Terminal Emulator for Android

[Grant Taylor]

On 10/31/21 2:06 PM, Douglas Taylor via cctalk wrote:
> I would like to use my tablet ... to connect to my VAX and Linux 
> computers.

That sounds reasonable enough to me.  I dislike tablet keyboards for 
interactive use, but to each their own.

> There seem to be a large number of 'Apps' out there.  What is a good 
> one to use?

I don't know what to recommend for Android.  I think the app that I used 
a long time ago on iDevices has been discontinued.  :-(

> The VAX doesn't have SSH only insecure TELNET.

As others have indicated, use another device that's connected to the 
(protected ~> isolated LAN ~> cross over cable) VAX and the rest of your 
network.  SSH to that device and connect to the VAX from there.

I just tried the following trick with SSH as a one step process and it 
seemed to work fairly well for me.

    ssh -W <VAX host>:23 <bastion host>

This causes SSH to initiate a secure connection to <bastion host> and 
forward the raw connection (which is otherwise protected by SSH's 
wrapping) to <VAX host>:23.  So you run an ssh command and get what 
looks almost identical to the result of a telnet command.

If your ssh client or server doesn't support -W <host>:<port> -- forward 
standard input and output on the client be forwarded to <port> on <host> 
-- then you can do the same type of thing by sshing to the host normally 
and running a netcat command; e.g. nc <host>:<port>.

There is also a possibility that your telnet client supports TLS 
protected telnet to the <bastion host> which removes the TLS protection 
and forwards the unprotected traffic to the VAX.

I'll only tip my hat to other more esoteric things that fall into the 
broad category of VPN.

I'd try the ssh -W <VAX host>:23 <bastion host> first.

> Another can of worms, SSH on the Vax?

Oy vey!  I'm not touching that.  I don't know nearly enough.  That looks 
like Mount Everest to me from my  place of ignorance.



-- 
Grant. . . .
unix || die