Zugg Software :: View topic - Converting SSH->Telnet after connection to shell/MUD prob

Beginner Joined: 05 Nov 2006 Posts: 15

ok, so I jsut picked up a download of PuTTY and registered for a UNIX shell that's capable of most anything, SSH and Telnet included. Now I wanna use it to connect to a MUD. I thought I could just connect zMUD to the shell and connect the shell to the MUD but it seems PuTTY's Tunnel feature only works with SSH which results in a protocal mismatch when I boot up zMUD.

So my question is - how do I tunnel through the shell with SSH and get it to spit out Telnet on the other side so the MUD can understand it?

GURU Joined: 26 Jul 2001 Posts: 1958 Location: Canada

PUTTY:
Configuration
Connection->SSH-Tunnels

Add new forwarded port:
Source port: 1234
Destination www.mymudname-lands.com:8000
[X] Local
[X] Auto

Click the add button.

ZMUD:
Point zmud character session at 127.0.0.1 port 1234 for the example.

PROCESS:
Log into the shell account via Putty. Then connect with zMud.
This will only work if the shell account allows port forwarding in the SSH sessions.

Beginner Joined: 05 Nov 2006 Posts: 15

I tried that and it doesn't seem to work. I give the host as my shell using port 22, and in SSH I tell it to forward to my MUD using Source port 1234, but when I point zMUD at source port 1234 it never connects, but when I reconfigure PuTTY, this time forwarding the shell to the MUD and specify the same Source port as the shell, port 22, it connects and gives me this message:

SSH-2.0-OpenSSH_3.7.1p2
Protocol mismatch.

I think it's because the MUD can't recognize SSH and only recognizes Telnet, but I'm rather new at all this.

thanks for the response, let me explain a bit more:
I know my shell supports port forwarding, because it offers to forward my email for me. Since my shell supports SSH or Telnet and I can only seem to tunnel in SSH, I either need it to translate the SSH into Telnet after getting through the shell but before sending it off to the MUD or I need to be able to tunnel through the shell in Telnet to get to the MUD.

GURU Joined: 26 Jul 2001 Posts: 1958 Location: Canada

Your computer telnet locally[=PUTTY SSH---tunnel---Remote SSH shell=]Telnet to mud

SSH does not come into play for zMud or the mud. The SSH connection is handled between putty and the unix shell.

Your zMud normal telnet connection is tunnelled through the internet and allowed to resume its course to the mud after it gets out of the tunnel at the unix server.
Try, for example, telnet www.mymud-lands.com 8000 from within putty. Can the unix box connect to high ports?

Beginner Joined: 05 Nov 2006 Posts: 15

hmm, thanks for the clarification on the SSH-telnet-MUD issue.

as for my UNIX box, I'm not sure what you're asking me to connect with; my zMUD or my shell? PuTTy only seems to connect to my shell on port 22, otherwise it either says the connection was refused or it just keeps trying to connec until it times out. My MUD has said on its forums it only has two ports - 23 and 2003.

also, the error message only comes up when I tell the MUD to connect to port 22 - if I specify any other port, even if its the same port as the Source Port I specified in PuTTy, the MUD just keeps trying and trying to connect over and over. Lastly, after I connect using PuTTY and forward in SSH Tunnels, when I tell zMUD to use port 22 to connect to my shell and I try to connect, it says I'm connected to my shell and then the error message comes.

so is my shell forwarding my signal correctly? Should I do something differently? What can I do to make this work?

any help much appreciated.

Posted: Tue Nov 07, 2006 12:09 am

Follow my post that I made in http://forums.zuggsoft.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=4193&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=ssh&start=30 it sounds like you need to do exactly what I did there.

Beginner Joined: 05 Nov 2006 Posts: 15

ok, so I

1)Input my shell account into the PuTTY Session box and saved it (I don't have any proxy settings saved, never used them before.).

2)Then went down to Tunnel, inputted port 1234 as the Source, set it to Dynamic and opened up my shell like normal, everything's fine so far.

3)Then I went into zMUD, told it to connect on Socket 5 using the Port 1234 and input the Socks Proxy host as my shell

note: in the Properties, I tried telling the MUD to connect to my shell on port 22 and then I tried telling it to connect to the website as it normally does. Both times it couldn't connect to either my shell (after I opened it in PuTTY) nor could it connect to the MUD, and both times I had checked the Use Proxy Box and unchecked the Use IP box.

Then I booted up zMUD, and it doesn't connect. First it says its looking up the IP address for my proxy, then an error message comes up saying it cannot look up the IP address for the MUD. It goes on to say that there is no entry in my DNS for that host and has a box for me to input a new IP address.

the same result occurs when I use Socket 4 on zMUD to connect to my shell that's forwarding to the proper port for the MUD

----------------------
really appreciate the help, though I dunno what kinda sock proxy setting you have or how to use it. Up til before I tried your method, I had the "No Proxy" option selected on zMUD and was trying to get the signal forwarded through my shell, but using your method I get a different error message than before.

when I look at event log for PuTTY, these are some of the lines (not in order):

Server Version: SSH-1.99-OpenSSH_3.9 NetBSD_Secure_shell
We claim Version: SSH-2.0-PuTTY_Release_0.58
Using SSH Protocol Version 2

Opened channel for session
Local Port 1234 SOCKS dynami

also, I have the newest PuTTY (I think) from http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/download.html

Also, what's the difference between what your doing and I'm doing? I thought I followed everything, but apparently I'm missing something.

GURU Joined: 26 Jul 2001 Posts: 1958 Location: Canada

Did you connect putty to the unix box before trying to connect to it with zMud?

The putty controlled SSH connection to the unix machine on 22 is needed to then make the tunnel tunnel.

Beginner Joined: 05 Nov 2006 Posts: 15

I tell PuTTY to connect to my UNIX shell on port 22 and under Tunnels/Forwarding I tell it to forward it to the proper port on the MUD

I'm confused what to do with the zMUD though. What should I input when I right-click on the icon and look at Properties? The MUD only has two ports, 23 and 2003, that allow connection. Should I tell the MUD to connect using the IP address or Proxy? Should I enter the shell address or the address of the MUD as a Host? in the place where I enter the port, should I use my port 1234 or use the port of the MUD (23 or 2003) or use the port I use to connect to my UNIX shell (22)?

When I'm in Edit-> Preferences, I tell it to use the Socks 5 proxy to connect to the UNIX shell on port 1234 or port 22 (neither seems to work)., at which time I'm told that first it's looking for the ip of my proxy, then I'm told that zMUD can't find the IP of the MUD. It goes on to say there is no entry in the DNS server for that host and I either misspelled it or it moved (neither can be correct).

what's going on? really appreciate all the help so far.

Posted: Tue Nov 07, 2006 10:47 am

So you set everything up as per the three pictures? Obviously host will have to change in the first picture but the other 2 pictures can remain exactly as they are. Once you've set up each of those setting panels as they are in the pictures you then connect to your unix shell using putty, then you connect to your mud using your standard character icon with the standard mud settings for instance try the seventh entry in the mud connector by clicking on New and then highlighting "3rd Millenium", you can see it says Host: 3m.dataserv.net Port: 8888 now click on Connect and you will get a successful connection.

GURU Joined: 10 Oct 2000 Posts: 873 Location: USA

Beginner Joined: 05 Nov 2006 Posts: 15

ok, I tried Taz's suggestion and Tarn's option 1) from above -

- First I told PuTTy to connect to my shell and to forward Source Port 1234 to Destination mud.com:2003.
- Then I opened zMUD and under Properties and Host of the specific MUD, I told it to connect to my shell on port 1234.

- I just wanna make sure (sorry, I'm really new at this stuff) - I told zMUD to connect to my shell on port 1234, and my shell was told that anything connecting to it on port 1234 should automatically be forwarded and connected to mud.com on port 2003. Is that correct?

I open zMUD and I see at the bottom that it's connecting to my MUDs IP address! so far so good - but then it says it couldn't connect and tried again and again and again. This happens when I use different shells, but one of my shells had this message in the Event Log (the other shells just kept trying over and over to connect):

"Forwarded connection refused by server: Administratively prohibited" So does this mean this particular shell has barred forwarded connections or is the MUD rejecting me?? What about the other shells?

as for option 2 . . . unfortunately, I don't know how to set up a proxy on my shell (is the shell by its existence a proxy or do I need to set it up as such?), so I couldn't try it.

Posted: Wed Nov 08, 2006 9:36 am

I'm not sure if I can make this any simpler.

There is no need to tell PuTTY what mud address you want to go to. Under Connection\SSH\Tunnels use Add new forwarded port: and put in Source port 1234, leave Destination blank and choose Dynamic with the radio button, now click Add. D1234 should now have appeared in the Forwarded ports: box, remove all other entries.

What did we just do? What does the PuTTY help say? If you highlight the D1234 entry and press F1 then you get help on port forwarding, the important information being "Alternatively, select ‘Dynamic’ if you want PuTTY to provide a local SOCKS 4/4A/5 proxy on a local port." What does this mean? It means that on the computer we are using when we log into our unix shell using PuTTY we now have a live SOCKS proxy on port 1234 on the computer we are using. Is this any use? Yes!!! Why? Well because zMUD supports SOCKS proxies. Open zMUD, you get the character screen. Don't use any characters, in the top left of the characters screen go to Edit\Preferences, whoa how exciting it seems that Zugg must have known we wanted to tweak our connection settings. Why? Well it opens the preferences in the Proxy Firewall settings, how very convenient, choose either the SOCKS4 or SOCKS5 radio button, I chose 5 myself but it doesn't matter. In the host box put localhost and in the port box put 1234, ignore the username and password boxes they are not needed. Click 'OK' and it closes keeping the proxy settings you just set.

Now you can use zMUD in the normal way. You don't have to mess with setting address and port information for characters, the standard address and port for your particular MU* will work!!!

What if this doesn't work? Can you successfully use PuTTY to SSH into your unix shell? Yes. Ok once in the unix shell can you successfully use your shell to type 'telnet <your MU* address> <your MU* port>' please fill in the angle brackets with the correct information, press return, did you get a connection? Yes, then you haven't followed the instructions correctly. No, then we're barking up the wrong tree because you unix shell doesn't allow telnet to further destinations and this would never have worked anyway.

Beginner Joined: 05 Nov 2006 Posts: 15

well, it seems the shell I was using doesn't support telnet it seems.

Taz - I just wanna say . . . THANK YOU!!! thanks SO much for all your help, I truly appreciate it. Not only did you stick around and help me out vastly, you explained it so I could wrap my head around the material - thanks, you've already done more than most and I really appreciate all the help you've given.

Tarn - thanks ALOT for the help, I really appreciate all the attention and aid you've given me.

thanks to both of you, seems I need to keep hunting for a decent shell.

this was all alien to me and with your help it makes alot more sense than when I first posted - thanks again to both of you.

Edit: I have since tried telnet <mud> <mud's port> and discovered only one of my shells can telnet - freeshells.ch

the thing is, when I set up PuTTY for Dynamic like you said and I use the SOCKS 4 or 5 in zMUD, it telle me I've been disconnected or can't connect, but when I set up the shell like you said, I can freely log in using the shell - any ideas what could be going wrong?

Posted: Thu Nov 09, 2006 9:11 am

Have you messed with the character settings? If so revert them to what they are supposed to be, make sure they have no reference at all to your unix shell, to localhost, to port 22 or port 1234, they must be the MU* address and port.

If the settings in PuTTY are correct for the tunnelling "D1234" and you are connecting to the unix shell through SSH on port 22 and zMUD proxy settings are 5,localhost,1234 then as long as you use PuTTY to log into your unix shell to the point you have a command prompt and just leave it lying around in the background then zMUD should work just fine.

If everything is as stated and it's still not working then you've got me beaten because I've no idea what is going wrong, clearly the tunnel is faulty but as to why who knows?

I'm waiting for my account to be granted on freeshells.ch, no word so far, hopefully it will be and I can be more help then.

Beginner Joined: 05 Nov 2006 Posts: 15

I feel I should mention that whether I use the proxy shell you instructed me about or use zMUD straight, I get the same result with the MUD either not connecting or disconnecting immediately; yet why would the shell connect but not the zMUD proxy?
This may or maynot matter, but I started playing and got really into this MUD back at home, and now at school I've found out that my school's IP was banned awhile back when someone tried to hack the game.

I wonder, is my real IP address forwarded to the MUD when I use zMUD's proxy but not when I log in via the shell? Could that be why the proxy is rejected and the shell can get through?

Posted: Thu Nov 09, 2006 9:34 pm

Unfortunately my freeshells.ch request has been denied.

I just checked to see what IP is recorded at the MU* end and it's the IP of the shell not your computer.

Beginner Joined: 05 Nov 2006 Posts: 15

I just acquired another shell, this one capable of telnet as well - www.rootshell.be

still, same problems - I input the shell I want to connect to, go down to Tunnels, check "local ports accept connections from other hosts", enter 1234 into the Source Port, choose Dynamic and leave the protocol as Auto and click connect.

In zMUD, I reset the settings in Properties so Host is the www.MUD.com, told it to connect to the MUD port, type = telnet and to use the IP address, not the proxy and in Edit->Preferences I told it to use SOCKS 4 or 5, with localhost as the Host and to use port 1234.

yet when I telnet MUD.com 23, the shell connects to the MUD with no problems at all

Posted: Thu Nov 09, 2006 11:31 pm

Don't check "local ports accept connections from other hosts" and make sure rather than clicking connect that you have pressed the add button first so D1234 appears in the box listing the forwards, then you can click connect.

Forget about ticking "Use IP address:" you can leave it unticked, if the proxy settings have been done beforehand then the "Use Proxy server" box will be ticked and disabled.

Beginner Joined: 05 Nov 2006 Posts: 15

ok, I unchecked the "Local ports accept connections from other hosts" in PuTTy, used Source Port 1234, checked Dynamic, clicked add (same as last time), then I unchecked Use IP address and unchecked Use Proxy in zMUD, selected SOCKS 4 or 5 under Edit->Preferences and clicked connect . . . and it connected! . . . then it said my IP was banned. Maybe the server forwarded my IP? This was using rootshells - the exact thing also happens when I use freeshells.

so all in all, I think it might have been me checking "local ports accept connections from other hosts" as well as my checking the Use IP or the Use Proxy in the zMUD settings that was causing so many problems; but now it also seems the MUD identifies my IP as well?

Edit: when I go into properties for that MUD and click Use Proxy and then select SOCKS under Preferences, then it says it can't connect for whatever reason - completely different than when I leave the box unchecked.

Posted: Fri Nov 10, 2006 8:49 am

It's entirely possible someone has used rootshells and freeshells to abuse your mud and so they have been banned, bit of a shame.

Glad to hear you finally got the tunnelling working though.

Beginner Joined: 05 Nov 2006 Posts: 15

ah, well - thanks so much for all your help! heh, guess the hunt continues for a shell.

I really appreciate all the help - thanks again!

Edit: I just thought of something - if my shell IP is banned, how can I connect to the MUD with my shell but not with zMUD?

While in my shell, I telnet mud.com 23 and it connects without fail, no problems at all (only since its not zMUD, I don't have any of my triggers or such)

While in zMUD, I set up under Edit jsut like you said, then under Properties of the specific MUD, I set the Host as MUD.com, the port as 23 and uncheck both boxes "Use IP" and "Use Proxy" - then it connects and says my IP is banned.

If I check the box that says "Use Proxy", then it just doesn't connect - it says its found the MUD and connected but then a box pops up saying it couldn't connect.

This may or maynot matter, but when I try something else - tell zMUD to connect to the shell account and tell the shell account to forward my connections, something always pops up in the event log of the shell saying its been administratively prohibited - could that be why I can't connect?

Beginner Joined: 05 Nov 2006 Posts: 15

Looks like I answered my own question;

Taz - the method you described to me works perfectly, my shell just doesn't allow forwarding; I took a look at the Event Log and finally understood what I was seeing. Thats the reason my shell can connect to the MUD but zMUD can't.

thaks so much for all your help again! This time its all mine to figure out . . . heh, don't suppose anyone out there knows a shell that allows forwarding, do they?

Taz, Tarn, TonDiening - thanks so much again!! appreciate all the help and patience it took to help me Very Happy

if anyone wants, I found four free shells - Arbornet (m-net.arbornet.org), Grex (cyberspace.org), freeshells (freeshells.ch), and rootshell (phenix.rootshell.be<---- for anyone new to shells reading this thread, this has a nice tutorial for how to get around in the shell included with it - try "help help" once inside). Only freeshells and rootshells allow telnet, albeit with forwarding prohibited, Grex is totally self-contained with no out connections allowed, and Arbornet just doesn't allow connecting to anything outside itself.

thanks again for all the help, hope I won't have to come back.

Posted: Sun Nov 12, 2006 6:58 pm

Ah the elusive search for a free shell account that allows SSH tunnelling, hmm, I wonder what Ton did to solve that problem Wink

.

Newbie Joined: 01 Nov 2006 Posts: 8

I would be interested to hear what you get from this as well, I also have an account at freeshells.ch
And I have a problem connecting through it using SSH tunneling. I can connect to it directly and then try to telnet out just fine, but as soon as I get prompted for my name, zmud seems to be sending a blank line so it drops my connection before I can ever log in. Just to make sure it wasn't the shell somehow, I tried doing the same thing with putty, and it worked just fine... But I've come to the conclusion that putty always works ;). Anyhow, so I also tried MUSH Client, and that worked as well. I believe I've configured everything as per your instructions:

Zmud:
host: dartmud.com
port: 2525
SOCKS5 Proxy Server:
host: localhost
port: 1234

PuTTY:
host: freeshells.ch
port: 23
Tunnels:
Source Port: 1234
Dynamic

I run PuTTY, log into the shell. The shell, as stated allows telnet. So I let PuTTY run in the background with the aforementioned setup. Then I start zmud. I try to connect, get the typical: "Connected to host dartmud.com" immediately followed by a "Lost Connection" error message.