Last week I went out of town and while I was gone there were a couple of TV shows I wanted to keep current with but wouldn’t be able to see them when they aired, so I decided to improvise a solution so I could watch them. At some point in the future, I plan on getting a SlingBox Solo ($160) and the SlingBox player for the iPhone (~$30) but that’s a $200 solution I’m not ready to invest in. I figured I could think of a cheaper way. I wished to download a TV show from Usenet. I could set up an RSS reader to grab the NZB’s and feed them to SABnzbd or I could write some scripts. Since I haven’t done either yet, I decided I’d rather just connect to my server remotely. My requirements were to open a secure connection to my desktop so I could manipulate it remotely. I decided to go with VNC for this. VNC technology has been in use for at least a decade and allows you to control a desktop from a remote computer. In addition, we’ll be tunneling VNC over SSH so that we are not sending sensitive information in the clear.
Software needed: Tomato (not necessary but it’s what I use), iSSH for iPhone ($5.99), ORB Live for iPhone ($9.99), ORB for OSX, and Vine Server for OSX. Total software investment $15.98. All figures in US dollars. Optionally, I would recommend an NZB provider (I use nzbmatrix), SABnzbd, and a web browser.
On your Mac
Step 1: Install Vine Server for OSX OSX already includes a built-in VNC server however I like the look and feel of an external OSX VNC server. Vine server is free, lightweight, and what I’m used to in other OS’es. You can pretty much go with the defaults, even going so far as to skip the encryption (for now). I also like to set a password for VNC. With our setup, someone from the outside would still need a password to access it if you didn’t set one here, though anyone on your local LAN could then access your desktop without a password if you don’t set one here. Download Vine from here.
Vine Server Preferences
Vine Server Main Window
Step 2: Enable SSH access on your Mac Rather than have VNC provide encryption, we’re going to tunnel our VNC through SSH. The easiest way to accomplish this is to go into System Preferences->Internet & Wireless->Sharing->Remote Login and enable it as shown in the images below.
OSX System Preferences
Enabling SSH in OSX
Step 3: Install Orb on OSX Download Orb here. Once you’ve installed Orb, you’ll want to go into Control Panel->Media Sources and configure the location of your library. I’ve stuck with the defaults.
ORB Preferences
ORB Library Preferences
On your iPhone
Step 4: Install iSSH for iPhone iSSH can be downloaded through iTunes for your iPhone. 
Step 5: Install ORB Live on the iPhone 
On your router
Step 6: Allow SSH in from the Internet From your home router’s port forwarding administration screen, allow incoming traffic (TCP) on port 22 to your Mac. How often and from where you allow this is up to you. I simply connect to a secure URL from my phone and enable the access only when I need it.
Tomato Port Forwarding configuration
On your iPhone
Step 7: Use iSSH You’ll want to create a default connection. Mine is called “Home VNC”.
iSSH Configuration
Enter your home network’s external hostname (assuming use of a service like DynDNS) and your user name.
More iSSH configuration options
Put in the IP of your local (i.e. non-routable) VNC server in the VNC host section. Optionally, you can save your password here if you like (I don’t).
VNC configuration in iSSH
Once you’re done, try connecting. The app will first open an SSH tunnel …
iSSH opening an SSH tunnel
You’ll then be prompted for your SSH password (the same password you use on your Mac when you login).
iSSH asking for SSH credentials
You’ll then enter the password you set up in Vine for VNC access …
iSSH asking for VNC credentials
The app will then complete the connection.
iSSH completing VNC login
End Result
The interface for iSSH’s VNC client is pretty straightforward. As seen in the images above, you have a virtual mouse on the lower left of the screen and a translucent keyboard on the right. It was very easy to access my desktop, fire up a browser, search and download an NZB, load it into SABnzbd, and reindex ORB. After that, I could stream my content either to a computer or to my iPhone directly. Once I was done downloading, but before streaming the content, I logged into my router and closed the SSH port forwarding.
Conclusion
While I wouldn’t use this iPhone VNC access to do any serious or intensive tasks, it was a snap to login and perform some relatively minor and familiar tasks. Being able to stream fresh content is great alternative to carrying the content locally and provides a cheaper alternative to using a SlingBox/SlingPlayer combo.
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