Remote admin suggestions

Gaz

Im looking for some advice on the best way to do this.

My situation ....

I need to remotely admin a server in London from Dublin.
Is VPN the best option ? Will that give me a terminal server type window to work with ? How do i set that up ?

Any suggestions ? All help appreciated

SkepticOne

What access methods are available on the remote site?

ssh will give you a secure terminal type window and sftp will allow secure transfer of files.

If you run windows then Putty will do both of these.
http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/

That is what I would go for if possible.

Gaz

Im waiting for them to get back to me to let me know if they have a leased line or a 56k/ISDN.

If its a permanent connection is pc-anywhere possible ? I mean can you make pc anywhere dial an ip address rather than needing to dial a modem as that would bea long distance call.
I have a permanent link on this end.

hmmm just thinking if they do have a permanent link on that end chances are they have a firewall ...this could get messy

zenith

http://www.uk.research.att.com/vnc/

VNC stands for Virtual Network Computing. It is, in essence, a remote display system which allows you to view a computing 'desktop' environment not only on the machine where it is running, but from anywhere on the Internet and from a wide variety of machine architectures.

Uses TCP/IP, and all they'll have to do is open the required ports on their firewall. You can secure it using SSH, if you wish.

Gaz

Ive only ever used VNC over a lan is it difficult to set up over an internet connection ?

Presumably it connects to an ip address ? How would it do this if the server is behind a firewall and has say a 10.0.0.x ip address ?

Sorry if these are dumb questions but management are on my back to get this set up .... bastards:p

SkepticOne

Originally posted by Darth Homer
Ive only ever used VNC over a lan is it difficult to set up over an internet connection ?

Presumably it connects to an ip address ? How would it do this if the server is behind a firewall and has say a 10.0.0.x ip address ?

It is easy to set up over the internet but the 10.0.0.x ip address will be inaccessible because it is non-routable. You may need to dial directly in to the system.

What OS is running on the remote site?
Is the remote system on the internet?
Is there dial in facilities available?

bricks

If they have an existing internet connection and its a good fast connection then you could use VPN or a direct connection accross the internet.
VPN would be better as the data is encrypted and secured.
Also VPN won't require a leased or dialup line on their side.

For the remote control I'd recommend windows2000 Terminal server. Once the VPN is setup then this should function similar to how it does on the LAN but a bit slower.

zenith

Re: VNC - Use the firewall, and map its routable address on port 5800 (the VNC java client port) to the internal LAN IP of the machine you want to admin.

Say:
Internal Server: 10.100.1.2
Firewall - Internal 10.100.1.1
Firewall - External: 159.1.2.3

You then connect to 159.1.2.3 on port 5800, and you login, and you have the remote desktop setup.

Unless the firewall is a woeful piece of ****, that should work.

Another option is www.gotomypc.com, which sidesteps the firewall issue nicely, but effectively gives you the same control as VNC.

regi

If the server and the client is running windows 2000 or windows xp, I'd recommend you go with Terminal Services. Its free, like VNC (comes with windows 2k+), and seems to be faster to me. It can also support virtual desktops, which can be handy.

Jaden

Incidently,
TightVNC is now available. It's one of those code hack jobs, and it's the mutt's nutts. It's fully compatable with both VNC client and server, but deals with graphics and redraws an awful lot more efficently. Over dial-up or ISDN, there is a considerable difference.

I give it the thumbs up.

Cond0r

There's an old(ish) thread over on the tech board dealing with this type of program.
You can find it here.

Hope this helps.

C.