Remote Desktop Connection

[sternj2656]

Hello,

I'm a novice to Linux, however, its been apart of my home network ever since I begun my home network.

Back in 1998, I got my first Windows (Win 98) computer. At that time, using a cable modem (Rogers) was one of the fastest ways to connect to the Internet, so I signed up with a cable ISP. I was always told that a UNIX/Linux server was more secure than a Windows server. Therefore, I purchased a second computer and installed Linux-Mandrake 6.1 (Red Had Linux with enhancements) on it. Not knowing anything about Linux, I managed to configure my first network as follows:

- cable modem connected directly to Linux server (through ethernet card #1 on Linux server)
- Win 98 computer connected to Linux server (through ethernet card #2 on Linux server)
- Linux server shared files/Internet with Win 98 computer.

Today, I still have the same Linux server connected to the cable modem on ethernet card #1. However, ethernet card #2 on my Linux server in now connected to a SMC router (c/w wireless antenna). I still have my Win 98 computer (which shares an old printer), which is now connected to the router directly, along with some other Windows XP computers that are connect to the router either directly or wirelessly. Everything works fine.

I want to be able to access my home Linux server and Windows computers through a remote desktop connection when I'm outside of the network. Two questions: can I do it with my current home setup and how to do it?

Can you please point me in the right direction.
Your help is greatly appreciated.

[swerdna]

RDP usually uses one channel; viz port 3389. So you can forward the port through the modem to the mandrake 6 machine. You can forward it on from there to the router and then to a windows machine. NB I think this can be forwarded to only one machine. So if you wanted to interact with all windows machines it could perhaps be like this:

You could RDP connect to the Mandrake machine and then from an active desktop on the Mandrake machine you could choose at will connect further using port forwarding across the router to a machine of your choice, once you had the mandrake desktop open.

OR

You could rdp connect to alwaysthe same computer on the LAN of windows xp computers and from there you could activate a VNC or an RDP connection to any other computer on the LAN.

I think the latter method deserves the priority investigation because it might be best just to port forward through the Mandriva machine and router to a modern operating system windows xp. Mandrake is very old -- outdated technology -- I'm thinking you should skip through it.

Here's the showstopper question: can Mandriva 6 handle rdp protocol and port forwarding at all? maybe not because RDP was invented after Mandrake 6, perhaps?

I would think about updating the O/S on the front machine, but then there's this question: can the front machine handle a modern O/S?

So in the end I personally would throw out the front machine and connect the modem to the router direct. Modern O/Ses have pretty strong firewalls and the firewall in the router adds to that.

And I would probably look at VNC because the remote client can target any computer on the LAN whereas RDP can (I think) only target one.

[sternj2656]

Thanks Swerdna!

Assuming the machine can handle the upgraded O/S, which Linux distribution should I upgrade to?

What would be the minimum hardware requirements for the upgrade O/S?

Can anyone tell if my existing Mandrake 6.1 is able to do port-forwarding for RDP?

Thanks.

[swerdna]

Originally Posted by sternj2656

Thanks Swerdna!

Assuming the machine can handle the upgraded O/S, which Linux distribution should I upgrade to?

What would be the minimum hardware requirements for the upgrade O/S?

Can anyone tell if my existing Mandrake 6.1 is able to do port-forwarding for RDP?

Thanks.

The mandrake machine's purpose is to be an extra firewall: so you have firewalls like this: Machine --> store-bought router --> personal firewall on LAN machines. For each LAN machine that makes three firewalls. I regard that as overkill, what we would call "paranoid" level. But if that's what you want, that's fine, just thought I'd mention that IMHO it's not necessary.

Having said that, now to your questions:
Check out the lightweight dedicated firewalls. Like this one, Smoothwall:
About the SmoothWall GPL Project - SmoothWall.org

You could use SuSEfirewall2 in openSUSE 11.1 which has min harware requirements of pentium 1, 256 MB ram (512 recommended), 500Mb hard drive (3Gb recommended). I'd run it in Gnome or KDE3. (not KDE4 which has big issues with remote desktop stuff).

If I wasn't such a suSEophile, I'd try Smoothwall or similar. I haven't used a lightweight dedicated firewall but the concept seems just right for your old hardware.

FYI: openSUSE 11.1: Hardware Requirements

Do some Google research on dedicated firewalls, my suggestion Smoothwall is not the only thing out there.