VNC ? again

[Wade Smart]

NoOp wrote:
> On 02/28/2008 09:31 AM, Wade Smart wrote:
> 
>> 02282008 1114 GMT-6
>>
>> NoOp, I have access to my computer again (what a relief) and I have 
>> uninstalled tightvnc. I saw the post by David about the steps to get
>> VNC working but something crept into my mind.
>>
>> Just to be clear: I need to access a Ubuntu computer (about 20 right 
>> now) from both ubuntu and windows XP systems. On the XP systems I am
>> not allowed to install extra software such as the VNC Viewer so I
>> wanted to do all of this over the browser.
> 
> That doesn't make sense to me. Using a VNC client is considerably easier
> than using a web browser (IMHO). Further, the VNC client/server is
> designed to handle screen, bandwith, and other vnc specific tasks.
> 
>> And thinking one step ahead - as soon as I set this up the local
>> admin will want to log in from home to fix something so security
>> should be considered.
> 
> Simple: have him use the ssh instructions below, connect into his
> machine and then initiate vnc sessions to the local lan computers from
> there. I use this all the time, that way you only have one open
> port/path. Added note: on the router only have the ssh and vnc ports
> forwarded to the one secure machine, do not allow the IT guy to willy
> nilly open up all the machines.
> 
>> https://help.ubuntu.com/community/VNCOverSSH Reading this article
>> about SSH - it says right at the beginning that it does not use Vino
>> - but can it be used?
> 
> Yes. Assuming that you do have ssh installed on the Ubuntu machines, set
> up an specific ssh port.
> 
> ssh -L 5910:localhost:5900 <IP of target machine>
> 
> Now from your VNC client, I'll use Krdc in this case, but you can use
> others - xvnc4viewer is quite nice and also provides scrollbars that
> work. xvnc4viewer also provides a decent visible mouse cursor whereas
> Krdc only provides a little black box frame for the cursor.
> 
> VNC:/localhost:5910
> 
> Or from a terminal
> 
> xvnc4viewer localhost:5910
> 
> All traffic to/from the vnc client will now use the ssh session.
> 
> Note that you can also do the same with the Windows machines have RDP -
> Krdc can use RDP as well. I've not tried it (RDP), but maybe that is
> your solution for connecting to the XP machines - just install ssh and
> use the built in Remote Desktop:
> <http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/mobility/getstarted/remoteintro.mspx>
> 
>> And the next thing I have to think about is - (and this might be
>> wishful thinking) the desktops being accessed are teachers pc's. They
>> dont know anything about their computers. So I really want this to be
>> as simple as possible.
>>
> 
> For who? You or the teachers? Not being a Smarta** , I'm trying to
> understand if the teachers will also be using vnc, or only you and the
> IT guy.

02282008 1523 GMT-6

Well, it needs to be simple for the teachers and the IT guy. I dont work
for the school district - just help out when I can. So the admin is
barely out of school in most cases and knows little.

What I was asked to do is make it easy for the admin to access the
teachers computer to either fix something or show them how to do
something without him/her having to travel to each school. Right now
this is implemented at only one school but if this works out - it will
grow to all the schools.

Im going to read again that ssh page and the ms link you posted.

Ill be back with questions :)

Wade