[Techtalk] {SPAM 05.1} Re: Problem with tunneling SSH

[David Sumbler]

Sorry it has taken me a while to respond to your messages; I was away
cycling in Scotland until yesterday.

Margaret is 91 years old, and is in a care home.  I think that they
changed their internet setup a few months ago - new router etc. - and
it may be that this has caused the difference in behaviour when I try
to log into Margaret's computer.  I suspect that if I were to ask them
to open a particular port etc. it is quite possible that they wouldn't
know what I was talking about; there might also be difficulties trying
to prove that I am a bona fide friend of Margaret's and not somebody
trying to undermine the care home's internet security.

The suggestion that I might set up a tunnel from her computer to mine
hadn't occurred to me, for some reason.  The next time I can reach her
computer using Teamviewer I could open a Gnome terminal window and try
this.  What would be ideal would be if I could then set things up so
that the route is set up every time her computer is started.  Is this
possible?  Ideally I should like to be able to connect to her computer
without having to use TeamViewer first.

Regarding the version of Ubuntu that she uses, I am afraid that it is
v.12.04.  Support for this LTS version ended last year, but I really
think that any attempt to move to a more recent version would probably
finish Margaret's days of using the computer for good.  She is very
confused these days, and certainly not up to learning how to do things
if the smallest detail is changed.

We have not found any recent difficulty using Google for our web-
chatting.  I last heard from Margaret on Monday (3 days ago) while I
was still cycling in the Highlands.  One of the advantages of using
Google is that everything comes up in Hangouts on my phone and/or
tablet, so I can still have the odd conversation with Margaret even
when I am away from home.  At her end, of course, she is using Pidgin
exactly as she always has.

Thanks, both, for your help.

David


On Fri, 2018-07-06 at 20:38 -0400, Christine Pukropski wrote:
> Yep, its probably blocked on her router. 
> 
> Typically, you can go to private IP address (usually 192.168.1.1 or
> 10.0.0.1) in a browser and by default, the router interface is hosted
> there (unless you are a paranoid freak like me change it some random
> address lol). Out of the box, it will usually live there. 
> 
> From there you should see some default login screen. The username is
> usually 'admin' and the password for netgear routers, etc. is usually
> the same for all routers and can easily be found on google. From the
> login page, you should be able to tell what router she is using and
> look up what the password is. If its the default one from Comcast or
> Verizon it will have the password on the side on a sticker. Once you
> are in the router, you can go to the advance > port forwarding and
> open up port 22 for ssh to your home IP, or to the world. If your
> home public IP is static I would recommend opening port 22 to your
> public IP. You can find it by doing 'dig +short myip.opendns.com
> @resolver1.opendns.com'
> 
> You can also check from teamviewer if she has openssh installed or if
> it needs to be updated and if there is a default firewall with ufw,
> iptables, etc. Usually, the latter shouldn't be an issue but is a
> good thing to check. I have had issues with the former with my moms
> PC in ssh'ing to it and it turned out openssh was not installed out
> of the box https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SSH/OpenSSH/Configuring
> (this was for linux mint). 
> 
> If I remember correctly, she was using Ubuntu, do you know what
> version she is on now? Also, if she was the one that you transitioned
> from AIM to Hangouts on pidgin, I should note google unfortunately
> just updated their hangouts platform and removed their integration
> with google voice. It messed up a lot of things and even though it
> technically should not affect your friend, and it would probably be
> worth it to reconfigure pidgin again.  https://arstechnica.com/inform
> ation-technology/2017/03/google-reportedly-removing-sms-texting-from-
> hangouts-on-may-22/
> 
> Hope this helps! 
> 
> All the best,
> Christine
> Hive76, Publicist
> 
> 1821 E Hagert St., Philadelphia, PA 19125
> Please, consider the environment before printing this email.
> 
> On Mon, Jun 25, 2018 at 9:11 PM, Yardena Cohen <yardenack at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> > On Mon, Jun 25, 2018 at 8:20 AM David Sumbler <david at aeolia.co.uk>
> > wrote:
> > > It would be useful for me sometimes to be able to SSH to a
> > terminal,
> > > and this is something I used to do quite often.  But I have tried
> > to do
> > > it lately (at times when I know her computer is running because I
> > am in
> > > the middle of a conversation with her).  But I can't make a
> > straight
> > > connection.
> > 
> > Incoming connections are probably blocked by a router on her
> > subnet.
> > You would need that router to forward a port, or set up a tunnel to
> > somewhere else from her computer.
> > 
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