Silent connection from Win32 to Linux

pal.hulden_at_tjohoo.se
Date: 10/25/05 

Date: 25 Oct 2005 00:18:31 -0700

I'd like to set up a SSH connection for tunnelling only from a Windows
XP box to a Linux firewall. The thing is I'd like to do this "silently"
so that the connection is there transparent to the user, without having
to supply a password (solution: use rsa-identity stored locally) and
without seeing a terminal window or other window (such as a DOS command
window).

I've tried to use PuTTY but it doesn't seem to have this feature. Plink
leaves a Command window running.

Is there any other product out there (GPL or freeware) that can handle
this?