ICloud – iMessage / iCloud via SSH Port forward to get through firewall

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.

Don't forward local port 3389, various versions of Remote Desktop are too smart for their own good.

My usual steps involve forwarding local 3390 to remote 3389. Then, in MacRDC I use: localhost:3390 as the address to connect too.

I don't know if you're using anything to assist in the ssh connection setup, but from the command line, it would be something like:

ssh -L 3390:172.16.5.32:3389 jason@remote.net

Where;
- 3390 is the local forwarding port on my box.
- 172.16.5.32 is the remote windows host. and;
- 3389 is the Remote Desktop Port (obviously).