How To create a secure ssh tunnel with xShop and PuTTY

[michael_s]

Connecting remotely to your database via SSH tunnel using puTTY

This is a tutorial for those of you that have SSH access to your hosting account, but do not have remote mysql access to your database.

This is also a way to encrypt and secure all data transactions between your database and xShop.

I will be using the free SSH client PuTTY in this tutorial, which you can download from HERE

Step 1
Download and install PuTTY


Step 2
Create a new SSH profile connection using the SSH connection information provided to you by your host.


Step 3
After you have added the basic connection info, save it, and then go to the Connection >> SSH >> Tunneling section and add the following port forwarding information:

Source Port: 3306
Destination: localhost:3306

Next, make sure the Local and Auto radio buttons are selected (below the Destination field)


Step 4
Make sure you save the profile again in PuTTY by going to the Session section and clicking the Save button on that page.


Step 5
Click the Open button at the bottom of the PuTTY configuration page. This will connect to your remote server via SSH and open a tunnel to mysql.


Step 6
Open xShop and create or edit your database connection. Enter in all the relevant database information, and set the host name to: localhost. Save the connection and make sure the checkbox next to it is checked.


Step 7
Connect to your database with xShop by Clicking the File >> Connect option.

If you have correctly entered in all the database login info, xShop will connect to your remote database. You are now the proud owner of an SSH2 encrypted tunnel to your remote database and you can get working.