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Is there software that will help me to ssh/connect to my home computer from the public internet? (Say, a coffee shop).

I understand that questions similar to this have been asked, but none seem to actually answer the question. Let me add some details to avoid the usual slew of answers about DynDns and port forwarding.

  • I have access to a publicly accessible SSH server. Merely port forwarding from there is not a stable solution that lasts several days. Port forwarding tends to drop connections, be slow etc.

  • I dont want to setup/pay for DynDns and configure NAT traversal on my router.

I feel the following should be possible, I just dont know if there exists software that already accomplishes this:

Just the way peer-to-peer programs hole-punch NAT traversal, it should be possible to have a program running on my home machine that opens up external access to the appropriate ports by hole-punching. Further, the program can broadcast the home computers public IP and hole-punched externally visible port somewhere (say on a public server or over email) and periodically update this information.

Does software like this exist? A part of this functionality is already accomplished by various torrent software.

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not sure what setup you are trying to avoid with DynDNS. The free version available involved signing up with them, downloading an updating client, and then putting the signup email/password combo used into the client once. You then have the address you signed up for to connect to the machine. As far as port forwarding through your router... it's a relatively painless two step. One... assign that computer a static IP in the DHCP reservation table, then forward port 22 to that IP. Then, you just SSH from any computer to your address:22. Not that bad, really. – Bon Gart Aug 20 '12 at 21:49
In what way does (free) dynamic DNS and simple port forwarding not answer the question? – RedGrittyBrick Aug 20 '12 at 22:01
DynDNS is free, and many (most?) routers also have a built-in DynDNS client, so you don't even have to run it yourself. You could try using a reverse SSH tunnel to get around the NAT, but port forwarding is probably more reliable. – user55325 Aug 20 '12 at 22:13

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Ya so I think port forwarding IS the hole punching method. If you wanted, you could put your computer in a DMZ and avoid all the mess...also, as far as tracking a dynamic IP, just make a skype account for the home computer, and then send it a message over skype, and track the IP via commview. You could also setup a teamviewer on that computer, then navigate to IP chicken.com. Basically you need to rely on some sort of third part user based service to initiate the connection (assuming your IP is dynamic).

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