re the reverse ssh and public key - surely, if you have already got public kays set up on N900 and openSSH then when the ssh -R command is run on N900 in response to the SMSCON command, it will use the public key in preference to a password (as long as you have enabled both methods in your sshd_config file, and your N900's public key is in your server's authorized_keys file)?

I have that setup (with password auth disabled) and when I connect to my remote tunnel it first tries using public key auth before it drops back to password. I may have msunderstood how SMSCON sets up the remote SSH - but IIRC there is no option to send a password in the ssh command itself, so as long as your keys are present & correct, it *should* just use the keys without any need for SMSCON to provide a password?

I am thinking of installing SMSCON as an alternative to an "always on" reverse ssh session, so please advise if there's some reason why public key auth couldn't work with it's present setup.