Appendix C: Using Ssh For Secure Communication; Overview Of Tunneling Setup - Extreme Networks Ridgeline Guide Manual

C
A P P E N D I X
This appendix describes in detail how to set up secure tunneling between the Ridgeline server and
Ridgeline clients.
By default, communication between the Ridgeline server and its clients is unencrypted. This means the
traffic between client and server could easily be captured, including passwords, statistics, and device
configurations.
PuTTY is used in conjunction with Ridgeline to encrypt (tunnel) communication between an Ridgeline
server and clients. PuTTY is a free implementation of an SSH application. PuTTY uses "port
forwarding" to tunnel this traffic. Port forwarding allows data from unsecured applications to be
encrypted over a secured tunnel.
This appendix describes in detail a step-by-step example of setting up a PuTTY client on a
Window-based Ridgeline client system. It also describes the installation and configuration of the
OpenSSH server on a Windows-based server system where the Ridgeline server is installed.

Overview of Tunneling Setup

In this example, it is assumed that an SSH server needs to be installed on the same machine as the
Ridgeline server. If an SSH server is already installed on the system where the Ridgeline server resides,
you can skip steps 3 and 4 of the following procedure.
The Ridgeline client uses two main ports, 8080 and 1063, when communicating with the server. These
ports will be configured for port forwarding.
To configure SSH tunneling between the Ridgeline server and client, you will need to do the following:
1 Install PuTTY on the Ridgeline client system
2 Configure the PuTTY client
3 Install an SSH server on the system with the Ridgeline server
4 Configure Microsoft Firewall to allow SSH connects
5 Initiate Ridgeline server/client communication
These steps are described in detail in the following sections.
Ridgeline Concepts and Solutions Guide
Using SSH for Secure
Communication
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