Connect your Chromebook to your home network over SSH.

This week i’m testing out my new Acer A730 to see just what it can do and how far we can take it. One of the frustrations I bumped in earlier this week was that there were limited options when it came to “Phoning home”. Setting up encrypted tunnels to your home network over the internet using VPN or Proxy connections is something we should consider when using public Wifi hotspots.

With the Chromebook relying completely on some wifi connection on a (perhaps foreign) network I was disappointed to find that the only protocols that were supported were L2TP and OpenVpn. Not a bad set to choose from but not something that I had setup on my home network.

Previously I used an SSH server and the SSHuttle app to tunnel my internet, dns and even network traffic over a Socks5 proxy to my home network. I wondered if this would be possible with the Chromebook. Turns out it is ! Let’s start cooking.

To get this little piece of magic working you need 3 things. A : One SSH server (A linux machine) on your home network that has at least one port open to the internet. B : The Secure Shell app from the Chrome store. C : The Switchy-Sharp extension.

Setting it up is quite easy. Lets say we opened up port 8800 of our SSH server to the internet. Setup Secure Shell to connect to the your home SSH server with the additional option to create a port forwarding tunnel on lets say port 8800 with the option -D 8800

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Next we setup Switchy Sharp as to use the SSH connection (and port 8800) as a socks 5 proxy.
switchy

All you need to do next is Connect to your home SSH server and use the Switchy Sharp extention in your browser to use the connection. The Chromebook will tunnel all http and https requests AND the DNS queries through the tunnel. That way 95% of your Chromebooks traffic (we aren”t a 100 percent sure about what protocols any other apps you have might use) are piped through a secure tunnel. You don’t only get to connect to your home network (to open up any web-interface to any device or server you have) but also you get to do it all ‘in private’

Links.

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Setting up your own SSH proxy on Windows.

Free wifi is great. It’s like finding an oasis in the middle of the desert that gives you the ability to quench your digital thirst before you wade into the offline sahara once again. But “Open and Free” wifi comes at a price. Being a shared network medium, it means that all traffic on the wireless network is visible to all users on that network , should they care to take a peak.

With networking tools like “Wireshark” it is fairly easy sniff traffic on an open wifi network and intercept all kinds of unencrypted traffic. That traffic can consist of what URL’s you surf to to what passwords you use (if you have an unsecured connection) .. They are all there for anyone to sniff, download and analyse.

To keep your browser traffic private all you need to do is encrypt it. One of the ways to do this is of course use https connections where you can, but if that is not possible there are alternatives. You can set up your own SSH proxy server. This means you will be creating an encrypted tunnel from your laptop, TROUGH the internet, to your home server. Once there (behind the security of your own firewall) your traffic heads for the internet. Its like surfing at home, but you are in fact ‘away from home’. 

The only thing you need are :

– Access over SSH to a linux server.  ( Check our our tutorial on how to set this up) 

– A copy of Firefox.

A copy of Putty.

putty-ssh-tunnel

Setting it up is quite easy , and we will probably do a screencast on the issue in season 8 of our podcast, but instead of boring you with a lot of text , we are going to point you to the excellent podcast episode Kurtis Adkins did for Hacker Public Radio on the topic. Take 20 minutes and listen carefully. When you are done (and have the ingredients above) you will be able to secure your webtraffic from anyone who wants to snoop around. (Hackers, scriptkiddies or nosy sysadmins) 

Link : Curtis Adkins on : Setting up and using SSH and SOCKS (Hacker public Radio ep 1422)

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The Knightcast Episode 35 : Remote Domination.

Remote
The Knightcast Episode 35 : Remote Domination. 

Direct link to the show :

http://www.knightwise.com/podcasts/kc_2082006.mp3

Summary. 

Don't even leave your seat for episode 35 of the Knightcast : Remote domination. We talk about the tools of the trade how to remote control every PC that you own. With tips, howto's and cool programs we turn your computerroom obsolete and let you control everything from your couch. With music from Noplasticinside its another Info- Loaded Knightcast.

Promo : Miketechshow

Download the Shownotes in PDF.

 

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The Knightcast Episode 31 : Tips for the mobile Geek.

 

Ep31

 

The Knightcast episode 31 : Tips for the mobile geek.

Direct link to the show : http://www.knightwise.com/podcasts/kc290506.mp3

Summary.

An episode jam packs with tips for the mobile geek. How to carry and organize your tech equiptment as easy, light, convinient and efficient as possible. What to take with you, where and how to store all your geeky goods. Furthermore we talk about the Ubuntu-Granny incident and let you hear ' The Knightcast Signal".

Shownotes.

  • Intro
  • News and events.
  • MUSIC The Knightcast signal as preformed by Noplasticinside .
  • The Knightwise.com website gets 11000 hits over the weekend.
  • The Ubuntu story on Digg .

  • Part 1 : Tips for the mobile geek.
  • Why this podcast.
  • Groundrules.
  • Dividing everything into zones.

  •  Zone 2 : The "Bag"
  • Groundrules.- What to put in your bag.

  • Zone 3 : The car.- Groundrules.
  • What to store inside your car.
  • Signoff.

For more information or to send feedback , please visit our main website www.knightwise.com

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