Connect to Unix and execute perl script from VBA

This topic comes up rarely and usually goes unanswered (except for ftp questions). You might prefer to ask in a Linux forum.

As far as I know, you would need to do two things - first connect to the linux machine in question, second, execute the script. The first might be done through an ssh connection, and the second is easy enough, assuming you have permissions on the file. This is really a networking thing, and as far as I know vba as such will not give you the tools, but you can access a DOS shell via VBA (try searching under VBA Shell or VBA ShellExecute) and run commands via the windows command line.

Alex

This one looks interesting:

http://www.vbmysql.com/articles/security/protecting-mysql-sessions-with-ssh-port-forwarding-part-2

Throwing SSH into the google search with VBA Shell, I find some hits - many in the form of software clients to handle SSH connections, but this one looks promising with an open source solution. It may require administrative rights on your computer, though, to handle SSH logins - not sure.

Hi Alexander,
Unfortunetly I dont have administrative rights on my computer. Also, I was expecting a simpler way like a winsock because I believe connecting to unix was easier with Excel 2003. Is there any work around? Maybe i can download the wonsock library, etc?
Thanks
Aseem

It maybe that telnet is possible, but frankly - that's not secure at all. I'm not expert enough to give advice, and really don't know a thing about winsocks. Are you simply trying to connect to a unix machine and say "run this script"? Problem with telnet is that your password is plain text - the whole world will see it. Same for ftp, btw. Is the unix machine local to your lan? Or do you intend to use the internet to connect to it?

Alex

I've reached the end of my expertise but this link shows some sample code:
linux questions - winsock to unix

It seems to me you'd need to create a listening socket on the unix side, and send a message to it from a sending socket on the windows side. It doesn't seem extremely difficult (a little knowledge of C helps) - but that said, there's a lot more to this than just opening a port to listen for traffic. I'm seeing nothing about these messages being encrypted, or the dangers of opening ports. My advice is that if you can't use ssh (puTTY) or another form of secure connection, don't do this (unless you really know exactly what you are up to).

Alex