SSH into Ubuntu Linux on a box without a static IP address

Question

Basically, how do I do it?

I'd like to connect to my home computer from work, but my internet is routed through my apartment building's network, so I don't have the static IP address I'm accustomed to having.

How do I go about accessing my home computer through SSH (I'll be using Putty at work if it matters) if my home computer doesn't have a static IP address?

Answer 1

I think you may want to look into a service that can provide you with a dns domain name for your home computer. The following is one I have used with great success over the years: DynDNS.com

Basically, they use a service that runs on your computer that will update the dns record whenever the IP address of your home computer/router changes.

Answer 2

Within your LAN, set your router to forward the required ports to your local computer's IP/host. Then get the DynDNS service to acquire a hostname for your router. If the router's external IP is dynamic, use ddclient to auto-update when new addresses are assigned.

Answer 3

You're unable to get to your computer because you're behind a NAT'ing system of some sort. In other words, your computer is on a private, internal network and being NAT'd via the building's NAT device, under their control so there is no easy way to get back in, in this sense.

One way would be to create a reverse SSH tunnel initiated from your workstation, outbound over the Internet, destined to an ssh daemon that you can connect to from home.

Once this is established, then you can ssh to localhost that you set up the reverse tunnel on (which would be redirected, via the reverse tunnel) to your system, from the ssh host that you connected to, via the reverse tunnel.

Hope this helps?

Afterwards, you may want to look into writing a small script for a cronjob to keep this connection alive, reconnect on disconnect, etc. and use ssh-agent properly, for passwordless connections - if set up properly, the passphrase would only need to be set once (if that).

Answer 4

the quickest and cleanest solution to solve this, to access SSH shell to your computer without IP Public from desktop or just a smart phone (e.g. Android) by installing robotito in your computer that u want to access SSH remotely.

• This will allow you to access SSH using from Google Talk Client Apps anywhere.
• There is no need for a public IP address or special setting.
• I'ts Free and Open Source, Not Paying any application services anymore.
• No need to open SSH port (keep your computer save)
• No need to open any tunneling (e.g. VPN or somethink like that)

I made a script (tested on my raspbian OS in Raspberry Pi) so u can easily install robotito on Raspberry Pi, Debian or Ubuntu Box(debian package distribution). this is the steps to get your linux box remotable:

1. Open Shell Command or u can call it Terminal, go to your home folder, Download installer script by command :

   $wget https://opengateway.googlecode.com/files/robotito

2. after that running the script by entering command :

   $sudo ./robotito

3. and then you can edit file credentials.rb from config folder if robotito using your gtalk account and save it by pressing ctrl+x and y . Default is using nano editor.

4. running the robotito from robotito folder by command

   $cd robotito

   $./jabbershd start

5. Now that this is done you can use ssh from any google talk client, don't forget to add the robotito gtalk account to your google talk account and test it with chatting each other before using the account.

Answer 5

You can try using something like STUN or some other NAT punch-through tool.

Answer 6

you might find it easier to use a service such as hamachi or other zero-config vpn solutions. Join the two machines into the same vpn network, and ssh into its hamachi IP.