Well, I'm not sure how much easier this is, but this is what I did:
Generate a key:
ssh-keygen -t dsa
Put it on the server you connect to:
cat ~/.ssh/id_dsa.pub | ssh -l username ip.of.server 'cat >> ~/.ssh/authorized_keys2'
You shouldn't need to enter a password when you log in.
To make it a quick-start thing, try this:
Start cygwin, and at the command line, type this:
echo '#!/bin/bash' >> /cygdrive/c/cygwin/goserv.h
echo 'ssh -ND 9999 user@server' >> /cygdrive/c/cygwin/goserv.sh
Look for your cygwin.bat file (it should be in your cygwin install directory, which on my machine, is c:\cygwin). Open it with Notepad, look for this line:
bash --login -i
and change it to this:
bash --login -i %1
Then save it. This won't hurt your normal use of cygwin. Now, create a new file in Notepad, and add this line:
c:\cygwin\cygwin.bat /cygdrive/c/cygwin/goserv.sh
Now save that as goserv.bat on your desktop. On my computer, double-clicking that file will create the tunnel.
As for Firefox - do you need to use it for non-tunnelled use? I use Chrome for regular use, and Firefox for tunnelled use. If you're really attached to Firefox, maybe you could install the portable version and leave that set up for proxy use.
Thank you for your help! I uninstalled Myentunnel and installed Tunnelier as suggested. Your instructions were very helpful and the installation went smoothly. I also added the proxy with FoxyProxy and so far it looks good. I had a slight problem - when I would turn the proxy on, I would get a message saying the proxy server was refusing connection. I talked to my brother and he's checking things on his end to see if there's a problem there. I'll keep you updated on what happens. I just wanted to thank you for your help!! – bossytoe – 2010-01-21T09:55:47.127