Solution Number:
5978
Name:
Tunneling BB Client Through ssh
Description:
Tunneling through ssh is a common practice to secure remote email or ftp access and encrypt wireless traffic susceptible to eavesdropping. Big Business Client uses TCP/IP to communicate with Big Business Server and should work with most security and encryption methods such as VPN (Virtual Private Network) hardware or software.
This Solution provides a simple example, using the Mac OS X built-in support for ssh (secure shell). (5978)
Status:
Complete
Picture:
Solution:
There are countless solutions for encrypting remote or wireless connections, all of which should work to connect Big Business Client to Big Business Server.
This Solution provides a simple example, using the Mac OS X built-in support for ssh (secure shell) and port forwarding to send BB Client traffic via an encrypted tunnel. This solution may be impractical but serves to illustrate the concepts involved.
This example uses the simplest possible configuration, without any additional tools to automatically connect, to tunnel from an OS X laptop running Big Business Client and connect to an OS X computer running Big Business Server on a local wireless network, so the traffic is not susceptible to eavesdropping.
Setup:
1. On the Mac OS X computer running Big Business Server go to the System Preferences to the Sharing (Control Panel) and enable Remote Login.
2. Note the log in name displayed as "user@ip_address" at the bottom of the window ("Alice@192.168.0.125" in the picture).
3. On the client computer , launch Terminal and type:
ssh -L 19813:ip_address:19813 user@ip_address
using ip_address and user@ip_address from the log in information noted in Step 2 and hit return.
4. At the prompt enter the password for the user. You will see the user prompt for the server computer (e.g. Big-Computer:~user$) indicating the encrypted connection is establised.
5. Launch BB Client and immediately hold down the Option/Alt key.
6. Go to the Remote/Custom tab and enter a name (e.g. "bb server") and the loopback address, 127.0.0.1, and connect.
Basically, BB Client is connecting to the local port 19813 and this traffic is forwarded to the server on the encrypted port (23), then forwarded to port 19813 for BB Server. This is the jist of the Terminal command in Step 3.
7. After Quitting BB Client, at the user prompt in Terminal type, exit, and Quit Terminal to end the connection.
Again, there are numerous tools available to automate encrypted connections and provide more robust security. VPN solutions, for example, connect the remote workstation to the local network for access to other resources and simpler connection of BB Client (select Server on the TCP/IP tab or enter Server's address on the Remote/Custom tab).
Related:
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