Setting up synergy with encryption on two Windows computers:

If you don't know what Synergy is I'm not going to spend a lot of time trying to explain it. It's basically a way a way to share your keyboard and mouse between two computers without the need of a KVM Switch. You can read more about it at http://synergy-foss.org/.

The big problem with Synergy is that it sends all of your keystrokes to the remote computer plain text. If your own your own private network this is not a problem, but if your at work or on a public network this can be troublesome. If you didn't know this already intercepting data on a public network is stupid easy.

So that being said, we are going to use the SSH protocol to encrypt your data as it passes over the network. Again if you don't know what SSH is I'm not going to try to explain it here. Reading is your friend: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secure_Shell.

If your running Linux it is very easy to get this working, but on Windows It is a little more tricky. So lets get started:

A. Install OpenSSH:

• Download Copssh from: https://www.itefix.no/i2/copssh-get. For our purposes the free version will work fine. Once you have it downloaded extract the zip and run the installer on both the computers you want to share the keyboard and mouse on.
• when you get to service tab: Set the service account to synergy, and the password to something you won't forget.
• once the install finish click on start and activate a user, and select synergy, click next.
• created a passphrase, write it down if you can't remember it!
• click activate
• duplicate the steps on the second computer

B. Test SSH connections:

• download a program called Putty. It can be found at: http://the.earth.li/~sgtatham/putty/latest/x86/putty.exe.
• once you have downloaded it then simply double click on it to run, there is nothing to install.
• on the first computer, under host name, inter the IP address of the second computer and click connect
• you will get a security alert, click yes
• log in as: synergy, password:(whatever you made it)
• if you have configured everything correctly then you should get a terminal prompt. If you don't, you missed something.
• repeat this process on the second computer.

c. Install Synergy

• download Synergy on both computers: http://synergy-foss.org/download/
• ON the server(computer with keyboard and mouse installed):
  • install Synergy, at the end of the install select: Server(new setup)
  • click (Configure Server…)
  • Click and drag the monitor in the top right to the square on the grid corresponding to where the second computers monitor is next to the server.
  • double click on it and rename it to the computer name of the client computer and click OK.
  • click Apply and then start
  • your synergy server is now ready to except connections for clients.
• ON the client:
  • before you install synergy we need to do a little script writing
  • click on (start, all programs, Copssh, start a unix Bash Shell)
  • type nano synergy.sh and enter the following line of test:
  • ssh -f -N -L localhost:24800:(IPofServer):24800 synergy@(IPofServer)
  • click Ctrl+X and then Y to save the config file
  • type ./synergy.sh it will ask you if you are sure, click yes, then type the password and it should drop you back to the terminal prompt. IMPORTENT, do not close this windows, it must be running for synergy to work, just minimize it and leave it running.
  • install Synergy, at the end of the install select: Client
  • for the server IP type: localhost, and click apply
  • you should be able to move your mouse from one screen to the other now and use your keyboard to type on either computers screen! Enjoy!