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I need a way to access my home network (well, specifically just one server on the network) from anywhere. Usually I would use Himachi (free VPN client, made things very easy) but it has since become commercial and I would rather something simpler than setting my server up as VPN server.
Is there any other secure way for me to access my server over the internet (keep in mind I don't have a static IP)
n0pe
Posted 2012-01-18T17:14:53.747
Reputation: 14 506
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You did not specify how you want to connect.
But you can also use logmein free. Its pretty good.
But you can do a bit more work, and use built in windows remote desktop which is great, without VPN's, just open up the right ports on your router, and use DynDNS to udpate your IP to a DNS name.
eg. no-ip.org
Windows Remote Desktop is encrypted.
But if you want undetectable tunnels, and high encryption, you can install an openssl on your pc/server.
Then you can use putty
Like I have a BSD server at home, with OpenSSL and it works brilliant.
Basically what it does, on your local computer point to source port number and that gets tunnelled to destination (the servers local port) - usually 127.0.0.1:8080
Example.
At work I would like to browse my server intranet as if i were at home.
So in my browsers when i browse to `localhost:888' it is actually tunnelling to my servers port 80.
My works internet is locked down and does not allow anything past it, but using SSH tunnels I can do what I like.. from my PC.
So you could forward to you remote desktop port for example and using the computer outside the network just connect to localhost:port and it will tunnel to the destinations computers port. So if you have another server under 192.168.0.150 you can use that destination ip:port instead.
You will have to open up these SSH ports on your modem at home though for this to work, and its not amazingly fast, but its faster than VPN over internet, and its secure too.
Piotr Kula
Posted 2012-01-18T17:14:53.747
Reputation: 3 538
Does this still work without a static IP? – n0pe – 2012-01-18T17:29:54.423
You will need to setup a DynDNS account- i just edited my post. I use DynDNS and it works a charm! My router updated the IP every time it reboots, and checks it every 5 minutes. But isntead of OpenSSH you can jsut use remote desktop. I prefer that on windows machines – Piotr Kula – 2012-01-18T17:32:46.773
I already have ssh on my linux box (I don't have any windows machines so dyndns and ssh seem like a good option). I'll try setting this up and let you know how it goes :) thanks – n0pe – 2012-01-18T17:38:39.153
I've done this, it's really easy. I use it nearly every day. – Rob – 2012-01-18T18:22:13.963