OT: SSH on OS X

[Brent Anderson]

Hello.

It's very easy to set up SSH on your Mac (System Preferences >  
Sharing > Check "Remote Login" box) but you may have a few pitfalls  
in the way if you're trying to connect from anywhere other than your  
local network. You didn't specify too much detail, but I would assume  
you're trying to connect to your mac from outside your home network  
(From work, perhaps) and your problem is probably any firewall you  
have between your desktop Mac and your "remote location." The  
firewall at the remote location (if any) shouldn't be a problem as  
most firewalls only lock out outgoing connections rather than  
incoming ones. Since this is the case, you'll need to open port 22 on  
your firewall (Probably using port forwarding, but port triggering  
may work as well).

I would highly recommend using Hamachi (http://www.hamachi.cc) if  
you're trying to make connections between remote computers. Hamachi  
sets up a virtual private network that effectively connects computers  
as if on a local area network. The free version works, but the  
premium version will overcome any firewall or NAT problems you may  
have. There is a client for Mac OS X Called HamachiX (http:// 
hamachix.spaceants.net/)  that, although not officially supported by  
the Hamachi team, works great and does everything I've needed it too.  
I've tested using hamachi without any firewall settings and it works  
most of the time. If you have trouble with it, you can open a command  
line, type "hamachi logout" "hamachi stop" and "hamachi start debug"  
in one window to switch it all off and then turn on a window to  
monitor it's progress. From there open another window and type  
"hamachi login" to watch for any problems in the startup process. It  
will tell you where it is connecting (Including the port) and if it  
is successful or not. That way you can tune your firewall settings to  
fit any problems you may be having with Hamachi.

Thanks,
Brent Anderson
CMSEC