On 13/12/10 22:49, Chris G wrote:
Yes, it could well be easier, I've done it before and once you've got your mind round the ssh parameters it's easy enough. The difficulty though is how to make it restart automatically if the connection dies (which I guarantee it will at intervals). I get the feeling that a VPN may have ready made tools for keeping itself alive.
Agreed that VPN may be able to keep itself alive. I've previously used smoothwall firewalls and used their built in vpns which stayed connected most of the time with no problems.
I looked at the Openvpn quick start guide. I think I've tried to understand that before. When I looked again today, I thought "Good luck with that!" :-)
Should you want to try the SSH route, this page may help a bit. http://www.vdomck.org/2005/11/reversing-ssh-connection.html
You'll probably have to do ssh with passwordless logins (i.e. key logins).
This occurred to me. You could set up a cron job at home that attempted to "touch" a file on your boat via the ssh link every hour say. Set up a similar cron job on your boat that checks the access time of the file. If it's more than an hour old, then your link's gone down, and you need to restart the relevant service.
However there's probably a much more elegant solution out there somewhere!
HTH. Let us know you get on. Good luck with the VPN! Steve