TangoRangers.com's Blog

Here are my instructions on how to get VNC in KDE 3.5+ working through an SSH tunnel. It’s easier than you might think.

To start all you need is 2 or 3 Linux machines with OpenSSH installed. Most distros come with it (although I know Ubuntu does not).
NOTE: All my machines run Slackware 12.0 or higher.

Step 1 – Setup the host.
This is fairly simple, open up you Control Center, and find Desktop Sharing. Just look at my picture below and see the settings I would recommend for this.

Just make sure you set a STRONG password!

Now comes the fun part. Creating the SSH tunnel. By default the VNC connection is on port 5900.
For this example you have 2 computers. Your at a coffee shop with free wifi but your smarter than everyone else, so your going to use encryption to your home desktop and surf the internet from there.
Your home computer (lets say) has a domain name. For my examples it will be daijoubu.net, and your internal computer is 192.168.1.2.
Make sure you set your router to forward port 22 (the SSH default) to 192.168.1.2
Open up a terminal (some times it’s called Konsole) and type:

ssh dkun@daijoubu.net -L 5931:localhost:5900

The user name I’m using is dkun, just put in your user name
You will be prompted for your password, after entered you have formed the SSH connection. What this command does is it takes all traffic from your desktop port 5900, and forwards it to your laptop (at the coffee shop) to localhost port 5915.
Seems complicated, but trust me, it works!
Now open up Krcd and type

vnc:/localhost:5915

Just as shown below.

If you have 3 computers. For example, you don’t forward to your desktop (for security reasons) but you do forward to a file server. Lets say your file server is 192.168.1.3 and your desktop if 192.168.1.2 type:

ssh dkun@daijoubu.net -L 5915:192.168.1.2:5900

This will form the SSH tunnel to your server (192.168.1.3) then forward port 5915 from 192.168.1.2 through the SSH tunnel back to you.
Reminder: Doing it this was results in plain text from 192.168.1.3 to 192.168.1.2. This is only a problem if you don’t trust your internal network!

From here is gets simple, after you click Connect you will be prompted for the following window.

These are the settings I recommend for over the Internet, VNC can take a lot of bandwidth.
Next you will get a password prompt, type in your password and hit OK

Your remote desktop will appear! if you look quickly you will see this at the bottom right of the screen

That’s it! Now you can use your remote desktop over a secure connection!

WARNINGS! If you attempt a connection without the SSH tunnel your passwords will be sent in plain text! That is BAD!
DO NOT FORWARD PORT 5900 ON YOUR ROUTER!

Extra Notes: If you do not have a domain name to work off of, you can put in an IP address after the username@, make sure it’s an internet IP address, 192.168.1.2 will NOT work
If you don’t have a static IP address you can use dyndns to get you one. They are really good, but if your IP changes you will have to update your opendns account. I would recommend checking before you head out.

Special Thanks to Spyder_3lite of UCoD.com. If it weren’t for you showing me something way cool with SSH, I never would have been able to do this.

Note: This was originally written on my other site Daijoubu.net. I have moved it here for better indexing from Google. ^_^

Update! Version 1.2.2 is now out. I had a bug fix to address. Below is the original post from December 21st with the release of version 1.2.

—–

I have finished coding and testing SSHT v1.2, it is available to download on sourceforge… well hopefully. I uploaded it today and for some reason it’s still only showing v1.1 to download. We just may have to wait a couple days and see what happens. As soon as I see the problem resolved I will edit this post to reflect the changes. So go download, try it out, and post in our Forum telling me what you think or any problems you may encounter. Thank you.

Oh, and in case you are wondering, SSHT stands for “Secure SHell Tracker.” I love acronyms.

-DaijoubuKun

Post note: My bad, I missed an option on sf.net. Problem Resolved, now go download it!

In the spirit of Christmas I’m posting a poem I received when I logged into my computer a while back.  I took it from a program on my Slackware machine called fortune.  Enjoy

‘Twas the night before Christmas — the very last one —
When the blazing of lasers destroyed all our fun.
Just as Santa had lifted off, driving his sleigh,
A satellite spotted him making his way.
The Star Wars Defense System — Reagan’s desire
Was ready for action, and started to fire!
The laser beams criss-crossed and lit up the sky
Like a fireworks show on the Fourth of July.
I’d just finished wrapping the last of the toys
When out of my chimney there came a great noise.
I looked to the fireplace, hoping to see
St. Nick bringing presents for missus and me.
But what I saw next was disturbing and shocking:
A flaming red jacket setting fire to my stocking!
Charred reindeer remains and a melted sleigh-bell;
Outside burning toys like confetti they fell.
So now you know, children, why Christmas is gone:
The Star Wars computer had got something wrong.
Only programmed for battle, it hadn’t a heart;
‘Twas hardly a chance it would work from the start.
It couldn’t be tested, and no one could tell,
If the crazy contraption would work very well.
So after a trillion or two had been spent
The system thought Santa a Red missile sent.
So kids dry your tears now, and get off to bed,
There won’t be a Christmas — since Santa is dead.

Yesterday I received my new Android G1 phone from T-Mobile. It’s very slick, semi decent speeds (3G is NOT available here yet). I do however have a few beefs with the phone, and I’m trying to determine if I wish to keep it or not.

First, the battery life SUCKS! If it’s used like a normal phone (for calls, and texts) it’s pretty good (at least that’s what they tell me, I’ll find out tomorrow). Today I used the screen a lot (15 min of gaming, and about 30 to 45 min on the web). Because the screen is SO big and touch sensitive it can and will use a lot of battery power.

Also there is a lack of flash on the phone. Apparently it was going to have it (and my T-Mobile rep said it had it), but apparently not yet… who knows when, and when flash is available will my phone work with it? I sure hope so, this damn thing is costing me a lot of money every month.

With the phone you MUST get a data plan, you don’t have a choice. It starts at $25 a month and that gets you unlimited data (I’m sure they slow you down after a few gigs every month) and 400 texts. Because it so easy to text and it keeps full threads of your conversations I’m sure I’ll be texting a lot more with it, so I may have to go upto the next plan. For $35 a month it adds unlimited texts! Oh, and a quick note. There is an IM program on the phone. Even tho that data is sent as data it will actually cost you 1 text per send or receive. So if you IM a lot you may want to go upto the $35 plan.

So far I do like the phone. Like I said tho, I REALLY wish the damn battery lasted longer. Once there is flash on it then the battery better last a HELL of a lot longer. The current battery is only 1150mAh… come on! I have AA batteries with over twice that mAh (2500mAh to be exact). Maybe if I could figure out how the charger works (like what pins are used, and if any data must first be sent to the phone) I can build a little carry charger. Put some AA batteries in and keep using your phone. I’ve seen them with older Samsung phones, I don’t see why I couldn’t.

Well that’s my rant, I’ll make a new post once I’ve played with the phone more and maybe I’ll keep it, I have 12 more days to decide if I like it enough to keep it.