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Ask HN: Web-based personal terminal options?

5 points by jhow15 ↗ HN
I've just needed to ssh into a VPS to fix something pretty urgently but my laptop was on the fritz and held me up. Obviously a big single point of failure problem!

I don't have any other physical machines that I could give ssh key access as backup..

There must be a web-based personal terminal provider that you can set up on a permanent basis? Then you could access it from anywhere, even when out with mobile etc. But I'm not sure which to go with/trust.

Or do most people just have a cheap secondary laptop?

9 comments

[ 1.8 ms ] story [ 35.4 ms ] thread
garmaine
What you described would be hideously insecure. Get a backup laptop.
jhow15
Alright - thank you!
ntw1103
There are a lot of potential security problems with setting something like what you describe, but it is very possible.

If you wanted, you could run https://github.com/huashengdun/webssh on the sever you are trying to access, or something equivalent to a Boston server. This is something you should definitely host with TLS, and some form of authentication.

You could use something like this: https://github.com/PHPAuth/PHPAuth You could also use Okta.

a-saleh
I use my phone. I have termux on android, with password protected ssh-key and it did save me a few times.

I assume there is something like that for iOS, or other phones.

imhoguy
I use android phone with termux or juicessh and hacker keyboard app. Also pretty much every phone should work with tiny foldable Bluetooth keyboard.

If you want a mobile kit for hotel room without carrying laptop there you can try some HDMI screen mirroring dongle (Google Cast).

dinkleberg
I use google cloud shell all the time and it works really well. It spins up an ephemeral container, but it persists the home directory.