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Remote Access Question

binary visions

The voice of reason
Jun 13, 2002
22,092
1,132
NC
VNC. There are various flavors and types. I use UltraVNC. I've also used TightVNC which is very good as well.

Only thing you have to remember or make sure is done is you have to pass the remote access port through your router to your PC.
 

Toshi

Harbinger of Doom
Oct 23, 2001
38,029
7,549
VNC is insecure as it is, but is secure when tunneled over ssh:

set up your home wireless router to only pass port 22 (ssh) to your home computer. ssh from your work machine to the home machine, tunneling port 5900 as you do so. then use VNC over ssh. voila.

http://www.google.com/search?q=tunnel+vnc+ssh&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=com.google:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

Cliffs Notes:
1. set up router to forward port 22
2. ssh -L 5900:localhost:5900 myhomerouter'sIPaddressgoeshere
3. connect to localhost:5900 in your VNC client of choice

(read the google hits linked above if this doesn't make sense.)
 

binary visions

The voice of reason
Jun 13, 2002
22,092
1,132
NC
I don't have much in the way of security issues because I don't allow external connections (outside of my LAN).

To get to your work computer from home, you'd need to get your IT department to open up a port in the firewall unless you have your own external IP (unlikely, and also unlikely that they'll be willing to open up a port for you unless it's a very small company).

To connect to home from work you just need to follow these instructions in forwarding a port through your wireless router.
 

Toshi

Harbinger of Doom
Oct 23, 2001
38,029
7,549
i trust OpenSSH's maintainers a whole lot more than those of UltraVNC. when ssh works why try to supplant it? :)

also, with regard to connecting to work i actually came across a pretty solid way around firewalls -- you probably saw the earlier thread, where $tinkle actually provided serious advice, etc.:

step 1:
workcomputer> ssh -R 2222:localhost:2222 homecomputerIP

step 2 (note that we're sshing to the tunnel on localhost!):
homecomputer> ssh -p 2222 -L 5900:localhost:5900 localhost

step 3:
VNC from homecomputer to localhost:5900

awesome, eh? :D
 

firemandivi

They drank my Tooters
Sep 7, 2006
784
-1
a state called denial
My office is very small, basically I'm the IT guy because I know more about computers than anyone else here. As I see it, our internet comes in from the DSL modem goes to a wireless router to a switch to out individual computers. The switch gives out the IP address. again thanks for the help
 

syadasti

i heart mac
Apr 15, 2002
12,690
290
VT
VNC is insecure as it is, but is secure when tunneled over ssh:

set up your home wireless router to only pass port 22 (ssh) to your home computer. ssh from your work machine to the home machine, tunneling port 5900 as you do so. then use VNC over ssh. voila.

http://www.google.com/search?q=tunnel+vnc+ssh&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=com.google:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

Cliffs Notes:
1. set up router to forward port 22
2. ssh -L 5900:localhost:5900 myhomerouter'sIPaddressgoeshere
3. connect to localhost:5900 in your VNC client of choice

(read the google hits linked above if this doesn't make sense.)
Yes, this is the way to go or you can buy a router with a VPN server and you don't have to do anything as long as nobody on your LAN wants to middleman your VNC session and steal your info in transit:D If you have a VPN you can also use RDP which in the current generation (6) is now more secure than it use to be but you need current RDP on both client and server. Any remote access protocol that is only encrypted can be middleman'd if its not authenticated (prior to RDP 6 there was no authentication)

If you want to pay for a service (from Citrix), Gotomypc usually works even with firewalls in place as it routes over port 80 or 443 and its secured using SSL w/128-bit AES.