Remote Desktop

[Patrick Doyle]

On Mon, Aug 16, 2010 at 2:13 PM, Kipton Moravec <kip at kdream.com> wrote:
>
>> >>
>> >> Thanks. That is what I thought it was doing. I have the computer setting
>> >> a dynmic dns address and I can get in using ssh. (So yes I know the
>> >> address.) But to reconfigure the ATT 2WIRE router I need to be on the
>> >> LAN side to log in and it is a web browser interface. Unfortunately the
>> >> location of the remote computer is not easy to access, so it is hard to
>> >> get in and out for testing.
>> >>
>> >> Kip
>> >>
>> >
>> > I think I figured out the problem, but do not know how to fix it.
>> >
>> > Recoup the problem:
>> >
>> > I have a Xubuntu computer at a remote site behind a NAT Router to the
>> > Internet. I directed TCP port 5900 on the Router to point to the Xubuntu
>> > Computer port 5900.
>> >
>> > I tried to access from my home computer using remote desktop on Ubuntu
>> > 08.04 LTS and could not get it. I have a dynamic DNS set up and can
>> > access the computer with ssh so the IP address is O.K.
>> >
>> > =============
>> >
>> > Last Friday I went out there to check on another problem we were having
>> > on a different computer and ran vino-preferences on the computer. The
>> > window was different than the System->Preferences->Remote Desktop on
>> > Ubuntu 08.04.
>> >
>> > In regular Ubuntu I have a check under the Advanced tab that says "Only
>> > use Local Connections". In Xubuntu I do not have the option, and it says
>> > local connections only.
>> >
>> > Am I screwed? Do I have to load 08.04 on that computer to get a remote
>> > desktop that is not local, or is there a config file somewhere that I
>> > can manually edit? Or is there a different vino-preferences I can get?
>> >
>> > I put Xubuntu on it because it was an old computer (566 MHz) with not a
>> > lot of RAM (384 MB), but the program running uses less than 10% of the
>> > resources. And it is the only thing running until I log in. I have to
>> > have a window system because the router has a web based interface that
>> > is only accessible from the LAN side and I would like to remote desk top
>> > in, and then configure the router.
>> >
>> > Kip
>>
>> Hello Kip,
>> I should have thought of this (and mentioned it) before.  You could
>> probably find a configuration file somewhere on the old Xubuntu
>> computer that would allow for remote connections, but you need to be
>> aware of what security risks you are exposing that computer to by
>> allowing anybody in the world wild internet to connect to your
>> computer.  That may not be what you want to do.
>>
>> If I understand you correctly, you've said that you can ssh to that
>> computer and that you have your router set up for that.  (If I don't
>> understand you correctly, then what I'm about to suggest probably
>> won't work).
>>
>> You can use ssh's "tunneling" capability to log into your Xubuntu
>> computer, and tunnel a connection to the VNC server with something
>> like:
>>
>> $ ssh xubuntu.computer.dyndns -L 9000:127.0.0.1:5900
>>
>> That says "Please connect to xubuntu.computer.dyndns using SSH; open
>> up local port 9000 and tunnel any connections to that port to port
>> 5900 on that computer."  Then point your VNC viewer to localhost:9000
>> and you should be connected via an encrypted link to your Xubuntu
>> computer.
>>
>> --wpd
>>
>
> So I did what you said.
>
> ssh -p 14522 xubuntu.computer.dyndns  -L 9000:127.0.0.1:5900
>
> The router port 14522 points to the xubuntu computer port 22.
>
> The terminal window asked for the PW and logged me in successfully.
>
> I started Remote Desktop viewer and put in localhost for Host and 9000
> for Port and the popup window said "Connection to host "localhost:9000"
> was closed."
>
> In the terminal window it said: "channel 3: open failed: connect failed:
> Connection refused"
>
> I did a find and it called it red.local so I used red.local for the Host
> and 9000 for the Port.
>
> It took a lot longer, 5-10 seconds, before "Connection to host
> "red.local:9000" was closed."
>
> There was no message in the terminal window this time.
>
> Now what do I do? I am logged into the the remote server with ssh.
> Which error log do I look at to try to get an idea what is going on?
> Should I be looking at the local error log or the remote error log?
>
> Could we be trying to get the router port 5900 not the Xubuntu computer?
> The Xubuntu computer has an IP address behind the router of
> 192.168.1.65. But the terminal window is logged in. This is beyond my
> current comprehension.

That sounds like you don't have your VNC server running on your
Xubuntu machine.  I'd double check that if I were you.  I've got a
train to catch, but I'll look for a response later.

--wpd