Knowing if a remote port forward was successful?

Question

I am trying to setup some reverse ssh tunnels so I can access my home network by bouncing off some server with a public IP.

When I run this command: ssh -R :[port_XX

Answer 1

Try adding -o ExitOnForwardFailure=yes

The full command will be something like:

ssh -N -R [port_XX]:localhost:22 -o ExitOnForwardFailure=yes user@host

(-N is useful to just forward port, without opening a remote shell; you can also add -f to send process in background, no need if you are running under screen, though..)