Zugg Software :: View topic

Newbie Joined: 17 Oct 2001 Posts: 5 Location: Australia

Does anyone know if the SSH plug-in or
edition of Zmud has been released or is
available as beta etc?

Or alternatively, a workaround for connecting
to an SSH server thru zmud.

GURU Joined: 24 Sep 2000 Posts: 1237 Location: USA

quote:

Does anyone know if the SSH plug-in or
edition of Zmud has been released or is
available as beta etc?

Or alternatively, a workaround for connecting
to an SSH server thru zmud.

No, no, and no.

Sorry, not too many Muds are on SSH connections so it's never been a high priority for zMUD. It's been talked about before and new development is under way (I can say with high confidence that SSH isn't in the current new development) so it could make it on the future feature list if you ask Zugg nicely.

zMUD 6 Online Help: All the power you'll ever need.

Beginner Joined: 25 Aug 2001 Posts: 13

Hi there,

I too am suddenly in dire need of SSH support, since in my network's current state this is the only way I can connect to the MUD I play, this is likely to remain for the foreseeable future. Being a registered user for sometime now, finding myself suddenly without Zmud's spangly features has left me feeling rather miffed.

Is there any chance of SSH being implemented as a feature in the near future, or am I going to be stuck with the plain-text wonders of the 'Putty' client?

*Looking hopeful, and rather desperate*

Ash.

Posted: Fri Oct 19, 2001 3:18 am

I've had this on my to-do list for a while, and recently took a serious look at SSH when I was working on zMUD 6.20.

What I discovered was a mess of copyright and export issues, not to mention the fact that the protocol itself is complex. Given the time and difficulty of implementing SSH, and the small number of MUDs that are impacted, I no longer believe you'll see SSH in zMUD anytime soon.

I'm aware of the OpenSSH project, but of course, since zMUD is commercial software, that is a problem also. Basically using any current SSH implementation in zMUD involves many copyright and licensing headaches. And I would much rather spend my limited time coding.

If anyone has any idea how to make SSH in zMUD easy, drop me an email.

Beginner Joined: 25 Aug 2001 Posts: 13

Doh.

Thanks for the reply anyways.

Newbie Joined: 17 Oct 2001 Posts: 5 Location: Australia

Thanks Zugg, sad news indeed.

Also worth mentioning I think, is the fact that adding SSH support would not only attract the few muds with ssh connections, but also a multitude of people who are unable to run zmud thru firewall connections and have to resort to tt++ running thru teraterm/putty etc to gain access to the outside world.

Ill certainly let you know if I can find any
easier way to plugin or work around it :)

Cheers.

Posted: Tue Oct 30, 2001 9:08 am

Heres a workaround..
I'm assuming you want to connect to a normal mud with a secure connection, and not directly to a mud which uses ssh (is there such a thing?)

Anyfish, get a client which cann do ssh and port-forwarding (most of them can, tho my fav ssh client, putty, doesnt :( try tera-term or fsecure) connect to an ssh-server, and forward the mud port to a local one, which you then connect to with zMUD.
It's also quite easy to set up a port-forwarder on a server if the client can't do it..

(Hmm, you could even go so far as to set up an ssh client on the server to connect to the mud if it uses ssh, and pipe its input/output to a normal port which you forward..)

Umm, understand any of that? *g*

Lady C.

Newbie Joined: 17 Oct 2001 Posts: 5 Location: Australia

Ah that'll work !!

I think i got it, connect as normal thru teraterm, start my second ssh session (yeah double DMZ hehe) then connect to mud on port X, whlist forwarding port X to local port Z, then use zmud to connect port Z? :)

Erm, ill give it a shot, problem was I needed to use an RSA key and couldnt figure out how to pass that automatically, but this should work, thanks.

Beginner Joined: 25 Aug 2001 Posts: 13

:)
Hmm, this looks promising...

But I've run into a problem. (Not entirely sure I'm doing this right)

I'm connecting to my network's SSH server, from where I can access Telnet controls.
So, what I've done is: Set up the program (vie the Setup>SSH forwarding menu) to forward port 22 of the SSH server (the one I'm using) to telnet port 23 of my machine (at least I think I have - I used my IP address, right thing to do?).
I then hoped to use Zmud to access the forwarded port.

The problem being, when I connect to the SSH server with these options, I get the following message: "Server disconnected with message'Requesting forwarding of port 22but user is not root'. It may have disconnected because it was unable to forward a port requested to be forwarded from the server. This often happens when someone is already forwarding that port from the server."

I'm not used to fiddling around with this kind of stuff, so if I've done something wrong, please correct me. Otherwise...ideas?

Thanks in advance - nice to know there's a workaround :)

GURU Joined: 10 Oct 2000 Posts: 4379 Location: USA

I haven't done this before but looking at the error returned by the server it seems that you need to have root access to do port forwarding.

Kjata

Posted: Mon Nov 05, 2001 11:59 am

Klash:
You only need one SSH session, the client should be able to forward a local port to the mud port, without directly connecting to it.. (It's a 'tunnel' through the ssh connection)

EMG: You're forwarding the wrong port.. 22 is already in use by the SSH server.. What you want to do is forward your mud port, e.g.:
My mud is at wl.mud.de, port 4711.. So I forward wl.mud.de, port 4711 to localhost, port 4711 (or whatever, you can use 23 if you don't have a local telnet server) Then I connect to localhost 4711 using zMUD, und voila, I can login to WL :))

Lady C.

(Kjata was right, you'll need root access to push the ssh server off port 22.. but thats irrelevant :)

Beginner Joined: 25 Aug 2001 Posts: 13

...Yep, me again.

Firstly - sorry to keep imposing on your time, you must be tired of hearing from me by now, but the help is appreciated and hopefully I'm close to a solution...or an impass...either way I'll shut up.

I'm not sure how to forward my MUD port, since the only option of forwarding is 'remote host', for which I can select a port (The remote host being the SSH server I need to go through to get to telnet controls). Whatever port I try, 22, 23, 24 etc etc, I'm still greeted by the message detailed in my last post.

I figure I must be going horribly wrong somewhere, so I thought I'd post *all* the information I have, and hope someone can tell me what I should be doing...

First off, my Computer is connected to the University Accomodation network (As opposed to the main network). The network has a firewall and all telnet controls have been killed from the accomodation network - for what reason remains a mystery. Therfore, to access telnet, I need to first connect to one of the main network servers, via SSH.
I.E. My Computer >ssh> Uni SSH Server >telnet> My MUD

So, I need to somehow access whatever I am sent back from the ssh server via Zmud. Zmud hates ssh (I know I'm stating the obvious, it's just easier for me to go through everything), therefore I need to use a SSH client (Tera-term) to access my mud.

I want to use Zmud instead because, let's face it, it's great. To do this, I'm told I need to forward the port to a local one, then access the local port via Zmud. The way I see this happening is: Uni SSH Server >ssh> My Computer(Tera-term) >forwarded to My Ip address, port 23> Zmud.

My MUD is www.cardea-rpg.com Port 23. Say my IP is 'XXX.XXX.XXX.XX'.

Step by step instructions?

Ash - the apologetic thorn in the side of the Gurus.

Posted: Mon Nov 12, 2001 10:16 am

Hi again..

Which ssh client are you using? I just tried the following with the F-Secure ssh client and it worked:

Choose File|New, enter hostname and username, click on properties.
Choose the Forwarding tab, click on 'local' and the New button.
Enter a name for the connection (Anything, eg 'MUD')
Enter the port on the localhost that you want to use (eg '23')
Enter the destination hostname (eg 'www.cardea-rpg.com')
Enter the destination port (eg '23')
Close the properties window, enter your password and connect to the ssh server..

Now you can minimize the F-Secure window, open zMUd and connect to '127.0.0.1' port 23
-> Voila, a Mud connection..

Lady C.

Newbie Joined: 17 Oct 2001 Posts: 5 Location: Australia

Thanks for help guys, but im back coz it still dosent work :)

Stop that groaning and moaning hehe.. let me explain what i did..

In order to connect w/o zmud, I need to use teraterm(with ssh) and connect
to the external firewall machine (using a private key), then from there I need
to ssh to a 2nd ssh server (just username/password - no key needed, which allows telnet) and then telnet out to the mud. This works fine and dandy.

Now, If i setup a port forward (using teraterm) of local port 9876 to remote
machine mymudexample.mud port 7777, then connect using zmud to 127.0.0.1 port 9876
I get a 'connected'.. but absolutely diddly squat after that.

Is this because I am tunnellling thru 2 ssh servers, or I need to create a 2nd forward from remote machine to my new port of 9876?

ERRRGGHHH!!!!!

P.S I get this error from teraterm after bout 2 mins

"A program on the local machine attempted to connect to a forwarded host.
The forwarding request was denied by the server. The connection has been closed."

I know that both ssh servers allow port forwarding as ppl are using
it to pf vnc.

Posted: Wed Nov 28, 2001 10:10 am

Irks :)

I assume you'll need to port-forward twice, as your local ssh-client can't 'see' the mud, because of the second connection you have to go through..

So try it twice..

Lady C.

Novice Joined: 24 Jan 2001 Posts: 47

Erm, just for future reference, ports below 1024 are often restricted.

GURU Joined: 10 Oct 2000 Posts: 609 Location: USA

Just set this sucker up so it connects to the first server. Then use zMUD to enter the commands to ssh to the second server and telnet to your target host.

That way, you only have one layer of forwarding going on.

,
Jouster

Implementor/Head Coder of

coolmud.com:6658

Posted: Thu Nov 29, 2001 3:53 pm

Erm, how are you proposing that zMUD enter ssh commands, Jouster?

*scratches self on the head*

Lady C.

Posted: Sun Nov 09, 2003 4:46 am

Just wanted to say that the latest version of Putty supports "Port-Forwarding" so you can connect to a mud via the ssh.

It's an awesome option. It also keeps Zugg from troubling with directly coding this "complicated" feature into zMud.

SSH shells cost about $16.00 year compared with typical shell accounts so the cost savings to me is also very good and with a zMud work-around.

Thanks to all who posted original solution.

Apprentice Joined: 28 Oct 2003 Posts: 164

Just thought I'd throw in my 2 bits. For those who have the money, SecureCRT by Vandyke Software kicks unbelievable amounts of ass.
http://www.vandyke.com/products/securecrt/index.html

At $100, it's a bit pricey. But I bought the regular CRT about 4 or 5 years ago and it served me well all those years. I figure the investment in SecureCRT will definitely be worth it over time.

Newbie Joined: 07 Sep 2005 Posts: 7

I just downloaded TeraTerm. Where can I find this port-forwarding thing? I even checked the help file and nothing was listed about port fowarding.

Could someone please post step by step instructions for those of us who are not familiar with how this works :)

Thanks!

Apprentice Joined: 11 Apr 2003 Posts: 119 Location: Sweden

I have no idea why Castaway said that putty doesn't do port forwarding because it does. Try it and go to Connection->SSH->Tunnels and it's pretty straight forward from there on.

Newbie Joined: 07 Sep 2005 Posts: 7

Apprentice Joined: 11 Apr 2003 Posts: 119 Location: Sweden

Source port is the port on your computer that you want to connect to, let's say port 12345
The destination is the server where the mud resides along with the port of the mud, for example server.com:2000 if the port for the mud is 2000
Then do you start the connection and you can now open up zMUD (or telnet) and connect to localhost at port 12345 to get forwarded (tunnelled) to the mud server and the right port.

Newbie Joined: 07 Sep 2005 Posts: 7