fixing distant computer via remote control

[Bill Stanley]

On 11/20/2011 01:10 PM, John D Lamb wrote:
 > On Sun, 2011-11-20 at 12:23 -0500, Bill Stanley wrote:
 >> I have been spending a lot of time going over to my neighbor to fix
 >> relatively simple things.  Winter is coming and I really don't want to
 >> leave my house for something that is relatively minor.  Some fixes take
 >> only a few minutes.  My neighbor tries to describe the problem but a
 >> verbal description is lacking.  What must be done so I can access my
 >> neighbors computer via my computer.  I would like a GUI application so
 >> it would be like I was actually there.
 >
 > This is possible, but takes quite a bit of setting up.

I'm aware of the difficulties and am willing to go through short term 
toil to make things easier for me in the long run.  Along the way, I 
will learn more about Linux.

 > First, you need a way to find your neighbour’s IP address. There are
 > sites like no-ip.com that provide the ip address for free.

Question... Since the ISP probably uses NAT, this would probably change 
over time.  Whenever my neighbor wants me to do a fix remotely, can I 
ask her to run a command to learn the IP address?  Her computer is 
connected directly to the ISP cable with no router between.  Maybe 
ifconfig would work?

 > Next you probably have to get through your neighbour’s router. The most
 > sensible way to do this is to set the neighbour’s router to accept ssh
 > (port tcp 22 connections) and forward them to their ubuntu box (because
 > the router will use port forwarding). You may also have to allow
 > connections through the firewall on ubuntu (usually ufw) if there is
 > one. Again, open port 22.

I assume you mean the box that the ISP provides.  There is not a 
separate router.  This might be a problem because the ISP doesn't want 
the users adjusting their settings.  If you mean a SEPARATE router, then 
there is none.

 > Next, you need your neighbour’s computer to run the ssh (secure shell
 > server). Once you have this remote login is possible. Ideally, you
 > should set up remote login using a public key generated on your
 > neighbour’s computer and transferred by any method other than the
 > Internet (e.g. a usb stick). You can test this using ssh
 > yourloginname at ip-address-of-neighbour Once you have this working,
 > everything else can be set up from your computer, provided you are
 > sudoer on your neighbour’s computer.

This will not be a problem.  Actually, my neighbor does not have root 
privileges, I have the root password.  She messed up her first Linux 
install by using root privileges and somehow messed things up. Our 
answer was to give her only a user account and I have a separate root 
account.  It's really a personal problem here but now she needs to 
contact me to install things.  It's more of a nuisance now and she 
refuses to learn how to properly administer a computer.  I probably will 
use ssh to access my root account.

 > For the GUI, you can use VNC over ssh. Your neighbors computer needs a
 > VNC server running and there are various packages (search vnc in
 > synaptic) that allow remote connections.
 >
 > I have a similar setup for two machines. I don’t need the first two
 > steps because the ‘neighbor’ machine has a static ip address.

Thanks, Right now, this is a preliminary investigation which looks very 
hopeful.  The next step will be to work on my second computer to 
remotely control it.  That way, I can gain some experience before 
messing around with her computer.

Bill Stanley


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Bill Stanley