gallantca said:
Do you use a proxy over SSH or do the equivalent of a remote desktop to another machine ?
I used to have only a secure private network remote desktop set up but a few places I went to for work purposes did not allow direct outside connections of this type.
Most places where I work (I'm an independant IT contractor) allow for SSH connections (port 22) so I installed an SSH server at home with an http/https proxy server. I believe that the free wi-fi in Montreal also allows for SSH connections.
This allows me to open only 1 port on my router (port 22) using specific time/date rules (My d-link router has a schedule feature built-in). Once I connect through SSH to my home server pc with certain tunnels specified (local/source port forwarding), I configure my internet proxy server settings on my local machine to point to my server machine's internal 192 IP address at home and I'm able browse the internet as easily and securely as if I was at home.
This allows me to browse the internet securely as well as having my browsing, chatting, etc. habits not being monitored. It also allows me to go through websites that are "blocked" by whatever company/place that my computer is connected to. Anyone monitoring my internet connection would only see that I established an SSH connection to my machine at home. They would have no idea of what I'm transmitting back/forth because the traffic is entirely encrypted. They wouldn't even know what webpages I viewed and what messages I typed in terms of IM chatting since I'm not using THEIR web proxy server for my connection.
I now exclusively use the SSH set-up because I consider my SSH set-up to be more secure than my regular private network remote desktop set-up. I also only have the SSH port open on my router and not the Remote Desktop port. I might still use Remote Desktop but now I go through my SSH tunnel.