VB.NET

SSH Tunnel with Dynamic Port Forwarding

See more SSH Examples

Demonstrates how to start a background thread that runs a portable SSH tunnel w/ dynamic port forwarding that the foreground thread can use for establishing connections through an SSH tunnel. VB.NET

Dim success As Boolean = False

' This example assumes the Chilkat API to have been previously unlocked.
' See Global Unlock Sample for sample code.

success = False

Dim tunnel As New Chilkat.SshTunnel

Dim sshHostname As String = "sftp.example.com"
Dim sshPort As Integer = 22

' Connect to an SSH server and establish the SSH tunnel:
success = tunnel.Connect(sshHostname,sshPort)
If (success <> True) Then
    Debug.WriteLine(tunnel.LastErrorText)
    Exit Sub
End If


' Authenticate with the SSH server via a login/password
' or with a public key.  
' This example demonstrates SSH password authentication.
success = tunnel.AuthenticatePw("mySshLogin","mySshPassword")
If (success <> True) Then
    Debug.WriteLine(tunnel.LastErrorText)
    Exit Sub
End If


' Indicate that the background SSH tunnel thread will behave as a SOCKS proxy server
' with dynamic port forwarding:
tunnel.DynamicPortForwarding = True

' We may optionally require that connecting clients authenticate with our SOCKS proxy server.
' To do this, set an inbound username/password.  Any connecting clients would be required to 
' use SOCKS5 with the correct username/password.
' If no inbound username/password is set, then our SOCKS proxy server will accept both
' SOCKS4 and SOCKS5 unauthenticated connections.

tunnel.InboundSocksUsername = "chilkat123"
tunnel.InboundSocksPassword = "password123"

' Start the listen/accept thread to begin accepting SOCKS proxy client connections.
' Listen on port 1080.
success = tunnel.BeginAccepting(1080)
If (success <> True) Then
    Debug.WriteLine(tunnel.LastErrorText)
    Exit Sub
End If


' Now that a background thread is running a SOCKS proxy server that forwards connections
' through an SSH tunnel, it is possible to use any Chilkat implemented protocol that is SOCKS capable,
' such as HTTP, POP3, SMTP, IMAP, FTP, etc.  The protocol may use SSL/TLS because the SSL/TLS
' will be passed through the SSH tunnel to the end-destination.  Also, any number of simultaneous
' connections may be routed through the SSH tunnel.

' For this example, let's do a simple HTTPS request:
Dim url As String = "https://www.ethereum.org/"

Dim http As New Chilkat.Http

' Indicate that the HTTP object is to use our portable SOCKS proxy/SSH tunnel running in our background thread.
http.SocksHostname = "localhost"
http.SocksPort = 1080
http.SocksVersion = 5
http.SocksUsername = "chilkat123"
http.SocksPassword = "password123"

http.SendCookies = True
http.SaveCookies = True
http.CookieDir = "memory"

' Do the HTTPS page fetch (through the SSH tunnel)
Dim html As String = http.QuickGetStr(url)
If (http.LastMethodSuccess <> True) Then
    Debug.WriteLine(http.LastErrorText)
    Exit Sub
End If


' Stop the background listen/accept thread:
Dim waitForThreadExit As Boolean = True
success = tunnel.StopAccepting(waitForThreadExit)
If (success <> True) Then
    Debug.WriteLine(tunnel.LastErrorText)
    Exit Sub
End If


' Close the SSH tunnel (would also kick any remaining connected clients).
success = tunnel.CloseTunnel(waitForThreadExit)
If (success <> True) Then
    Debug.WriteLine(tunnel.LastErrorText)
    Exit Sub
End If