Rsync with SSH through Verizon FIOS Firewall

[Benjamin R. Haskell]

On Tue, 19 Jul 2011, John Scanlan wrote:

> Hello there everyone.  I'm trying to set up a server that will "push" 
> via rsync every night to a server in my home.  The verizon firewall is 
> quite robust, and it makes connecting a bit tricky.  Does anyone have 
> any tips on how I might set this up?

Personally, I've set sshd to listen on port 443 (since I don't serve 
HTTP over SSL and most firewalls don't forbid HTTPS), by adding the 
following lines to /etc/ssh/sshd_config:

Port 22          # listen on the default
Port 443         # also listen on what's normally the https port

Then rsync can be used via:

$ rsync -e 'ssh -p 443' [etc] local/path/ hostname:

Or you can add configuration to ~/.ssh/config:

Host hostname
Port 443

$ rsync [etc] local/path/ hostname:

Or even assign a shorter name ~/.ssh/config:

Host bak             # Host = what's typed in an ssh-related command
Hostname hostname    # Hostname = what hostname is actually used
Port 443

$ rsync [etc] local/path/ bak:

-- 
Best,
Ben