Sharing Internet connection via ssh

Question

I have desktop and two laptops with Ubuntu. Normally, internet is shared via router with one port for PPP to provider and four for computers. But router broke and now it works only as switch. So, if I plug all my computers and providers wire into it, I have local network, but only one computer at time can access Internet via ppp. So, I login to Internet with my desktop and use ssh to access it from my laptops. That allows me to run applications and surf Internet on my laptops, but no full access to Internet.

So, the question is - is there a way to share Internet via ssh, so the laptops will have it in same way as connecting to it directly or via router (of course, I will get new router, but the question has theoretical interest and applications like tunneling traffic via safe machine).

Answer 1

Does it have to be over SSH? It's much simpler to share the connection using standard routing. Since this is all inside the same LAN, you don't lose any security.

If you do need an encrypted connection, consider OpenVPN instead. Run the VPN server on your desktop and connect from laptops; use the same instructions above for connection sharing.

The SSH protocol is not suited for low-level tunneling. However, OpenSSH does have very basic VPN support with the -w option.