README

MyEnTunnel

After a few years hiatus MyEnTunnel is now back with an updated release and I'm releasing the Delphi source code.

MyEnTunnel is a Windows system tray application that establishes and maintains persistent TCP SSH tunnels. It runs silently in the background, automatically reconnecting when a connection drops — so your tunnels stay up without any manual intervention.

Note: This is a third-party application and is not associated with VanDyke Software or Simon Tatham (the author of PuTTY).

Screenshot

What It Does

MyEnTunnel works by launching Plink (plink.exe, the command-line SSH client from PuTTY) as a background child process and watching over it. If Plink dies for any reason — network interruption, server restart, timeout — MyEnTunnel restarts it automatically.

Supported tunnel types:

• Local port forwarding — forward a local port through the SSH server to a remote host
• Remote port forwarding — expose a local port on the remote SSH server
• SOCKS proxy — dynamic SOCKS5 proxy through the SSH connection

Active connection monitoring (optional):

• Looped TCP tunnel pairs (local + remote) to detect dead connections via echo
• Single tunnel to the server's echo service (port 7) — lighter on resources
• Triggers a reconnect after 3 consecutive missed pings (configurable)

All cryptography and networking is handled by plink.exe. MyEnTunnel only manages the process lifecycle and connection health.

Features

• System tray icon with color-coded status (green / yellow / red)
• Multiple profiles — manage several SSH connections independently
• Multi-language UI: English, German, French, Dutch, Polish, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese
• Light / Dark theme with automatic detection of Windows system theme
• Pageant and PuTTYgen compatible (SSH key authentication)
• Works with portaPuTTY (portable/USB drive usage)
• Compatible with Wine on Linux/macOS

Security Notice

The password or passphrase remains in memory while MyEnTunnel is running. The obfuscated version stored in the INI file is not strongly encrypted. For this reason:

• Do not use MyEnTunnel with root or administrator accounts.
• For attended workstation use, prefer Pageant with passphrases over stored passwords.

Requirements (End Users)

• Windows 10 or Windows 11 (32-bit or 64-bit)
• plink.exe from the PuTTY download page — place it in the same folder as myentunnel.exe, or configure its path in the INI file

Installation

Download the installer from the Releases page. The INNO Setup installer automatically selects the correct 32-bit or 64-bit build for your OS.

For a portable install on a 64-bit system, use the 32-bit build. You can extract it manually from the installer using innounp.

Quick Start

1. Launch myentunnel.exe. It minimizes to the system tray immediately.
2. Right-click the tray icon and choose Settings (or double-click to open the main window).
3. Fill in your SSH server, username, password or key file, and tunnel definitions.
4. Click Connect. The tray icon turns green when the tunnel is established.

To exit, right-click the tray icon and choose Exit. Closing the window only minimizes it back to the tray.

Profiles

Profiles let you run multiple independent SSH tunnel configurations simultaneously. Each profile stores its own INI settings and key file.

Creating/switching profiles: right-click the system tray icon and use the Profiles submenu.

Launching a specific profile from the command line or a shortcut:

"C:\Program Files\myentunnel\myentunnel.exe" work

When using key files with profiles, the key file is named <profilename>-keyfile.ppk (e.g., work-keyfile.ppk).

System Tray Icon States

GUI Options

Advanced INI Options

Edit myentunnel.ini directly to access these settings:

Examples:

Executable=X:\tools\plink-dev.exe
ExecArguments=-N -ssh -2 -6
FullPathKeyfile=X:\keys\mykey.ppk
BackScrollLines=1000
ShowOnDoubleClick=0
FullPathLogfile=C:\logs\myentunnel.log
EchoPort=31337
PingInterval=60000

IPv6

Add -6 to ExecArguments:

ExecArguments=-N -ssh -2 -6

HTTP / SOCKS Proxy

Create a named PuTTY session with the proxy settings configured, then use that session name as the Host field in MyEnTunnel instead of a bare hostname.

Building from Source

Requirements

• Delphi 12 Athens (or compatible version — the project targets Delphi 12.3)
• Indy Components — bundled with Delphi; used for TCP socket handling
• Windows SDK (included with Delphi)

Steps

1. Clone the repository:

   pascalCopy

   git clone https://github.com/nemesis2/MyEnTunnel.git

2. Open myentunnel.dproj in the Delphi IDE.

3. Select your target platform (Win32 or Win64) from the toolbar.

4. Choose a build configuration:

   • Release — optimized, no debug symbols
   • Debug — unoptimized, with debug information

5. Build with Project > Build (or Shift+F9).

   The compiled executable is placed in:

   • Win32\Release\myentunnel.exe (32-bit release)
   • Win64\Release\myentunnel.exe (64-bit release)

Command-line Build (MSBuild)

msbuild myentunnel.dproj /p:Config=Release /p:Platform=Win32
msbuild myentunnel.dproj /p:Config=Release /p:Platform=Win64

Installer

The installer is built with INNO Setup. Open the INNO script (.iss file) in the INNO Setup IDE and compile it. The installer bundles both 32-bit and 64-bit builds and selects the correct one at install time.

Version History

License

MyEnTunnel is freeware. Free for personal and commercial use. You may distribute it freely but you may not sell it or include it in a paid product. See license.txt for full terms.

Links

• PuTTY / Plink downloads
• Pageant (SSH key agent)
• INNO Setup
• innounp (INNO unpacker)