Re: [PLUG] Question about Remote Desktop through a NAT

[Eric <eric@lucii.org>]

I don't know about Ubuntu but in the Windows world this does exactly 
what you need:

   http://www.uvnc.com/pchelpware/sc/index.html

Perhaps this will be a good starting point for further searches.  Best 
of luck and let us know what you find out.

Eric

Casey Bralla wrote:
> I'm not sure I can do what I want, but maybe somebody here has some brilliant,
> yet incredibly elegant and simple idea to help solve my problem.
>
> My 82 year-old nerd-wannabe dad (actually, he *was* a nerd when he was
> younger, but the world moves too fast...) just loaded Ubuntu on his laptop.
> He often asks for my help, but since I'm 250 miles away, I find that Remote
> Desktop is my best friend.
>
> He often plugs his computer directly into his cable modem, which is great
> because I can directly access his IP address with VNC.  The problem comes
> when he hooks up the the internet through his wireless router, which uses
> NAT.
>
> It is possible, of course, to set the wireless router to port forward all
> incoming VNC connections to a particular NAT'd IP address.  But this seems
> inelegant to me for several reasons:
>
> 1.  Talking my dad through setting up port forwarding on the router will be
> difficult, since I can't see the setup screens he would be seeing on the
> router, and he doesn't have a clue about how it works.
> 2.  The assigned private IP address may change, thus rendering the port
> forwarding useless
> 3.  There may be visitors at his house who are accessing the wireless, and
> then the assigned IP addresses will be assigned to the wrong computer.
>
>
> What I want to do is to have my dad run a "VNC Request" program that will
> weave it's way through his NAT to my static IP address, establishing
> a "reverse VNC" so I can then control his desktop.
>
>
> I've done some google searches for this, but haven't found anything.   Is what
> I want to do even possible?  Does somebody have an other brilliant idea?
>
>
> TIA, and have a great long weekend!
>
>
>    

-- 
#  Eric Lucas
#
#                "Oh, I have slipped the surly bond of earth
#                 And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings...
#                                        -- John Gillespie Magee Jr

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