I want to set up a secure VNC between my system and a system with XP Home over the Internet. One system is in the UK, the other in Australia, if it makes any difference.
I’m completely new to this and was thinking along the lines of OpenVPN and TightVNC. Do you think this is a secure way to go, or is there a more secure method? Security is the priority here, although I do want to be able to see/use my desktop GUI.
Both ends have a combined modem/router/firewall devices to connect to the Internet, but neither end has a VPN capable router, one has openSUSE and the other Win XP Home.
Also, I have dual monitors but the XP system has only one. Can I feed the display of each monitor to separate windows on the XP system?
If someone could direct me to the best technologies to research, it would be much appreciated.
Thanks for the link. I thought about SSH but I don’t know if there’s much open source software available to set up SSH on XP Home. At the moment I’m looking at TightVNC paired with either OpenVPN or Hamachi to allow for a secure connection.
OpenVPN is great and that will definitely work. SSH on windows is
trickier because microsoft can’t seem to ship a server but still possible
with something like Cygwin which is free. OpenSSH also has a server you
can install directly on windows but I’ve heard it’s easier with openssh
(no experience either way to say conclusively, though).
Good luck.
david71 wrote:
> Hi hcvv,
>
> Thanks for the link. I thought about SSH but I don’t know if there’s
> much open source software available to set up SSH on XP Home. At the
> moment I’m looking at TightVNC paired with either OpenVPN or Hamachi to
> allow for a secure connection.
>
>
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I’ve decided to use OpenVPN and TightVNC. Now I’ve just got to read heaps to try and work out both what I need and where to start setting it up for both ends.
My biggest problem is the ~17000km between the computers and no one to setup and test the connection before I fly out next week, so I have to make my best guess for the setup at this end then setup the other end when I get there and hope. lol!
OpenVPN is pretty easy to setup if you follow the docs from the OpenVPN
folks. Use tun (vs. tap) unless you have a really good reason to do
otherwise and both sides are a cinch. It helps if you understand Public
Key stuff for the key side of things but not required with the steps
included. The biggest issue I’ve had setting that up has to do with the
client side and current windows stuff, and it all appears to be
UAC-related, though having issues with that shouldn’t surprise anybody who
has been alive in the last three years so just don’t use vista of win7 and
you’ll be fine on that. I think this is the page I used last time:
david71 wrote:
> Thanks ab,
>
> I’ve decided to use OpenVPN and TightVNC. Now I’ve just got to read
> heaps to try and work out both what I need and where to start setting it
> up for both ends.
>
> My biggest problem is the ~17000km between the computers and no one to
> setup and test the connection before I fly out next week, so I have to
> make my best guess for the setup at this end then setup the other end
> when I get there and hope. lol!
>
>
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dmera, thanks for the info. I had a look and it looks interesting, but since my original post I’ve decided it might be a good idea to set up the Windows computer with a VNC server too. It’s my mum’s computer and it would be handy to be able to control it remotely when she needs help from time to time.
As far as I can see, NoMachine NX doesn’t have a Windows server at this time.
Anyway thanks again for the info, it’s always good to know of the alternatives available.
If you do go with the VPN option you could, with windows, use the native
RDP protocol as well which would probably be faster and would not require
a server on that side. Also I believe RDP is encrypted natively (not that
it matters when you access it over a VPN). Either way you could have her
double-click on the ‘Help’ icon you create (which launches OpenVPN’s
client which connects to your network) and then access her box using
Linux’s native RDP client. Tada… all is well.
Good luck.
david71 wrote:
> dmera, thanks for the info. I had a look and it looks interesting, but
> since my original post I’ve decided it might be a good idea to set up
> the Windows computer with a VNC server too. It’s my mum’s computer and
> it would be handy to be able to control it remotely when she needs help
> from time to time.
> As far as I can see, NoMachine NX doesn’t have a Windows server at this
> time.
>
> Anyway thanks again for the info, it’s always good to know of the
> alternatives available.
>
>
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AFAIK the problem is XP Home edition doesn’t have Remote Desktop like XP Professional does. It has Remote Assistance, which uses the RDP protocol, but the user must send a time limited invitation which the other person uses to connect with another Windows PC. I’m pretty sure you have to use a third party VNC program. That’s why I am looking at TightVNC with OpenVPN.
I currently use tsclient/rdesktop to control a headless server with XP Professional at home, but it has Remote Desktop included and I don’t have to worry about VPN or SSH as it’s on my local network.
Good point… I’ve never suffered through ‘Home’ so I couldn’t say for
sure. Thanks for the follow-up.
Good luck.
david71 wrote:
> ab@novell.com;2020111 Wrote:
>> If you do go with the VPN option you could, with windows, use the
>> native
>> RDP protocol as well which would probably be faster and would not
>> require
>> a server on that side.
>
> AFAIK the problem is XP Home edition doesn’t have Remote Desktop like
> XP Professional does. It has Remote Assistance, which uses the RDP
> protocol, but the user must send a time limited invitation which the
> other person uses to connect with another Windows PC. I’m pretty sure
> you have to use a third party VNC program. That’s why I am looking at
> TightVNC with OpenVPN.
>
> I currently use tsclient/rdesktop to control a headless server with XP
> Professional at home, but it has Remote Desktop included and I don’t
> have to worry about VPN or SSH as it’s on my local network.
>
>
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The folks here said to use “putty” under windows, and claim you can SSH to a linux box easily and use UltraVNC to get KDE. I have yet to get it going. The OpenVNC sounds good until I start going through the docs and it’s really confusing since I’m a networking newbie.