Remoting to natted machines?

Fingel · 2012-02-06 18:18:53

Hey all,
Just recently started a project and I was curious if anyone knew of a pre-existing solution to the problem of having multiple machines to manage, and some being natted. Something like Hamachi? I was thinking of maybe home brewing something using reverse SSH tunnels, but it sounds like a pain. I know this can't be a new problem so there must be a solution out there somewhere. Any tips would be appreciated!

Edit - Also forgot to mention I can run a VPS, which might help as a mid-way between the client and servers.

Last edited by Fingel (2012-02-06 18:23:22)

R00KIE · 2012-02-06 18:24:42

Router port forwarding, ssh port forwarding, I would forward some ports in the router, makes for less hassle.

Fingel · 2012-02-06 20:13:45

R00KIE wrote:

Router port forwarding, ssh port forwarding, I would forward some ports in the router, makes for less hassle.

Well the problem is I don't have control over the networks the machines will be behind. I guess I didn't mention that. Port forwarding is not an option.

R00KIE · 2012-02-06 21:13:49

Even if you can't administer the network, if you have to manage some machines behind nat, then someone will have to give you direct access to at least one of the machines I'd say.

I'll leave it to more experienced users to propose more options.

rwd · 2012-02-11 20:55:15

I think you could use a reverse SSH tunnel for that. I've never used this myself though.

Last edited by rwd (2012-02-11 20:56:07)

pmd · 2012-02-12 00:48:08

Assuming that you have access to at least one not natted machine you can consider setup VPN, but doing it for limited time and/or less than 10 servers would be an overkill. Just stick with SSH tunnels, it's not that hard. You would be surprised how complicated setups and combinations of SSH tunnels ppl tend to use every day and it's just works

ewaller · 2012-02-12 01:02:23

It kind of depends on whether you have control over the routers/computers that are doing the NATing. It is really pretty easy to make a reverse ssh tunnel triggered of off an email.

revellion · 2012-02-12 12:58:00

He could put up an OpenVPN server on the VPS and have one of the NATed boxes connect to it as a client, then setup a NAT on the NATTED machine's tunnel endpoint. That way he could ssh into any of the hosts behind the nat from the VPS .

dunz0r · 2012-02-12 16:03:36

The best solution is probably an OpenVPN-server on your VPS, and then configure the rest of the machines to connect to it. Set it up to use some common port on your VPS(like 443) in case the natted machines connect through a firewall

Make sure you're allowed to do it by asking the administrators of the networks first.

Fingel · 2012-02-17 17:51:13

Thanks for the advice guys. I think I'll go with ssh tunnels and a bunch of scripting. As the machines come online they will "check in" periodically using HTTP to the control server. The response will be the name of the machine(s) that are requested to set up a reverse SSH tunnel. I plan on writing a web interface for it, a dashboard showing all machines that have checked in and the ability to request a tunnel to be set up for them. I'll release the tool publicly and post back here if anyone is interested.
Of course, any other ideas or suggestions are welcome.

xxxspuddy · 2012-02-17 22:37:06

How about something like sslexplorer
http://sourceforge.net/projects/sslexplorer or its fork http://sourceforge.net/projects/openvpn-als

Unfortunately it's not maintained anymore after being bought out by barracuda, but the latest commuity version works really well and takes a lot of hassle out of manually configuring everything

Arch Linux

#1 2012-02-06 18:18:53

Remoting to natted machines?

#2 2012-02-06 18:24:42

Re: Remoting to natted machines?

#3 2012-02-06 20:13:45

Re: Remoting to natted machines?

#4 2012-02-06 21:13:49

Re: Remoting to natted machines?

#5 2012-02-11 20:55:15

Re: Remoting to natted machines?

#6 2012-02-12 00:48:08

Re: Remoting to natted machines?

#7 2012-02-12 01:02:23

Re: Remoting to natted machines?

#8 2012-02-12 12:58:00

Re: Remoting to natted machines?

#9 2012-02-12 16:03:36

Re: Remoting to natted machines?

#10 2012-02-17 17:51:13

Re: Remoting to natted machines?

#11 2012-02-17 22:37:06

Re: Remoting to natted machines?

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