How to Use Portable Ptunnel GUI for Simple SSH-Style Tunnels

Portable Ptunnel GUI: Quick Setup Guide and Best Practices

What Portable Ptunnel GUI is

Portable Ptunnel GUI is a lightweight, portable graphical interface for ptunnel — a tool that forwards TCP connections over ICMP (ping) packets. It’s useful when traditional TCP/UDP paths are blocked but ICMP is allowed. This guide assumes you have a basic familiarity with networking and administrative access on both the client and server machines.

Before you begin (assumptions & safety)

• Assumed OS: Windows for the GUI client; ptunnel server typically runs on Linux.
• Permissions: Administrative/root access on the server to run ptunnel and on the client to run packet-level tools if required.
• Legality & policy: Only use tunneling where you have permission. Bypassing network controls without authorization may violate policies or laws.

Files you need

• Portable Ptunnel GUI executable (Windows portable package).
• ptunnel server binary/source (Linux).
• SSH or other service on the server to forward to (e.g., 127.0.0.1:22).
• Optional: PuTTY or other SOCKS/SSH client if combining with SSH downstream.

Quick setup — server (Linux)

1. Install required tools:
   • On Debian/Ubuntu: sudo apt update && sudo apt install build-essential git (if building).
2. Obtain ptunnel server:
   • Download a prebuilt ptunnel binary for your distro or build from source:

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     git clone https://github.com/joelmontgomery/ptunnel.git
     cd ptunnel make 

3. Run ptunnel on the server, forwarding incoming ICMP to a local TCP port (example: forward to SSH at port 22):

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   sudo ./ptunnel -v -l 0.0.0.0 -p 65271 -d 127.0.0.1 -r 22 

   • -l listen IP, -p listen port (used by ptunnel internally), -d destination IP, -r destination port.
4. Ensure the server’s firewall allows ICMP and the ptunnel process can receive packets. Example for ufw:

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   sudo ufw allow proto icmp sudo ufw enable 

Quick setup — client (Portable Ptunnel GUI on Windows)

1. Extract the portable GUI package to a folder—no install required.
2. Launch the GUI executable as Administrator (required to access raw sockets/ICMP).
3. In the GUI, configure:
   • Server IP: public IP or DNS name of the Linux server.
   • Server ptunnel port: match the server’s -p (example 65271).
   • Local listen port: a local TCP port you’ll connect to (e.g., 2222).
   • Destination: remote service port on server (usually 22 for SSH).
4. Start the connection. The GUI will encapsulate local TCP traffic into ICMP and send to server.
5. Connect a client application to localhost:local_listenport (e.g., SSH to localhost:2222).