Patent ID: 8136165

Claim:
A method of establishing a secure communication channel between first and second computer devices of an IP communication network via one or more intermediate computer devices using a Secure Shell (SSH) protocol, the method comprising: storing in a memory of the first computer device an SSH configuration file comprising a plurality of sections, each section defining parameter values for a corresponding hop of a multi-hop tunnel and an identification of the section defining parameter values for any subsequent hop; at said first computer device, establishing a first instance of an SSH client, with a name of the SSH configuration file being an initialization value for the first instance, and using the parameter values within a first section of the SSH configuration file to establish a first SSH connection to a next intermediate computer device, in sequence, the next intermediate computer device being one of the one or more intermediate computer devices; and following establishment of said first SSH connection, establishing one or more further instances of the SSH client, with an identification of said SSH configuration file and an identification of a corresponding section of the SSH configuration file being an initialization value for a corresponding further instance of the SSH client, each further instance of the SSH client using the parameter values with the corresponding named section of the SSH configuration file to establish an SSH connection to a subsequent computer device in the sequence over the already established SSH connection(s), wherein a final SSH connection provides an end-to-end tunnel extending between said first and second computer devices via each of the said one or more intermediate computer devices.