I’m a new Linux / Unix system user. How can I set encrypted tunnel between my desktop/laptop computer and server in a remote data center to bypass the limits in a network? How do I create a reverse SSH tunnel on Unix-like systems?

SSH tunnelling can be thought as a poor-man’s-VPN. It is handy in situations where you would like to hide your traffic from any body who might be listening on the wire or eavesdropping. You can use such tunnel between your computer and your Unix/BSD/Linux server to bypass limits placed by a network or to bypass NAT, and more.

Full article here:
Set Up SSH Tunneling on a Linux / Unix / BSD Server To Bypass NAT (nixCraft)