[erlang-questions] how to connect erlang nodes through an uncontrolled firewall

[Jachym Holecek]

# Ivan Uemlianin 2011-05-10:
> I'd like to connect a couple of erlang nodes together, one "here", one 
> on a remote machine.  There are two firewalls in the way: one on the 
> remote machine, one local.
> 
> The remote firewall I can ask for ports to be opened.  I've read that 
> 4369 for epmd and one other port are required (the second can be 
> assigned at runtime using sth like
> 
>     erl  -name qweasd  -kernel inet_dist_listen_min 9001 
> inet_dist_listen_max 9001 [1]
> 
> The local firewall is fixed, in the sense that I don't think I can ask 
> for ports to be opened and so on (I'm in a shared office building with 
> provided internet access).
> 
> Is there anything I can do at this end to open a connection?  I can ssh 
> out the the remote machine.  Can I have the nodes connect over ssh?

You can forward arbitrary ports via 'ssh -L ...' -- never tried that for
Erlang distribution though, so just a pointer for experiment really. If
you have sufficient control over the remote server, openvpn is another
quite hassle-free option for you.

HTH,
	-- Jachym