OK Linux gurus.. Access linux behind a firewall

[K9EZ]

I am looking to find a way to access Ubuntu boxes behind a firewall, without opening any more ports. I have a bunch of ports already opened to one of our servers, but dont have the ports mapped back to the boxes I am trying to reach. I guess I am looking for a solution like GoToMy PC but free and for Linux and only for Putty/ssh.

Thoughts?

[BroadcastDoc]

Yeah. Ditch Linux and install Windows 7 or OS X!

[K9EZ]

Yeah. Ditch Linux and install Windows 7 or OS X!

What? Have you gone insane?

Actually I may have a home brew fix using reverse SSH. Still open to ideas......

[techboywi]

Ubuntu itself, does not have a built in firewall, so if the computer is not behind a firewall, anyone and everyone will be able to see it. Now...since it is behind a firewall, the only way to get to the box is by opening ports. Now, there is a remote desktop application built into Ubuntu desktop. It works similarly to VNC. I have not used it myself, so I really can't speak on if it work in this particular instance

[Tim Burke]

I use one Linux box open to the Internet (via VPN), and connect to other internal boxes via SSH.

[K9EZ]

we found a way to write a script to have the remote box "check in" to the main server every X minutes. When it checks in the server can send a command that will allow reverse SSH to kick in. Since we have port 22 open at all of the locations, we **should** be good to go.

Thats the plan at least.

[eadler]

I use ssh on a nonstandard port and then push things across. When I really need to play around like I'm on the network, I tell my system to use a socks5 proxy for all traffic except to that server and I create a Dynamic port forward (the proxy is 127.0.0.1:[the port I forwarded dynamically]).

[Sam Buca]

I use one Linux box open to the Internet (via VPN), and connect to other internal boxes via SSH.

This is my vote. I don't think messing around with other methods is reliable. If you absolutely cannot have ssh open to the outside, it's the way to go.

[radiowave911]

Since you mentioned the Goto MY PC thing, I am assuming you want a GUI. The best thing to do is to tunnel X over SSH. You need to have a port open for SSH to listen on, however it is not difficult to set up. I don't have the instructions handy or memorized, however a Google search for tunneling X over SSH should give oyu something useful. X Clients are available for Windows platforms. I rather like bringing up a desktop from a real OS on a Windows box

If you already have SSH open to a single Linux box, you can use that box to forward your session to another box. You should be able to tunnel the X session the whole way through.

[eadler]

Actually, the X Server is what you need on Windows (XMing is a good one) -- X uses somewhat odd terminology, the Server creates the screen that applications ("Clients") connect to, so you run a Server on your client machine and then run a client application on your ssh server and it connects across.