Comments on: Remote access in Linux

By: Neg

Neg — Mon, 19 May 2008 18:05:32 +0000

You can do… *gasp* anything in Windows command line. Learn the environment.

By: RandomDude

RandomDude — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 22:35:32 +0000

You can use only the text tools from cygwin

pstools, cli tools that come with windows resource kit and there is a lots of tools that don’t come from cygwin.

or other toolkit borrowed from… Linux

Ok dude some tools are borrowed: wget,gcc,bash from GNU… but most not from Linux.

By: michuk

michuk — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 11:02:52 +0000

Simon Hibbs: Hey, I’m not saying Linux is better than Windows in GUI remote access. Where have you read it? The thing is in Linux you just have more choice. I’m not sure where you have seen my fanboyism but please be so kind and point it out. I will surely correct any inaccuracies you’ve found.

By: krach.aran

krach.aran — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 10:42:38 +0000

a) Do not compare apples and pears…. the will always be different… even if they are both fruit.

b) M$ is better than *nix is better than cp/m is better than amigaOS is better than…..(fill in any os) discussions are getting really old really fast

c) I can bias this discussion to any side i want. if i want to run on a 486-dx2 with 8mb ….. use linux and ssh…. don’t even try xp. If i want easy to configure applications for both beginning and advanced users… use windows (no poking around in /etc/myapp.conf files)

i use linux everyday (my web,mail and proxy server)…. but are a .net software engineer (using vs 2k3 and vs2k5 on windows) for a 50k employee software house… )

these discussions drift people apart instead of crossing them over to another side, or even proving a point. no OS is better or worse…. most of the times it’s the writer’s preference that you can read between the lines (or a company backing the research is biased).

i have learned that unix works best in lightweight applications (nas,routers) and large server parks….. BUT THAT IS ME !!!!

Seek your own solution young padwan, yours is out there also !!!!!

By: sp1d3r

sp1d3r — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 10:13:33 +0000

If what you want is a desktop, much like VNC, and you want to stay secure, you have two basic choices. One starts an entirely new desktop session and is useful for multiple simultaneous users - NX. This is not difficult to setup - Fedora Core 6 has freenx in its repositories for the server and the free client is available for from NoMachine. You just have to remember to grab the client.id_dsa.key file from /etc/nxserver/ on the server and import it into the client. You can perform this whole procedure remotely using SSH, PuTTY and/or WinSCP.

The other secure option, which uses an already established x-session (useful for showing people in the remote location how to do something), is x11VNC (server) and SSVNC (client). The commands needed for the server are as follows:

cd ~
wget http://jaist.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/libvncserver/x11vnc-0.8.4.tar.gz
tar -zxf x11vnc-0.8.4.tar.gz
cd x11vnc-0.8.4
./configure
make
make install
x11vnc -usepw

Which, when run as root, downloads the source to the home folder, untars it, runs the automated configure script, compiles and installs, then starts it (prompting for a password on first use).

The client connects via SSH (usually port 22), then connects to the local VNC session (on port 5900), which is tunneled back out through your SSH port.

Two secure options; easy to setup; new x-session or established x-session - take your pick!

By: Simon Hibbs

Simon Hibbs — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 10:07:27 +0000

This realy is silly. Windows XP had had remote desktop biuilt in for years, and you can even use a simple support tool built into the help system to invite an admin to monitor or remote controll your PC while you watch. All the stuff mentioned for Linux is also available for XP/Server 2003 as well - Telnet, VNC, even Xwindows. The author even says that VNC doesn’t offer the same functionality as Remopte Desktop (such as session sharing?), admitting that the free built-in tool is superior to the Linux tools!

If this article had been written 4 years ago it would have a point. As it is though, it’s just an embarrasing fanboy troll post dressed up as an article.

By: david

david — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 08:36:36 +0000

This article is actually pretty hilarious.

Sure you have “choice” in *nix, however by default windows RDP and Telnet server combo is far MORE powerful than canned unix remote control services.

Entertainingly, the software rated most highly and the software in widest use is cross platform and always has been.

For once, the “state of linux remoting” is actualy just “worse by default and then just about comparable”. I actually used to RDP to windows servers over a 56k modem and it’d behave perfectly, I’d have to use SSH to get any kind of performance out of linux in the same environment.

By: Nicholas Butler

Nicholas Butler — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 07:26:47 +0000

I was just saying this yesterday to a windows admin guy how much choice and functionality have been built into Linux as part of the operating system. You would think that after 15 years Microsoft would have taken this requirement into account but no we are still stuck with 20 solutions to one problem and no standards. Thanks for prompting me to write it down and blog it later.

Cheers

oh and Faxe ? Telnet to the built in server and you still cannot remote support as effectively as any of the above!