asia ssh between macs

SSH Between Asia’s Machines — Setup Guide

This lets you SSH from your Mac Mini into your MacBook Air and vice versa, over Tailscale — works from anywhere, not just home.

Both machines are already on Tailscale:

Machine	Tailscale hostname	Tailscale IP
Mac Mini	asias-mac-mini	100.119.127.26
MacBook Air	asias-macbook-air	100.113.132.50

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Step 1 — Check for SSH keys on both machines

Run this on each machine:

ls ~/.ssh/id_ed25519

If the file exists, skip to Step 2. If you get “No such file or directory”, generate a key:

# On Mac Mini:
ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "asia-mac-mini"

# On MacBook Air:
ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "asia-macbook-air"

Press Enter through all prompts (no passphrase needed).

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Step 2 — Enable Remote Login on both machines

On each machine:

System Settings → General → Sharing → Remote Login → On

Make sure “Allow access for: All users” is selected.

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Step 3 — Exchange public keys

You need each machine’s public key in the other machine’s authorized_keys.

On Mac Mini — get its public key:

cat ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub

Copy that entire line. Then on MacBook Air, run:

mkdir -p ~/.ssh && echo "PASTE_MAC_MINI_KEY_HERE" >> ~/.ssh/authorized_keys && chmod 600 ~/.ssh/authorized_keys && chmod 700 ~/.ssh

On MacBook Air — get its public key:

cat ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub

Copy that entire line. Then on Mac Mini, run:

mkdir -p ~/.ssh && echo "PASTE_MACBOOK_AIR_KEY_HERE" >> ~/.ssh/authorized_keys && chmod 600 ~/.ssh/authorized_keys && chmod 700 ~/.ssh

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Step 4 — Add SSH config on both machines

On Mac Mini, add to ~/.ssh/config:

cat >> ~/.ssh/config << 'EOF'

Host macbook-air
    HostName 100.113.132.50
    User vboy
    IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_ed25519
    IdentitiesOnly yes
    StrictHostKeyChecking no
EOF

On MacBook Air, add to ~/.ssh/config:

cat >> ~/.ssh/config << 'EOF'

Host mac-mini
    HostName 100.119.127.26
    User vboy
    IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_ed25519
    IdentitiesOnly yes
    StrictHostKeyChecking no
EOF

If your username is different from vboy, replace it in both commands.

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Step 5 — Add shell aliases

On Mac Mini:

echo 'alias air="ssh macbook-air"' >> ~/.zprofile

On MacBook Air:

echo 'alias mini="ssh mac-mini"' >> ~/.zprofile

Open a new terminal window on each machine, then test:

• From Mac Mini: air
• From MacBook Air: mini

You should land in the other machine’s shell. Type exit to return.

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Requirements going forward

• Tailscale must be running on both machines (menu bar icon)
• Remote Login must be on at the destination machine
• Works from anywhere — home, office, or travel