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Sharing Ubuntu Desktop

Posted: Sat Feb 02, 2013 12:42 pm
by volomike
I sometimes get called to do emergency Linux sysop tasks and to edit PHP scripts while I'm on the road or in a hotel. Unfortunately, there's a lot of restricted Internet out there with only ports 80 and 443 available. I have a spare Ubuntu Desktop laptop at home. My always-on DSL router at home also allows port forwarding. Can anyone share any tips or steps on how I might be able to share that desktop securely (keyword, there) so that I can access its GUI over port 443 from a hotel using a service like DynDNS?

To access this, I have a Mac laptop with an Ubuntu Linux Virtual Machine as well.

I mean, some thoughts I need to research at this point:

* What service do I need to run on the home station, or does XWindows provide a sharing option?
* What tool do I need to run on my remote laptop in order to access the desktop remotely?
* What are some security measures I can use to keep the hackers out?

Re: Sharing Ubuntu Desktop

Posted: Sat Feb 02, 2013 6:33 pm
by Doug G
I use ssh with a port tunnel on the necessary remote control port. I use VNC, so assuming the home machine is running and able to accept ssh, I use putty or ssh client remotely to log in to the home machine, create a port tunnel for 5900, then open a vnc viewer to localhost::<forwarded port> on the remote.

The ssh tunnel encrypts all the vnc data that travels over the tunnel. I'm comfortable doing this from any arbitrary remote internet connection.

Re: Sharing Ubuntu Desktop

Posted: Tue Feb 05, 2013 2:46 am
by VladSun
Doug +1

Or just run a VPN server on port 443. It will penetrate even Layer 7 firewalls.

Re: Sharing Ubuntu Desktop

Posted: Mon Mar 24, 2014 9:52 pm
by davidpotter
follow me if ubuntu operating system running on the virtual machine should be better.
Previously I used vmware virtual machine running created ubuntu, so easy to manage and use than installed directly on your computer.