Remote Access

Hi, i try to give a friend of mine access to my machine over the internet.
I know you can do it with ssh (there is a nice howto here) but i would like to have a gui access and specify what folder he can see and use.

What would be the programs i need to do that or is there any how to for that? I was looking through some howto’s but i am not really smarter know.

Thanks for the help. A link for a how to would be ok too.

On Sat, 2011-04-09 at 21:36 +0000, JoergJaeger wrote:
> Hi, i try to give a friend of mine access to my machine over the
> internet.
> I know you can do it with ssh (there is a nice howto here) but i would
> like to have a gui access and specify what folder he can see and use.
>
> What would be the programs i need to do that or is there any how to for
> that? I was looking through some howto’s but i am not really smarter
> know.
>
> Thanks for the help. A link for a how to would be ok too.
>
Hi
Install teamviewer6 (google for the link) else there is always NX from
nomachine, but you would need to open someports and some forwarding on
your router.


Cheers Malcolm °¿° (Linux Counter #276890)
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 11 (x86_64) Kernel 2.6.32.29-0.3-default
up 3 days 5:51, 2 users, load average: 1.01, 1.07, 1.12
GPU GeForce 8600 GTS Silent - Driver Version: 260.19.26

Thanks for the tip. I will google for it and see how far i get. :slight_smile:

If he just needs GUI access for a few individual programs, and knows how to start those at the command line, the “ssh -X” will do X-windows forwarding. You might need to check your sshd_config to see if that is allowed, but I think allowing it is the default.

Actually no programs. I just want to able to let my friend download something at the time i am not there.
These programs were ok, but not really what i need. Thanks though.
I was reading about ssh and it may be something i can use. Right now i am setting up a ftp server which comes close to it. Of course it needs to be secure too.

On Sun, 2011-04-10 at 03:06 +0000, JoergJaeger wrote:
> Actually no programs. I just want to able to let my friend download
> something at the time i am not there.
> These programs were ok, but not really what i need. Thanks though.
> I was reading about ssh and it may be something i can use. Right now i
> am setting up a ftp server which comes close to it. Of course it needs
> to be secure too.
>
>
Hi
Use sftp then, if the user is on windows, there is winscp to copy files.
Make sure you don’t use the default port 22 change it to something
higher than say 10000


Cheers Malcolm °¿° (Linux Counter #276890)
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 11 (x86_64) Kernel 2.6.32.29-0.3-default
up 3 days 11:24, 2 users, load average: 1.26, 1.20, 1.25
GPU GeForce 8600 GTS Silent - Driver Version: 260.19.26

If you already have ssh set up he can use that connection to transfer files. If he’s on a windows box, have him get winscp (WinSCP :: Free SFTP and FTP client for Windows), if he’s on a Linux box then he can set the connection up in dolphin or nautilus. If you’re trying to control what he has access to, you’ll need to play with file permissions.

Here’s what I do on my file server at the house (granted this is on a LAN but the principals are the same):

  • galadirel (my file server) has a directory: /srv/fileshare
  • this directory is has the group “fileshare” that all users that I want to have access are members of
  • the group permissions on the directory are set with read, write, execute, and setgid (this ensures that everything created in the directory will have the same group)
  • I created another directory /srv/fileshare/budget
  • that directory has the group “budget” of which only my wife and I are members
  • just as the fileshare directory the group has read, write, execute, and setgid. But this time I ensure that “other” has no permissions.
  • now my son has access to music stored on the file server, but not the budget

I don’t know of a good GUI way to do all that, but as long as the files I want to share are kept in the correct directories, the setgid does the rest for me.

A word of caution, ensure that the setgid permission is only on the directory not on the files. For directories it behaves as described, for normal files it causes executables to be executed with the group permissions regardless of the permissions of the user.

I liked GnomeFTP on 11.2, but I’d google for FTP/SFTP GUI for Windows for programs like:
WinSCP :: Free SFTP and FTP client for Windows

Or he can just use his browser, ie, ftp://ftp.from.your.machine/somefolder/some_files* instead of http://.
On your machine you would just need to start VSFTP server,.that’s YaST2 | Network Services | FTP Server, add the directories, add your friend as a member of user group ftp, etc.

You may need to open a port on your external interface and firewall to allow your friend access to your PC and FTP folders.

I’m not sure how to setup VPN or Tunneling from his PC to your PC, so I’ll leave that off for now.

If he wants to serve files then he should install FreeSSH.

Someone else mentioned TeamViewer which is an excellent program but it gives him complete access to your Desktop, although you can restrict his access to read-only.

**@JoergJager

VPN looks daunting but the examples simplify and explain the process.


man openvpn

You can also configure VPN through NetworkManager.
Recommend using FTP for usergroup.
**