I’ve been using SSH Tunneling for quite a while now mainly to encrypt HTTP traffic when using public wireless access points.  I won’t go into detail here, just Google for “SSH Tunneling” if you need more information.  I’m also gonna assume you already have an SSH Server set up.

  • Download PuTTY and save it to C:/.
  • Open notepad, type in the command below and save it as securetunnel.bat (Note: remove username@ and -pw password if you prefer to get prompted for them for security reasons):
    • c:\putty -D 8080 -P 22 -ssh username@ssh_server_ip -pw password
  • Double-click securetunnel.bat to connect to your SSH server.
  • Open your internet browser and change its proxy settings to use 127.0.0.1:8080 as the SOCKS host.  To do this in Internet Explorer 7, go to Tools -> Internet Options -> Connections Tab -> LAN Settings -> Check “Use a proxy server for your LAN…” -> Click the “Advanced” button and set the settings just like the picture below:”

IE 7 Proxy

  • Go to http://www.whatismyip.com and if your public IP shows up the same as your SSH server’s public IP then you’re all set!