This weekend away has been an excellent chance to test out my home network and remote access to it. Some of the things I’ve done were just as a test, other things have been really useful.

For a start I allow incoming SSH connections so that I can access my server from anywhere outside. I’ve used this for everything from transferring files to setting off backups of my system at home. To maintain consistency between logins, and to cope with faulty Internet connections, I use screen to keep control of my session.

Tip: Use the following .screenrc option to make your many screen sessions less confusing by printing a list of open sessions along the bottom of your display:

hardstatus alwayslastline "%{.bW}%-w%{.rW}%n %t%{-}%+w %=%{..G} %H %{..Y} %Y/%m/%d %0c:%s "

In anticipation of other remote connections I might want to make to my machine at home, I thought about setting up a VPN. There are several options, all described in detail across the Internet, so I’m not going into detail about how to configure things, I’ll just explain what I am using and where I found out the information that made it work. (more…)

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