need to forward port 22 to your Windows 7 Box. Of course, opening any facet of your machine to the public lowers security, but you can always take precautions:

Disallow any administrative accounts to login via SSH, you can elevate in Windows where necessary (somewhat like the sudo practice on a Linux machine)
Use iptables/ipchains to only allow your remote IP address (assuming a static lease)
Use SSH keys

John T

Posted 2010-07-13T02:57:16.993

Reputation: 149 037

2I'd also recommend using some port other than 22, to reduce the chance of someone finding it open and trying to exploit it. – garyjohn – 2010-07-13T04:30:10.683

@garyjohn:...and use a port above 1024, as port scanners like nmap could still find it. However, I think one is pretty safe with passwords in conjunction with SSH keys. – paradroid – 2011-08-09T16:45:54.650

If all you want is SSH, installing the full Cygwin is overkill. There are standalone alternatives. I've had success with freeSSHd.

– matthew – 2011-08-09T17:02:27.297

This is really a three part question;

Setting up the SSH service, which John T has covered perfectly,
Setting up port forwarding for port 22 (of whichever port you choose)-
Having the service be accessible from a sensible hostname instead of an IP address. I use DynDns Free, but other services are availiable.

Good Luck!

Andrew Bolster

Posted 2010-07-13T02:57:16.993

Reputation: 1 198

You could use MobaSSH, which is a free SSH server for Windows and compatible with any regular SSH client.

The other answers have covered the security, port-forwarding and dynamic DNS issues already.

paradroid

Posted 2010-07-13T02:57:16.993

Reputation: 20 970