SSH Tunneling on Linux, macOS, and other unix-like OSes

If you run Linux, macOS, or any other Unix you can easily create a tunnel using the following ssh commands from a terminal.

Open an terminal, and type the following:

   ssh -X -Y -C -g -L 59XX:localhost:59YY YYYYSPPP@128.171.165.6

• -X: enables X11 forwarding
• -Y: enables trusted X11 forwarding
• -g: allows remote host to connect to local forwarded ports.
• -L 59XX:localhost:59YY: forwards port 59XX on the localhost to port 59YY on the remote host.
• -C: compress the traffic. Optional. For a slower connection, this is useful. It can slow things down on a fast connection.
• YYYYSPPP@128.171.165.6: logs into stefan.ifa.hawaii.edu as YYYYSPPP. You need to replace YYYYSPPP with the program number you have been assigned, for example 2015A001. You can use either the hostname or the IP address to connect to stefan.

Once the ssh tunnel has been set up, you run the vnc client on the local machine from a second terminal or from the menus, and connect to the server localhost:59XX. It is very important that you not start the vnc client in the same terminal that is logged into stefan, as it will be extremely slow due to the fact that the vnc client is being exported from stefan to your local host.

Here is an example. In two terminals on the local client machine:

   ssh -L 5901:localhost:5909 2015A001@128.171.165.6
   vncviewer localhost:5901

This example opens the session on stefan:9.