Using remote desktop over SSH on a Linksys router

One of the easiest methods to allow remote access to your home PC involves opening and forwarding port 3389 on your router to your PC’s internal IP address. This works in most situations, but not always. This article describes how to run an SSH server on your home router (Linksys, Buffalo, Broadcom-based routers) to tunnel the windows remote desktop client (RDP) through the SSH tunnel to bypass firewall restrictions and to secure the RDP session. Not only can you use this to gain access to your home computer remotely, but you’ll have a full-fledged proxy that doesn’t require you to keep your home computer powered on, only your router. The proxy is great for browsing the web on public WIFI or untrusted networks. When I travel, especially in places like China where it’s well known that the government harvests usernames and passwords, I ONLY access the internet through my remote machine tunneled through SSH.