You want to connect from the internet to your computer. Internet is an insecure medium to use. There are a few options. You could use a VPN like OpenVPN, or you could use Secured Shell using OpenSSH.
Here is how you can connect to your computer using SSH.
Pre-requisites:
- OpenSSH and putty installed on your Linux desktop (in my case, Fedora 14).
- SSH service running on your computer.
| 1. | Check for pre-requisitesOpen up a terminal window on your Linux computer. See here for more detail. At the $ prompt, type following (commands to type in italics): $ rpm -qa | grep “openssh” <enter> If both above commands find the respective packages, you will see them listed. If not, install the packages. You can install them from the System -> Administration -> Add/Remove Software. |
| 2. | Create your SSH key pair for strong authentication. In a terminal window, enter the commands as shown below. $ ssh-keygen -t rsa <enter>Just accept the defaults, and enter a strong passphrase (password) for your key. This command generates a key pair in your home directory folder .ssh, for you to provide strong authentication when you connect over the internet into your computer.$ cd ~/.ssh <enter> $ ls <enter> You should see 2 files id_rsa and id_rsa.pub in the folder. You are now done with set up your keys for SSH. If you need to set up the key on other computers, you can repeat the step as many times:
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| 3 | Set up your SSH server configuration file. Login as root at the terminal $ prompt $ su <enter>Enter your root password. # cd /etc/ssh <enter> # vi sshd_config <enter>Search for the following lines and change them as shown below: RSAAuthentication yes PubkeyAuthentication yes AuthorizedKeysFile .ssh/authorized_keys :wq Restart SSH daemon / service to make the changes effective. Now you can test your SSH configuration. |
| 4 | Test your SSH connection From a terminal window, type: $ ssh localhost <enter> Accept the key fingerprint and enter your passphrase for the keys as you did in step 2 above. If all is well, you are connected. |
| 5 | Connect to your computer without certificatesIf you want to connect without certificates, you can connect using SSH with: $ ssh localhost / <IP address> where <IP address> = your computer’s IP address. If you use this method, from an untrusted medium such as the internet, you are exposed to a security vulnerability. Therefore, it is recommended to use certificate authentication when connecting to your computer, using SSH. |
You can use putty to set up SSH-2 on a Windows computer.
