How best to secure client access from Internet?

[Dr Squish]

Sage TV newbie here and I am preparing for a business trip of unknown duration. Before I go, I am programming my Sage TV v2 RC2 to record my favourite shows while away but I still want to have client access too, just in case I need to reconfigure recording schedules or other stuff.

From what I have seen on thus far, the client connects via TCP port 42024 but there does not seem to be any security mechanisms in place. If I simply forward this port on my router to this Sage TV PC, what is there to prevent others from screwing around with my config? Yes, I know that the hacker must find my IP with this port open and know what to do with it and the chances of this happening are minimal, but I still do not like to just leave it open like this too. I will not know my IP address while travelling so I can not lock it down that way either.

What have other users been doing? I just want the ability to connect, check out a few things, and check the tv guide for shows to record. No need for streaming, I will watch when I get back home. Thanks.

[fidget]

Have you considered using a VNC server on the Sage PC? I think that most of them can give you access via a web brouser (port 5801, I believe). The nice thing about the web access is that you can have your router map it from a different port so you don't have to expose 5801. UltraVNC is suppose to be able to allow access to only one window, but I haven't had any luck getting it to work for me

[AndyS]

You could use an SSH tunnel. There are some free implementations out there for Windows, notably this server and this client .

If you're not familiar with this stuff, it builds a secure, encrypted tunnel between a client and a server machine. You set up the client to forward requests bound for a particular port down the tunnel. The server then forwards those packets to the relevant server (your SageTV server). The server can run on any machine in your internal network, including your SageTV server.

Some googling will reveal how-tos and other useful info related to SSH tunneling.

Andy.

[Dr Squish]

Thanks, I'll check that out.