A friend asked me to put these instructions on my blog.
This guide can be used to access the servers at the your campus from your Windows computer via ssh. You can thereby gain access to restricted resources such as your home folder and online journal archives. This method is an alternative to ssh -X and a vpn connection. Using this method reduces the amount of traffic between your computer and the campus server to a minimum. I can also recommend this method, if your ordinary vpn-connection does not allow you to access resources on your home network – quite annoying if your printer is attached to your local network.
Download and install Tunnelier: http://dl.bitvise.com/Tunnelier-Inst.exe Run Tunnelier. In the ‘Login’ window type ‘Host’ (some.server), ‘Username’ (i.e. your campus username) Select ‘password’ as Initial method, type your password and check ‘Store encrypted password in profile’. In the ‘Options’ window uncheck all boxes and choose ‘Automatically reconnect if successful connection breaks’. In the ‘Services’ window check the box ‘Enabled’ under ‘SOCKS / HTTP Proxy Forwarding and set ‘Listen port’ to 8080. Furthermore check the box ‘Enabled’ under ‘FTP-to-SFTP Bridge’. Then click ‘Save Profile’ to the left and save as ‘campusconnect’. To check that you got the settings right click the ‘Login’ button.
Then open the ‘Computer’ folder in the Windows ‘Start’ menu. In the ‘Computer’ folder right-click somewhere in the white area of the window and select ‘Add a Network connection’. Click ‘Next’ a couple of times, and write ‘ftp://localhost’ in the ‘Internet or network address’ field and click ‘Next’. Uncheck the box ‘Log on anonymously’, write your campus username and click ‘Next’. In the field ‘Type a name for this network location’ type ‘campus folder’. Click ‘Next’ and then ‘Finish’. (We use ftp over ssh to make a secure connection compared to ordinary ftp) By clicking the campus folder in the Computer folder you can now gain access to your campus home folder.
To keep things seperate I use Firefox to surf restricted internet pages like journal homepages through the secure campus-connection and Internet Explorer for all other purposes. The details below apply equilly well to Internet Explorer, Opera, etc. Firefox can be downloaded from this location: http://www.mozilla.com/
Install and launch Firefox. In the ‘Tools’ menu select ‘Options’ then select the ‘Advanced tab’ and ‘Settings’ next to ‘Configure how Firefox connects to the Internet’. Select ‘Manual proxy configuration:’ Set ‘SOCKS Host’ to ‘127.0.0.1’ and SOCKS Host ‘Port’ to ‘8080’ then click ‘OK’.
If you automatically want to connect to your campus account on Windows startup (otherwise start Tunnelier and login each time you want access): Create a shortcut to Tunnelier in the Windows Startup folder (create a shortcut on the Desktop and cut-and-paste it to the Startup folder) On Vista: Click the “Start” button, Click “All Programs” then right click the “Startup” folder. Use Windows search on XP if you have trouble locating the Startup folder. Edit the Tunnelier shortcut in the Startup folder. In the ‘Target:’ field you have to write: “C:\Program Files (x86)\Bitvise Tunnelier\Tunnelier.exe” -profile=C:\Users\ YOUR_WINDOWS_USER_NAME\Documents\campusconnect.tlp -loginOnStartup Your path to ‘Tunnelier.exe’ or ‘campusconnect.tlp’ might be different, if in doubt use Windows search.