SSH Tunnel (Mac OSX & Linux)
Written by vaheeD on December 31, 2012
“A secure shell (SSH) tunnel consists of an encrypted tunnel created through a SSHprotocol connection. Users may set up SSH tunnels to transfer unencrypted traffic over a network through an encrypted channel.” – Wikipedia
Launch an SSH tunnel
To initiate your SSH tunnel, simply open Mac OSX / Linux Terminal and connect to your remote server via SSH with the following flags:
ssh -D 1090 -C -N username@yourserverip
This will launch our SSH tunnel on port 8080 and route all traffic (securely) through the server at example.com.
Browse the Web with Your SSH Tunnel (Chrome)
Now, let’s start browsing the web using our new SSH tunnel.
Mac OSX:
- Open Google Chrome
- Select ‘Chrome’ up the top left
- Select ‘Preferences’
- Select ‘Show advanced settings…’
- Select ‘Change proxy settings…’
- Select ‘SOCKS Proxy’
- Enter ’127.0.0.1′
- Enter port ’1090′
- Save changes by selecting ‘OK’
Fedora Linux:
- Open Google Chrome
- Select the wrench icon on the top right
- Select ‘Settings’
- Select ‘Show advanced settings…’
- Select ‘Change proxy settings…’
- Select ‘SOCKS Proxy’
- Enter ’127.0.0.1′
- Enter port ’1090′
- Save changes by selecting ‘OK’
Search Google for ‘my ip’ and take a look at what your IP address is now. Cool right?
Exiting the SSH Tunnel
To exit the SSH tunnel, simply disable the SOCKS proxy within your browser.
Hope this helps, let me know if you have any suggestions in the comments below!