A few weeks ago I discovered the awesomeness that is the IRC client irssi. It is a terminal-based IRC client, which makes using screen and ssh to connect to a host computer and then keep one identify across multiple computers. However, if you don’t have a static IP, which includes most people, you will not be able to reliably access your computer running irssi while you are away for the day, at work, or on vacation. However, there is a solution, DynDNS.
This guide assumes you know the essentials of irssi, screen and ssh. There are plenty of guides that go through those applications. Just google for them. Screen + irssi is a rather popular topic.
A brief overview of the steps:
- Get an account on DynDNS.org
- Setup your router to work with DynDNS. Most modern routers are capable of this.
- Set port forwarding for all ssh traffic to go to the IP address of your irssi host.
- ssh to your DynDNS domain and enjoy.
1. Creating a DynDNS Account
First, go to DynDNS.org and create an account. After creating the account, you will want to log in and select My Services on the left sidebar. Then select My Hosts and add a new Dynamic DNS host. Then, you will create a domain like myname.homeip.net. This will be the domain name to which you will ssh to when you are not on your home network.
2. Setting Up Your Router
You will need to login to your home router and set up your DynDNS information. This step allows your router to communicate with DynDNS.org to let it know when your IP address changes. The steps are router dependent so I won’t bother with including steps for my router. I think if you are technical enough to be bothering with irssi and ssh, you will know enough to configure DynDNS in your router. However, feel free to contact me if you have questions.
3. Port Forwarding
Now, you will need to forward all ssh traffic, normally port 22, to your host computer. You need to know the IP address of your host computer, probably something like 192.168.0.104. This again is somewhat router specific so browse around your router settings to find where you need to configure this. In my router, it is under Applications/Gaming.
4. SSH to Your DynDNS domain
Now, you will ssh to your DynDNS domain, for example myname.homeip.net. With DynDNS configured correctly, this will ssh to your host computer and you will be asked to provide the password for the user on your machine.
Now you can do something like ’screen -r’ to reattach your irssi session. Now you will be on IRC from your remote machine on your host machine. It’s convenient for me since I am always on IRC and before I set up this configuration, I had two nicknames in each channel I join, one at home and one at work. Now, I have one nickname no matter where I am. I am able to ssh into my home machine from work and be on IRC at work via my home machine. One identity wherever I happen to be.
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