I am trying to set up a VPN with a Raspberry Pi, and the first step is gaining the ability to ssh into the device from outside my local network. For whatever reason, this is proving to be impossible and I haven’t the slightest clue why. When I try to ssh into my server with user@hostname, I get the error:
ssh: Could not resolve hostname [hostname]: nodename nor servname provided, or not known
However, I can log into the server with,
ssh user@[local IP]
The server is a Raspberry Pi Model B running the latest distribution of Raspbian and the machine I am trying to connect to it with is a Macbook Pro running Mavericks. ssh was enabled on the Raspberry Pi when I set up Raspbian.
I have perused Stack Overflow for hours trying to see if anyone else had this problem and I have not found anything. Every ssh tutorial I find says that I should just be able to set it up on the remote machine and log in from anywhere using a hostname, and I have never had success with that.
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Answer
Recently I came across the same issue. I was able to ssh to my pi on my network, but not from outside my home network.
I had already:
- installed and tested ssh on my home network.
- Set a static IP for my pi.
- Set up a Dynamic DNS service and installed the software on my pi. I referenced these instructions for setting up the static ip, and there are many more instructional resources out there.
Also, I set up port forward on my router for hosting a web site and I had even port forward port 22 to my pi’s static IP for ssh, but I left the field blank where you specify the application you are performing the port forwarding for on the router. Anyway, I added ‘ssh’ into this field and, VOILA! A working ssh connection from anywhere to my pi.
I’ll write out my router’s port forwarding settings.
(ApplicationTextField)_ssh (external port)_22 (Internal Port)_22 (Protocal)_Both (To IP Address)_192.168.1.### (Enabled)_checkBox
Port forwarding settings can be different for different routers though, so look up directions for your router.
Now, when I am outside of my home network I connect to my pi by typing:
ssh pi@[hostname]
Then I am able to input my password and connect.