Secure Shell (ssh) to another computer with audio and video forwarding

Recently, I’ve succeeded in connecting to my desktop computer using my laptop using secure shell command (ssh). It was my first time to use ssh.

I’d like to share this experience with you.

I tried to play audio on Ubuntu 12.04 64bit and the source files were on Ubuntu 12.10 32bit.

Source computer: the computer with the audio files.

Client computer: the computer with the speakers attached on.

First I’ve installed the secure shell server on the source computer using the following command

sudo apt-get install openssh-server

Then I’ve installed paprefs on the source computer

sudo apt-get install paprefs

paprefs

I’ve configured my source computer as follows:

Network Access:

check Make discoverable PulseAudio network sound devices available locally

Network Server:

check Enable network access to local sound devices

check Allow other machines on the LAN to discover local sound devices

Simultaneous Output

check Add virtual output device for simultaneous output on all local sound cards

I’ve installed paprefs on the client computer

sudo apt-get install paprefs

I’ve checked on the port of PulseAudio

pax11publish

by default it is 4713

using the following shell command to connect to the source computer

ssh -C -R 24713:localhost:4713 user@SourceComputerIP -X

-C: compress the network info, speeds up the connection

-R: use port forwarding, we have used the PulseAudio port got in the previous step

-X: to use the client computer display for the source computer applications

After the shell command, on the source computer

export PULSE_SERVER=”tcp:localhost:24713″

to transfer the PulseAudio stream to the port of the shell forward

Now every thing is configured try the vlc to play any audio / video file.

As a newbie to ssh command, I am really enjoying it.