[Balug-talk] TightVNC -- remote access

[Karsten M. Self]

on Wed, Jan 19, 2005 at 12:29:25PM -0800, Bill Moseley (moseley at hank.org) wrote:
> Anyone use TightVNC to access a Windows machine?
> 
> I have family that run Windows XP (that will change as soon as they no
> longer need to use their accounting package for the business...)
> 
> So, I do get those phone calls once in a while where, well as any of
> you with aging parents know, telephone "VNC" doesn't work that well.
> So, if I could actually see/access their desktop remotely it would be
> much easier to help them.
> 
> So I'm curious if anyone has experience setting up TightVNC.  Also,
> what's needed on the windows side to tunnel VNC over ssh.

Install TightVNC (it's a touch faster) on the legacy MS Windows side.
You have to activate the server (follow the pretty pictures) when you
install.

With XP SP2, you've got to allow one or more VNC ports (up to 64 ports
starting at 5900, usually 5900 - 5909 should be more than sufficient)
through the built-in firewall.  You've also got to make sure any other
networking hardware forwards these ports.

Note that VNC doesn't encrypt by default, though instructions for
tunneling over SSH are readily available.

Other alternatives include:

  - rdesktop:  If the 'Doze user doesn't need to see what you're doing,
    you can remotely admin the box.

  - NX from Nomachine.com.  Haven't checked it out myself yet, but it's
    faster than stock VNC or X (even with LBProxy).
    http://www.nomachine.com/
 
> I'm also going to add a hardware router/firewall at their home.  I
> suppose all of the basic home type routers (i.e. Linksys) will allow
> port forwarding off ssh.  I actually tried to figure out how to get
> sshd running on Win XP a year ago and couldn't get it working in the
> time I had.  (Kind of amazing (or not) to find that the XP had telnet
> but no ssh client standard.)

Cygwin offers an ssh server.  Looks like you found it...

Note that it's not fully secure:  all Cygwin processes share memory
space within the cygwin32.dll.  Generally not a major concern, but
something to keep in mind on multiuser systems.
 
> IIRC, this was the page I used to try and get sshd running:
> 
>     http://pigtail.net/LRP/printsrv/cygwin-sshd.html

Mike Erdeley's Cygwin SSHD instructions rock, though Cygwin itself is a
lot better than a few years ago.


Peace.

-- 
Karsten M. Self <kmself at ix.netcom.com>        http://kmself.home.netcom.com/
 What Part of "Gestalt" don't you understand?
    I've been specializing in groups. Battling gangs for local charities,
    that kind of thing.
    - Princess Bride
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