[X4U] Remote Access to Mobile Laptop - Any Solution

[Simon Forster]

On 4 Feb 2009, at 09:52, Rick Gordon wrote:

> I would like to find a way to access a laptop (for support purposes)  
> which will be mobile and connecting from different Internet cafés or  
> other locations where the preconfiguration of a NAT router to a  
> known local IP number is not possible.
>
> The laptop has dynamic IP software installed, so it will phone home  
> with the current WAN IP number with which it would be connected to  
> at any given time. But how, with Timbuktu, Apple Remote Access, VNC,  
> GoToMyPC, or whatever, might I be able to access it behind a NAT  
> router (what I assume to be the most likely scenario) which won't  
> have any port forwarding set up, and with which we will have no  
> administrative control?
>
> Any hope?

I can't remember the exact details but I set up a reverse SSH tunnel  
for a client on a dynamic IP so that I could back into his machine for  
remote troubleshooting. Basically, he had to initiate an SSH tunnel to  
a machine on a static IP (probably done as a double clickable  
AppleScript App on his desktop) and then I did the same from my end  
and used Apple Remote Access through the SSH tunnel. Worked very well.

I believe that there's at least one commercial product which'll allow  
you to gain access to a machine on a dynamic IP. Doesn't Timbuktu have  
this built-in now?

HTH

Simon