[NCLUG] Switching IPs & Maintaining Connections

[jeff]

hugh at mahon.cwx.net wrote:
> Hi Jeff,
>
> > I have lots of virtual desktops each set up to "do their
> > own thing", e.g. one with email, irc, web browser, a ton of
> > xterms, etc.
> >
> > I also switch IPs all the time: ethernet at home, wireless
> > @ Mugs or wherever, dialup cell when moving.
> >
> > The problem is that each time I switch IPs, I need to
> > restart a lot of these connections. The xterms are
> > particularily a pain to re-setup. I know I could use
> > `screen` for this, but that only gets me half-way, as I'd
> > still have to restart `screen` on each of them.
> >
> > I was wondering if there was some way to proxy this via
> > localhost or something, where I could just change my
> > external IP, but not lose any of the connections. Or
> > perhaps there is another way...
>
> Hmm, do you want to connect to sessions on a remote machine
> (e.g., access things on your home system when away from
> home?) or have things running locally on your mobile
> computer?  If the latter I think I'd need to learn more about
> what you're doing.  If it's the former, here's what I've
> done:

Ideally: "have things running locally on [my] mobile computer". 
I don't need to access my home systems (generally).

> I use VNC running on systems at home for such sessions, so I
> can start a session and then can access those things (xterms,
> web browsers, etc.) from anywhere I can get a network
> connection.  When away from my home LAN I can set up a VPN
> connection via OpenVPN and even if I hibernate my machine
> when I bring it back up the connection to VNC is restored.

The scenario you outline would be:
1) Set up all the sessions I want on a home workstation
2) take my laptop wherever & use whatever IP
3) vnc from laptop->home machine

This is somewhat of a solution, but not quite perfect. It would 
always depend upon getting back to that home machine & whatever 
state it's in... Also, it would be a bit slower since I'd 
always have to go via the home machine instead of going 
directly to a box.

That said, it's about the only solution that seems feasible 
(well, nx could be used instead of vnc, but the outline is the 
same).

I kinda doubt there is a way to disconnect an ssh session then 
reconnect to it from another IP...

Thanks for the suggestion,

-Jeff