How to disable Finder’s “is available on your computer” message

finderssh

I've set up an SSH tunnel to SMB on a remote Windows server, and want to access it using the Finder. I set up the tunnel using the command:

ssh warren@sshserver.local -p 3484 -L 1445:windowsserver:445

(445 is the default Windows file sharing port, which I haven't changed. My SSH server is configured to use port 3484 instead of 22).

The tunnel sets up all fine and dandy. Then, in Finder, I click "Go -> Connect to Server," enter "smb://localhost:1445" and hit return. I immediately get the error "The server 'localhost' is available on your computer. Access the volumes and files locally." Except, of course, that's a dirty lie, since localhost:1445 is a tunnel, not the ultimate destination.

Is there any way to suppress this behavior and force Finder to actually connect to the tunnel despite the fact that it has "localhost" in the name?

Best Answer

You should be able to mount the server from the command line with mount_smb:

mkdir /Volumes/sharename
mount_smbfs //smbusername@localhost:1445/sharename /Volumes/sharename

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How to ensure that all networking goes through the ssh proxy

Assuming that ssh is running on localhost (or another machine on the local subnet), the easiest thing to do is to shut down your routes so that nothing can get outside. netstat -nr will show you your current routes. Mine looks like this:

Internet:
Destination        Gateway            Flags    Refs      Use  Netif Expire
default            192.168.0.69       UGSc       93     4438    en1

192.168.0.69 is my default route. If I take that route out: route delete default 192.168.0.69 then I cannot get to any machine not wired to my network. Once screen sets up your proxy, you should have access back.

VNC via SSH Problem

It looks to me like you're using the wrong remote IP address in your tunnel. You should be using -L 5901:127.0.0.1:5900 ....

It's important to realize that the destination IP for the tunnel is where the remote (server) computer forwards the connection to, so 127.0.0.1:5900 means it connects to port 5900 on the server itself.

It looks like you're using ssh -L 5901:PublicIPofServer:5900 ..., which makes the server try to connect to port 5900 on its own public IP. But that's actually the WAN IP of the router the server's behind, so unless that router forwards port 5900 to the private IP of the server (in which case you wouldn't need the SSH tunnel) AND the router supports NAT loopback (aka hairpin NAT), this won't work.

Best Answer

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VNC via SSH Problem

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