How to Connect One Laptop’s Terminal to Another and Map Ports

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Introduction

In many scenarios, you may want to access and control another laptop’s terminal remotely or forward ports between two machines. This can be useful for tasks like remote debugging, accessing services, or running commands on another machine. One of the most effective ways to achieve this is using SSH (Secure Shell).

This guide covers:

  • Connecting one laptop’s terminal to another using SSH.
  • Mapping ports from one laptop to another using SSH port forwarding.
  • Using port forwarding to share Android Debug Bridge (ADB) between two laptops.

1. Connecting One Laptop’s Terminal to Another

To connect Laptop 2 to the terminal of Laptop 1 remotely, follow these steps:

Step 1: Enable SSH on Laptop 1

On Laptop 1 (the one you want to access), install and enable the SSH server:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install openssh-server
sudo systemctl enable --now ssh

This ensures that Laptop 1 is accessible over SSH.

To check the IP address of Laptop 1, run:

ip a | grep inet

Step 2: Connect from Laptop 2

On Laptop 2, open a terminal and run:

ssh username@<Laptop_1_IP>

Example:

ssh inxeoz@192.168.0.163
  • Replace username with the actual username of Laptop 1.
  • Replace <Laptop_1_IP> with the actual IP of Laptop 1.
  • If prompted, type yes to accept the connection and enter the password.

Once connected, you can execute commands on Laptop 1 directly from Laptop 2.

2. Mapping One Laptop’s Port to Another (SSH Port Forwarding)

SSH allows you to map a port from one machine to another. This is useful for forwarding services like ADB, web servers, databases, etc.

Step 1: Understand SSH Port Forwarding

The basic syntax for local port forwarding is:

ssh -L <local_port>:<target_host>:<remote_port> username@remote_host
  • -L: Enables local port forwarding.
  • <local_port>: The port on Laptop 2 (your current machine).
  • <target_host>: The host where the service runs (usually localhost).
  • <remote_port>: The actual port on Laptop 1.
  • username@remote_host: The SSH credentials of Laptop 1.

Step 2: Forwarding a Port (Example: ADB Debugging)

If Laptop 1 has a phone connected via ADB and you want to access it from Laptop 2, run:

ssh -L 5037:localhost:5037 inxeoz@192.168.0.163
  • This maps Laptop 2’s local port 5037 to Laptop 1’s ADB service (port 5037).
  • Any ADB command on Laptop 2 will now be sent to Laptop 1.

On Laptop 2, restart ADB to recognize the forwarded connection:

adb kill-server
adb start-server
adb devices

Now, Laptop 2 will detect the phone connected to Laptop 1!

3. Using SSH Reverse Port Forwarding

Reverse forwarding allows Laptop 1 to access services running on Laptop 2.

Example: If you want to expose Laptop 2’s port 8080 to Laptop 1, run on Laptop 2:

ssh -R 8080:localhost:8080 inxeoz@192.168.0.163

Now, Laptop 1 can access localhost:8080 as if the service were running there.

4. Persistent Port Forwarding with SSH Tunnels

If you need persistent port forwarding, add this to ~/.ssh/config on Laptop 2:

Host laptop1
    HostName 192.168.0.163
    User inxeoz
    LocalForward 5037 localhost:5037

Then simply connect using:

ssh laptop1

This will automatically forward port 5037 each time you SSH into Laptop 1.

Conclusion

SSH is a powerful tool that allows you to:

  • Remotely control another laptop’s terminal.
  • Forward ports between machines for remote debugging.
  • Share services like ADB, web servers, and databases securely.

By setting up SSH connections and port forwarding, you can efficiently work across multiple devices without physically moving between them.

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