Edit remote files with your editor of choice (vi or emacs), even if TRAMP doesn't really work for you or if you ssh and su your way through a network. It works by tunneling the file-data through the terminal on which you are working.
Start local emacs:
$ emacs
In emacs, start the server:
M-x server-start
In another terminal:
$ tmacswrap # this starts tmacswrap in your terminal
You should see a terminal title like tmacswrap(/home/user)
# ssh a little bit around
$ ssh [email protected]
$ ssh [email protected]
$ ssh [email protected]
# su to some user
$ su
On a this shell (it's build for bash) press Ctrl-t t. That should install the 'tmacs' command as a function in your current shell session.
$ tmacs -t some_text_file.txt # this should open your local emacsclient
C-t t : Installs the tmacs command
# starts local emacsclient to use with tramp
$ tmacs <file>
# tunnels file through terminal and starts local emacsclient
# this is the really useful thing, if tramp is not a real option
$ tmacs -t <file>
You are probably using vi or some other weird non-emacs-editor, but this tool should be relatively easy to customize. Just find the calls to emacsclient and change them to use your editor.