This page contains helpful SSH commands I use to connect to my home network when I am not home.

Proxy SOCKS5: Tunnel internet through SSH (like a VPN)

To access internet as if I were at home, I can use a proxy SOCKS5 SSH tunnel to a Linux gateway. This is secure, just like using a VPN.

ssh -D 1337 -q -C -N gateway.example.com

Regarding options:

• -D 1337 open the SOCKS proxy on local port 1337
• -C compress the data in the tunnel
• -q quiet mode, no output in the terminal
• -N do not execute remote commands

The web browser (e.g., Firefox) needs to be configured to route traffic through the proxy. Only the internet traffic will go through the proxy.

Source: Create a SOCKS proxy on a Linux server with SSH to bypass content filters

Forward a port from another computer via a proxy VM

To access a service hosted on a VM on my home network (e.g., Microsoft RDP), I can forward the port for the service to my local computer via a SSH proxy using the Linux gateway.

                  (SSH proxy)
Me (on my laptop) ----------> Linux gateway VM ----> Windows VM
(office network)              (home network)         (home network)

For example, for forwarding RDP via a gateway:

ssh -L 3389:windows.example.com:3389 gateway.example.com

Source: Remote Desktop over SSH SOCKS proxy to bypass firewall