[Sussex] Secure connections

[Dominic Humphries]

Hi all, Happy New Year & all that! :o)

Two questions, somewhat inter-related:

Firstly, altho I already have a web host which allows SSH connections,  
I can't use it for SSH tunneling. For a variety of reasons, I want to  
be able to do this, ideally with SSH running at port 443 rather than 22
(See  
http://geekblog.oneandoneis2.org/index.php/2007/04/25/secure_web_access_through_firewalls_with if you really want to know  
why...)

I used to do this by setting my home router (static IP) to  
port-forward to my always-on desktop PC. But I've moved home since  
then, and don't have a static IP and not really allowed to tamper with  
the router.. Plus I need/want to be able to tunnel out of home as  
well, because apart from anything else, the crappy ISP won't let me  
send SMTP email.. So are there any not-too-expensive places I can rent  
a server account or some such instead? And recommendations appreciated.

Secondly, the router in question has WiFi, 'secured' with WEP. Yes, I  
know it's crap security - another reason I want to SSH tunnel out of  
here. But it's a rented flat and I can't do anything about it. And the  
annoying thing is, I have two WiFi laptops - my old Ubuntu one, and my  
new (currently) Vista one. Both connect flawlessly to unsecured  
networks. Both refuse utterly to connect to the router, even when I  
copy & paste the WEP key from the router's backend so I KNOW it's  
correct.

I had an XP laptop briefly, and that DID connect okay, so I know the  
router does at least work. But neither Vista nor Ubuntu seems to want  
to know. Any suggestions..?

Cheers!

Dominic
-- 
http://geekblog.oneandoneis2.org